Artistes light up Jhankar fest

Chandigarh, April 18

The third day of the ongoing CSNA ‘Jhankar’ festival belonged to the gifted young artistes of the city, including classical vocalist Dr Monika Soni and flautist Parkash Nepali, who with their magical performances enthralled the audience at Tagore Theatre here on Wednesday.

Holding equal expertise and versatility in classical, light and folk genres of music, Parkash Nepali gave a majestic start to concert as he bared the melody of raga bihag through a reposeful alaap and a complex vilambat and medium-paced bandish before concluding with a soulful rendition in raga mishar pahadi.

Afterwards, Monika Soni, a young sensation in the Hindustani classical music, took the centrestage only to spell magic with the exposition of raga bageshwari through two compositions, ‘Matwaro sanvro’ and ‘Ja are ja kanha’, besides ‘Palkan rakhun’ and ‘Chandni raat’ in raga chander kauns. She concluded with two bhajans as the audience craved for more. Ustad Mehmood Khan, Prof Murlidhar and Rithampreet accompanied her. — OC