Moodubidri: Ghazals, mohan veena enliven the atmosphere at Alva's Virasat
Report: The Hindu
Pics: Daijiworld Media Network
MANGALORE, Jan 11: The setting could not have been more romantic for a session of ghazals than the open-air auditorium atop a hill, cool breeze and the twilight of the dusk, and a near-full moon in the sky. The programme began with a ghasal, “Kash aisa koyi manzil hota…” (Had there been a destination such as this…) and it seemed as though the singer was trying to salute the unique platform provided to him at the Alva’s Virasat at Mijar on the outskirts of Moodbidri on Saturday.
A. Hariharan sought to take the audience on a romantic sojourn of ghazals. Presenting the “Aks chaharepe aftaab ka hai…”, another ghazal, the singer paused for a while to state that the poet wanted to remind people that disappointment in love was hard to forget. Singing “Tune achcha kiya ke dil toda…Yeh zamana hi inqlab ka hai” (You did a favour by breaking my heart, this is an era of revolutions) Mr. Hariharan made even the elderly audience to feel nostalgic. Everyone was impressed by the rendition as much as the selection of songs. Later, Mohan Veena exponent and grammy award winner Vishwamohan Bhat began his concert with an appreciation of the atmosphere and the enthusiasm of the audience. He started with the Raga of Vachaspathi (Champakali in Carnatic) and then paired up with Mr. Hariharan for another unique jugalbandi.
An Odissi dance by Ranjan Gauhar and troupe was another highlight of the day.
On Friday the audience were served with deep, soulful music, vibrant and occasionally brute symphonies of musical instruments with pleasant cohesion of Indian classical and Hindustani styles of music by the Mandolin maestro U. Srinivas and Sitar exponent Shahid Pervez, who presented a jugalbandi. The “sawal-jawaab” session of the programme was impressive. The conclusion, with all the artistes on the stage coming together to present Kiravani Raga, was a fitting finale for the programme.
The earlier programmes, including the Bharatantya-Kathak presentation by Nirupama and Rajendra of Bangalore, evoked similar response from the audience.
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