Three days, six artistes, art lovers soak in ragas

SD Sharma

Chandigarh, October 16

In the three-day vocal and sitar recital festival, which ended with a soulful performance by vocalist Arshad Ali at the Randhawa auditorium today, the art lovers had a rare glimpse of perfection in music as six prominent artistes regaled the audience with their performance. 

Arshad Ali brought out the melodic character of raga puriya  through a reposeful aalap and slow-paced vilambit          composition “Tu Hai Malik Mera” before his next  drut bandish “Mori Aaraz suno”. After another  fast-paced bandish “Chamak pag payal” he concluded  his recital with a bandish in raga des. His weaving of  musical phrases was a treat to watch, which left the audience spellbound.   

Earlier, young sitar exponent Dhruv Bedi of Imdadakhani Ghrana gave a serene start to his performance  with an adroit mastery over the instrument and knowledge of the  ragas. The disciple-son of  Jagdeep Singh Bedi, internationally renowned sitar maestro, and  a  protege of Pandit Budhaditya Mukherje, Dhruv presented a popular raga shudh kalyan  to unfold the mysteries of it with maturity and perfect expansion.

Dhruv captivated the audience with his pure skill, deft handling of the raga, lightening speed of taans in the next drut composition in the raga bihag.   He concluded his recital with captivating composition tappa, set to raga kafi amidst thunderous applause.

The artistes were  accompanied by Zuheb Khan  and Zaheen Khan on tabla and Paromita Mukherjee on harmonium.