JOIN USCultural festival
Dr H Narasimhaiah was a great educationist, social reformer and a scientist. He was the principal and later President of the National Education Society and also Vice-chancellor of Bangalore University. ‘H N’ as he was popularly called, was also awarded ‘Padmabhushana.’ He was a great lover of drama and music. To encourage and promote fine arts he started the Bangalore Lalithakala Parishat. To commemorate his memory, the Parishat conducts a cultural festival every year, under the presidentship of Dr A H Rama Rao.
Music – both classical and devotional, dance and drama were conducted in this year’s Dr H Narasimhaiah Memorial Cultural Festival, held at the Dr H N Kalakshetra last week. The opening programme was a drama “Mukhya Manthri” by Kala Gangothri. On Tuesday, Dr Vidyabhushana gave a vocal concert accompanied by Pradeshachar on violin, H S Sudhindra on mrudanga and S Srishyla on Ghata. Dr Vidyabhushana is a popular singer, known for his presentation of Haridasa compositions and a recipient of “Sangeetha Vidyanidhi” title from the JSS Sangeetha Sabha.
Dr Vidyabhushana presented a number of devaranama and ugabhogas of different Haridasas. A ugabhoga “Kadu Karuni” followed by “Dayamado Ranga” gave him a fine start, with brief nerval and swara. “Huva Tharuvara Manege” is a popular pada and “Pogadirelo Ranga” with nostalgic overtones, is another well known devaranama and “Kande Na Govindana” was slightly in “drutha kaala”. He was in a fine fettle and his voice touched the peak form, especially in the rendering of “Daari Yavudaiah” – with ragalapana, nerval (Innu Na Janisalare Bhumiya Mele) and swara. “Kaavudemmanu” (Purvi Kalyani) and “Muddumukha” – both of Vadiraja Swamy not a familiar devaranamas, but a welcome addition to the concert repertoire. The Sharanara Pooja (Kamalesha Vittala), Kaye Durga Gabhini, Thamburi Meetidava and Isstu dina E Vaikunta – pleased in the second half of the concert.
Lyrics with good feeling
A large gathering on Thursday eagerly awaited to listen to Faiyaz Khan, well known singer. He hails from a musicians’ family and started his primary lessons from his father Ustad Abdul Quadar Khan and higher studies from Pandit Ram Narayan.
Apart from vocal, he is well versed in the art of Sarangi and tabla also. He has widely travelled in countries like Germany, France, China, Malaysia, Dubai and Singapore. He has accompanied several senior artistes on Sarangi and is equally popular in the film field and a recipient of few prizes and awards, also. In the current programme Faiyaz Khan presented a wide variety of songs of different composers like Jnandev, Purandaradas, Tulasi Das, Vijaya Dasaru and few others.
Faiyaz Khan was as refreshing as he intoned a leisurely Yaman. It was reposeful, redolent with some chiselled phrases associated with it. After a Abhang he sang “Pari Pariyali Shastrava” followed by the devaranama “Guruvina gulamanaguva thanaka” in Misra Mand. It was followed by ‘Koduva Kartru Bere’ and ‘Ninagaru Sari Illa’. Raga Shivaranjini was chosen for “Nara Janma Sthiravendu” and two Hindi Bhajans – “Bhaja mana Ramacharan” of Tulasi Das and “Jo Bhaje Hari Ko Sada” – which were also well received. The “Kaliyugadali Harinamava” brought nostalgic memories of a glorious tradition.
Whatever the song Faiyaz Khan chose he sang with good feeling with a steady adherence to the ragabhava as well as to the lyrics. It was hearty listening, thanks to his presentation with full of “Bhava”. A band of experienced instrumentalists – Vikas Naregal on tabla, Sarfraj Khan on sarangi, Deepak Marathe on Harmonium, Vijay Gonahal on sitar, Vijayendra Atanikar (vocal support) and Rajesh Kulakarni (Thaala) – lent commendable support.
Sparkling abhinaya
Curtains came down on this year’s ‘H N Memorial Cultural Festival’ with a dance recital by Vani Ganapathi, on Friday.
Vani, senior and well known dancer was initiated to dance by her mother and has learnt from stalwarts like T A Rajalakshmi and Kalyanasundaram and has performed in many prestigious platforms both in and outside the country, including Australia, Singapore, Malaysia, China, Japan, Berlin, Stockholm, London and Geneva. Earlier, she was performing with her sister Meera and has also presented a serial for Doordarshan on dance. She is training young aspirants at her school ‘Sanchari’ at Bengaluru. She has served the Censor Board as a member and a jury of the Indian Panorama for the International Film Festival. She has received many awards from many reputed organisations including Kal Ke Kalakar, Art Mantram.
Vani Ganapathi’s feature “Jaya Jaya Krishna” was based on a variety of compositions, in different languages. Pushpanjali and Krishnashtaka gave Vani and her students a good start. It was followed by few krithies with different titles like Navaneetha Krishna (Surdas), Balakrishna (Uthakade Venkata Subba Iyer), Venu Krishna (Tyagaraja), Shringara Krishna (Jayadeva), Yadava Krishna (Purandara Dasaru) – so on. Though they excluded Nritta-oriented items, Vani’s sparkling abhinaya raised the fare to great heights. Students abhinaya tended to be a trifle dramatic and wee bit loud at times, but had its popular appeal and carried the day. Atmica Reddy, Vasudha Viswamurthy and Malavika Nair performed with ease and gay abandon. Pulakeshi Kasturi – Natuvanga, Balasubramanya Sharma – vocal, Lingaraju – Mridanga and Mahesh Swamy – flute – gave inspiring support from the wings.