Shubhayu Sen Majumdar on the esraj

The legendary Jodu Bhatta had offered dhrupad at the feet of Lord Krishna, the residing deity of Ramkanai Adhicary’s Jhulan Bari at Bahubazar. The Jhulanjatra Music Festival, held on the same auspicious days of the month of Shravan (July-Aug) and at the same venue every year, still holds testimony to that historical event.

On the opening day of the five-day event (August 5 – 9 ), dhrupad exponent Falguni Mitra presented an almost 500-year-old composition in Jaijaiwanti with all the grandeur of Rama’s coronation ceremony, as described by Baiju, the saint musician. After a saadra in Megh, he presented a rare dhamar. Rare because dhamars are associated with Holi, the festival of colours, but this one came soaked in the beauty of the rains. Apurbolal Manna’s pakhawaj and Pradip Palit’s harmonium provided the accompaniment.

Earlier, violinist Indrayudh Bose presented Yaman. His alap and jod were very melodious but the jhala lacked the pin pointed precision of notes. Violin is difficult to master, but Bose’s sensitivity and technique holds promise. The teental gatkari, suitably enthused by Biplab Bhattacharya’s vociferous tabla, was enjoyable. An encore made him play a beautiful composition in Megh set to teental.

The final day presented two promising young musicians. Shubhayu Sen Majumdar played Puria Dhanasri with all its characteristic beauty on the Esraj. The soft glides evoked pathos in the alap. Skipping the jod and jhala he moved on to teental gatkari with greater emphasis on the gliding fingers on the frets than the staccato notes emerging from the bow movements.

With an eye for perfection in tihais, aided by Ranjit Biswas’ tabla, the taankari and the concluding jhala revealed the bowing technique at its best. He concluded with a delighting Mishra Khamaj dhun.

The beauty of Sandeep Bhattacharya’s recital lies in the fact that though he follows the style of his ustad, Mashkoor Ali Khan, the voice-throw is his very own. His Bageshri emerged with emotive badhat, neat sargam and fast taans. Later, he sang a thumri in Majh Khamaj and several bhajans. He was accompanied by Pran Gopal Bandopadhyay on the tabla and Jyoti Goho on the harmonium.

The festival also featured veteran sitar players Manoj Shankar and Kartick Kumar apart from Tushar Dutta (vocal) and young Atish Mukherjee (sarod ).