Banarasi flavour

Sangeet Samagam Trust’s annual musical fest will see the prima donnas of Kathak, Sitara Devi and Keka Sinha, perform to the audience’s delight

The annual festival of music hosted by 'Sangeet Samagam Trust' in memory of the late Rakhal Mishra, doyen of the Benaras gharana and late Kishen Maharaj, the tabla maestro has always drawn huge crowd of music and dance lovers. "This is the fourth year of the festival and each year we had a good mix of music and dance performances. This year, Sitara Devi, the prima donna of the Kathak who is well past 80 will astonish the music lovers with her performance. It is not difficult to find nonagenarian singers. But dancers of that age group are rare to come by," says tabla wizard Kalinath Mishra who will accompany Sitara Devi as well as Kathak danseuse Keka Sinha and sitarist Habib Khan. Sitara Devi will make an appearance on the stage after a long time. Ajay Pohankar, a well known exponent of the Khayal form will also perform in this festival with his khayal renditions. Pohankar was recently presented with the most prestigious Tansen Award instituted by the Govenment of Madhya Pradesh.This is his first major performance in the city after having bagged the award. Began as a child prodigy, he has a performing career spanning almost five decades. Pohankar sings in an exceptionally soft voice and has a delicate approach to the note.
"I have been asked to perform as a practitioner of the khayal form. 'Khayal' means thought. One is supposed to exercise one's own thought processes and link it to the emotion while singing. Only then does one's music become communicative," says Pohankar. “I have been influenced by the musical personalities of Bade Ghulam Ali Khan, Amir Khan and Kumar Gandhrava. The way they explored the raga, manipulated the songtext has had an abiding impact on me," says Pohankar.
Pohankar values his own individuality too. “There is no point in merely imitating a successful singer. One’s originality as it is revealed in unfolding the raga or designing the note-patterns and the voice-throw helps to establish one's credentials as a khayal singer," he adds. Pohankar is adept at singing thumri in a style associated with the Patiala gharana. He has done fusion experiments with his son Abhijit who is a key board player and their project 'Piya Bawari', although it was scoffed at by hard boiled listeners, was a hit especially with the young generation of music lovers.
Keka Sinha is the leading Kathak exponent of the country. She belongs to the Lucknow gharana. She has trained under well-known Kathak dancers like Bandana Sen and Reba Bidyarthi. She has done a number of presentations together with Dhanashree Pandit at various colleges and cultural centres. "Interaction with a thumri singer has enabled me to understand the nuances of the thumri form better and I can incorporate them into my dance," says Keka Sinha who will enact a thumri in her performance at the festival. Pune based violinist Atul Upadhyay and Indore gharana sitarist based in the US Habib Khan will also perform at the festival. Kathak exponent Nandita Puri will compere the show.'

(Catch the festival at Sardar Patel
Sabhgruh, Bhavan's Complex,Andheri W on
12th and 13th March at 6.45 pm Entry is
free.Tel Contact 2632 0699/ 98200 79632)