Carnatically Inclined, Entertainment - Music - Kolkata Mirror,Kolkata Mirror

By Rajani Yadav

Posted On Tuesday, November 24, 2009 at 08:18:51 PM

Birla Academy of Art and Culture, in Southern Avenue, hosted a three-day festival recently to mark the 174th anniversary of Muthuswamy Dikshitar, founder, Guruguha Sangh. Spread over three days it was meant to be an offering of songs composed by Dikshitar himself. The programme started on a solemn note, with a reminiscence of Dikshitar’s journey. B Karthickeyan, secretary, sangh then handed over the programme to little kids who sung two compositions each of their guru

A classical session in progress

Sree Vidya, who runs the school Sri Guruguha Gana Vidyalaya now, was present through their performances. The kids kept the audience enthralled with their earnest renditions. The audience comprised families from the south Indian community. Most of them were dressed in traditional south Indian attire. While the women flaunted “patlu paavadi”, the men looked macho in “veshti-shirt”.

While the elders were expected to turn out in great numbers, the surprise package for the evening were school and college-going kids who were seen tapping their feet to the alaaps. The programme was concluded by a Veena duet by S Nalini and Shubha. The evening also saw the vocal rendering by B Karthickeyan, who was accompanied on the violin by Ranganathan and on the mridangam, that is tabla, by N Shankar.

Another carnatic event

The violin rendering by Anand Shankar, playing after 15 years, was greeted by a thunderous applause. P Aravindam gave a tireless performance through the evening. There were laddus made from pure ghee in the end.

The second day saw students flying in from various parts of the city. The crowd saw some of the finest performances on this day. Dinesh, a former student, had flown in from Mumbai to perform that evening. His solo violin rendition was par excellence. P Sreenath was also good.

The finale saw a grand vocal concert by Aishwarya Sundaram, accompanied on the violin by S Ranganathan. S Raman took charge of the mridangam. K Vignesh mesmerised the audience with the hindolam. The evening also saw the release of the souvenir by B Karthickeyan.

Audience listen on with enthusiasm

Shreshtha Narayan, a class 11 student, who was also a participant, said, “I’m looking forward to a bigger and better sangeetanjali next year.” Meenakshi Anand, a former student of the school, said, “Sixty-six years have gone by since the establishment of the vidyalaya, and in these years Calcutta has seen some of the finest musical performances through Nadirjyoti and his parampara. And we are here to carry forward the legacy.”

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