Kalidas Fest concludes with superb renditions

Nagpur: The concluding day of the three-day Kalidas Mahotsav was a mix of instrumental and vocal recital by violinist Sangeeta Shankar and vocalist Begum Parveen Sultana.
The curtain opened to the performance of Sangeeta Shankar. Accompanying her was also her daughter and third generation violinist from the family, Nandini Shankar. Sangeeta is the daughter of violin maestro N Rajan. Renowned tabla artiste Anuradha Pal accompanied the duo.

Sangeeta began the presentation with a bandish in raag Shyam Kalyan, ‘Ratna lagi Shyam naam ki’. Her next presentation was Banarasi Dadra which was followed by a natyageet.

Organized by the district administration in association with MTDC and NMC, Kalidas Mahotsav, which was revived in 2015 after a gap, has had the works of Kavi Kalidas as its theme. This year, the festival featured only women artistes and drew inspiration from Abhigyan Shakuntalam.

Rising to the theme of inner voice of women, the artistes too made their presentations revolve around it. Vocalist Arti Ankalikar Tikekar, who performed on the first day, presented compositions of only women vocalists like Prabha Atre and Girija Devi.

Vocalist Parveen Sultana began with bandish in raag Maru Bihag ‘Kaise din sajan’ in ‘vilambit’ ek taal and ‘Gawanan kijiye’ in drut teen taal. This was followed by thumri and bhajan.

Expressing gratitude to music lovers who attended the festival, divisional commissioner Sanjeev Kumar said, “The theme of the festival resonated with the times and the artistes enhanced it with performances designed around it.”

“Our effort is to take this prestigious event of Vidarbha to a new height,” he said.