Sarod and vocal recitals win over audience at Swara concert

Nagpur: At a concert where seventh generation sarod players Amaan and Ayaan Ali Bangash are performing, the audience comes to feel the magic. The brothers did not fail them on Sunday evening at Vasantrao Deshpande Hall, as was apparent from the repeated rounds of applause which the duo and their accompanist on tabla received. The event, ‘Swara — Music for Life’, was organized by Banyan Tree.
Starting with a finely nuanced recital of raag Yaman Kalyan, the brothers began with a bandish in Jhap taal and proceeded to play another in Teen taal, which was a composition of their grandfather Ustad Hafiz Ali Khan.

The soft pluck and swift strides on the strings kept the audience in thrall even as Ayaan explained the techniques of pulling the string with the tip of his nails. “You often see us filing our nails in the middle of the concert. That’s because if we play with our fingertips, the sound coming from the instrument will be flat,” he said and added humorously, “That’s our way of living life on the edge”.

Keeping the two percussionists Satyajit Talwalkar and Anubrata Chatterjee engaged through the entire recital, the brothers had a teasing and testing interlude, defying the two on tabla to guess their next move.

The racy presentations of three bandish in drut composed by their father, the charismatic Ustad Amjad Ali Khan, had the audience on the edge as it brought out the finesse and aplomb with which they are carrying forward their rich lineage. Their recital ended with a folk presentation in raag Bhatiyar, ‘Ekla chalo re’ and some mishr raags.

The second segment of the concert belonged to popular Marathi singer and composer Saleel Kulkarni. A medico by profession, he has been composing music for television and films for the past decade. Taking notice of a Hindi and Marathi speaking audience, Kulkarni began with a Kabir bhajan and an abhang of Tukaram.

“I will be presenting popular Marathi and Hindi songs,” he promised and fulfilled it with rendition of ghazals like ‘Ranjish hi sahi, baat niklegi and ‘Deewano ki baatein lab pe laaye kaun’. He followed these with Marathi songs like ‘Toch chandrama nabhat’ and ‘Kashi hi awastha kunala kalavi’, among others.

Kulkarni’s performance was more conversational as he related the songs with feelings like nostalgia, a mother’s love and bonding with friends. He interspersed the singing with narrations, regaling the audience with humorous quips and was in turn flooded with song requests by them. Lending a soft charm to his renditions was Ritesh Ohol on guitar, Aditya Athalye on tabla and Rajendra Doorkar on pakhwaj.

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Quotes for mugs:

This was a great musical experience for me. The strings of sarod and beats of tabla touched the heart. The instrumental recital was perfect

Sheela Kulkarni | singer

The amazing connect that Amaan and Ayaan along with the two tabla players had with the audience is what made watching this concert a once in a lifetime moment for me

Varun Banode | corporate employee