A child prodigy with the name Shivaputra Siddharamayya Komkalimath earned the sobriquet ‘Kumar Gandharva’ (celestial musical spirit of Hindu mythology); he occupied a special place in the world of classical music. In his twenties, he emerged as a formidable musician, but due to ill health had to move from his home town Belgaum in Karnataka to Dewas in Madhya Pradesh. Kumar Gandharva recovered and appeared on the musical firmament with renewed vigour. His music sounded different and dazzled with its raw appeal. He composed khayals and many bandish, at the same time, bringing to the fore the folk music of the region.
‘Singing with Gandharva’, conceptualised and presented by Lakshmi Sreeram also featured the doyen’s disciple Pt. Satyasheel Deshpande. Lakshmi offered ‘Ritu Darshan’, taking the audience through various seasons, through Pt. Gandharva’s compositions. Music and poetry have the capacity to not only express emotions but also paint vivid images of Nature. If the sweltering heat of summer could be felt through a vilambit bandish in raag Marwa, the Monsoon came alive in ‘Ritu aaye bole more re’ in raag Sorath Desa. The lustrous moon and chilling winter of Hemant ritu came through in ‘Ananda jharaayo ‘in Durga. When Basant ritu was presented in all its colours in raag Basant, a thumri brought forth the emotions in Misra Kalyan.
The second part of the tribute concert was handled with panache by Pt. Satyasheel Deshpande. With a robust but pliable voice, he explained his guru’s mastery as well as his rebellious approach in ‘Kumarji’s contribution to Raga Sangeeth’. He had selected several khayal and bandish in different ragas such as Nand, Yaman, Darbari Kanada and Bhairav. Satyasheel showed how Kumarji differed in presenting the raag and taal and his distinct rendition style. “Pandit ji’s lyrics were surfeit with poetic beauty, aptly set to tune in the appropriate raga. Vitality was always given priority, but not at the expense of aesthetics. Pt. Gandharva’s radical new slant of nirguni bhajans celebrated formless divinity. Further, Gandharva’s laya aspect also focused more significantly on the entirety of the rhythmic cycle. These aspects were demonstrated by Pt. Deshpande with several examples to drive home his points. Both Lakshmi and Pt. Deshpande were supported by Rohith Bharadwaj (harmonium), Sumith Naik (tabla) and Vibha Sreeram (tanpura and vocals). All these artistes were lowkey most of the time.
The programme, held at Raga Sudha Hall, was inaugurated by senior Carnatic vocalist Trichur V Ramachandran. It was acrisp affair sans lengthy speeches. However, the overpowering tanpura drone almost drowned most of the lecture part of Pt. Deshpande.