’Acharya devo bhava’, a musical soiree to celebrate the birth centenary of Acharya Bimalendu Mukherjee, was organised recently by Kailas Sangeet Trust at Chowdaiah Memorial Hall in Bengaluru. Two well-known Hindustani musicians, Anupama Bhagwat and Kaushiki Chakraborty, paid tributes to the Acharya. Anupama, one of the foremost disciples of Acharya Bimalendu Mukherjee and an exponent of Imdadkhani/Etawah gharana, chose the evening melody raag Shyam Kalyan for her solo sitar recital.
She built up the raag through an expansive and meditative alaap. She embellished her raag vistaar with meends, emphasising the Kalyan and Kamod ang, with delicate stretching of the gandhar note that distinguishes it from raag Shuddh-Sarang in her prelude of ‘anibaddh’ alap section before the gat. Anupama’s improvisational abilities were discernible in her development of this raag through alap and rhythmic patterns of the jod and swift jhalas.
In the gat section, Anupama took up a vilambit (slow tempo) composition in Teen taal for a meticulous exploration. She was ably supported on the tabla by Meghashyam Keshav. The deep inward quality of her music, devoid of any gimmickry, was a refreshing experience.
Sitarist Anupama Bhagwat| Photo Credit:Special Arrangement After the vilambit Teen taal composition, Anupama demonstrated her swift taans in the Drut Teen taal, building up a reverberating climax. Popular Hindustani vocalist Kaushiki Chakraborty commenced her late evening recital with the .