Rahul Sharma’s santoor casts spell, evening lights up with Manali Bose and Pandit Ajoy Chakrabarty in Pune

PUNE: Santoor maestro Rahul Sharma scintillated with Raga Hansadhwani and vocalist Pandit Ajoy Chakrabarty added more honey to it with sweet talk. The missing Shuddh Madhyam and Komal Dhaivat also joined in the picture via Raga Bageshri as the audience were treated to captivating music on the third day of Sawai Gandharva Bhimsen Mahotsav at Maharashtriya Mandal grounds in Mukundnagar on Friday.
Sharma’s performance was without half-measures.The raga, which uses five major notes, omitting Madhyam and Dhaiwat, eschews the mood of devotion and romance.
Sharma, 50, didn’t compromise on the ‘alaap-jod-jhaala’ part, so pivotal to the tradition of Hindustani music on strings and showed his full range by investing 70 minutes in Hansadhwani. He followed that up with a dhun in Mishra Khamaj (in dadra taal), adding minor notes on the canvas. He showed colours of ragas Hamir, Kedar, Sohni and Basant-Bahar in that.
Hansadhwani’s sign-line in the slow-tempo composition in matta taal (nine beats) started on the seventh beat. The groove of ‘Ga-Re-Sa-Ni,Sa’ was beautifully established. In the jod part, he went to the Shadaj of lower octave and Nishad of upper octave with elegance. Playing a lot in the lower octave and visiting its shadaj frequently was the hallmark of the performance.
Besides the pedigree coming from Shivji, the melodic sense, imagination, creativity and riyaz was on display. He also had the wisdom to choose the right raga as starting at 5pm can be tricky if the previous artist has already touched Marwa, Shree or Puriya family prematurely avoiding the limited stable of Multani, Madhuwanti and Bhimpalasi.
Prior to the chakradhaar-filled crescendo, Sharma showed the Hansadhwani with a combination of notes – starting with just three – using his left-hand nail before shifting to the interplay-filled muted jhala. His soft and hard landings on the first stressed beat of the rhythm cycle, called sum, was ‘sum’ptuous.
Ojhas Adhiya’s tabla accompaniment__ traversing through theka, solo and interplay__ was impressive and rich in tonal texture. He played a chhand of roopak taal within the matta taal. The beat distribution started with the base of ‘2-3; 2-2’ and moved to other variants. He was up to the task in numerous phases in two faster compositions in teen taal.
Before starting his scholarly vocal recital in Raga Bageshri, 69-year-old Chakrabarty said he will take up the matter of the 10pm deadline for open-air concerts with the government authorities.
“This is not an entertainment programme but an educational one,” he said. Besides the joy of slow tempo ek taal exploration (“Kaun Gat”), he unleashed a tarana in jhap taal, and two faster compositions in teen taal (Ae Ri Mein Kaise Ghar Aaoon) and ek taal.
His ‘Ma-Dha-Ni-Sa’ phrasing, landing on the Komal Gandhar and mastery in three octaves was breathtaking. But the frequent use of the spoken word proabably marred the musical continuity and made it a lecture-demonstration.
Ishan Ghosh (tabla) and Ajay Joglekar (harmonium) gave an accompaniment suitable to the overall performance.
Vocalist Manali Bose started the twilight Raga Marwa at 4pm. With the first exquisite nyaas on the Komal Rishab and its interplay with Shuddh Dhaiwat of lower octave, the Marwa feel was never in question. She also came up with nice taan patterns and displayed her tayyari in aakaar. Abhinay Ravande (harmonium) and Pandurang Pawar (tabla) also came to the fore.