Dazzling performances give a perfect ending

Nagpur: A jam-packed auditorium brimming with music lovers witnessed a fitting finale to the five-day Vasantrao Deshpande Smriti Sangeet Samaroh organized by SCZCC. The final day presentations were an eclectic mix of instrumental, vocal and a mind blogging fusion performances.
Rhythm ruled over the stage as the pasha of percussion, Sivamani gave a superb fusion performance along with his wife Runa Rizvi on vocals, Vishal Dhumal on keyboard and Ojas Adia on tabla.
Beginning with Marathi songs like ‘Shymana Ghana ghira’, then moving on to Hindi with ‘Mairi mai toh leno Govind ko naam’ and ‘Murlidhar Shyam Hey Nandlala’, Rizvi’s renditions were absorbing.
But what came as a surprise was Ojas with his fingers flying, slipping, moving, falling on the tabla to create such sounds few would have thought could emanate for this humble instrument. Screams of sheer delights came repeatedly from the audience as Sivamani played his magic with his fabled flying sticks. Innumerable instruments as varied as a mineral water can, a worn out suitcase and a bucket filled with water were used by him to create sounds.
It was the genius of Sivamani that prevented this from turning into gimmickry as he played out rhythms and produced sounds never once faltering as he moved between the instruments which had taken up nearly a quarter of the stage.
The fusion performance fittingly ended with Runa singing a famous bhavgeet of Vasantrao Deshpande, Baglyanchi maal phule and merged it with Farida Khanam’s classic ‘Aaj jane ki zid na karo’. And if it’s Sufi it has to have ‘duma dum mast kalandar’. That’s what Rizvi did but after a long alaap and sargam in which Dhumal on harmonium and keyboard, and Ojas on tabla ably accompanied her.
Livening up the fest with his robust rendition of Mia ki Malhar, Rahul Deshpande politely turned down requests to pay a tribute to his grandfather by singing some of his compositions saying that his presentation was the most fitting tribute. “My entire family is grateful to the organizers for holding this event for last 25 years to mark his death anniversary,” he said and added that the photo exhibition organized on Vasantrao Deshpande’s life was special to him and his family.
“I had given our entire collection of photographs and writings on my grandfather to one of his disciples who accidentally dropped the entire pack somewhere. This exhibition of pictures so painstakingly collected and borrowed from different sources and displayed here is a commendable effort by SCZCC,” he said.
The curtains came down on the festival with a scintillating sarod performance by the maestro Ustad Amjad Ali Khan. Virtuosity was in full display as the tabla of Pt Vijay Ghate matched with the Ustad’s sarod. The audience went into raptures as the sultan of strings began with Darbari Kanada and then played a few compositions in Malkauns and Shiv Kalyan. He ended the recital with Tagore’s immortal ‘Ek la chalo re’.