Pandit Arun Bhaduri, presented by Madhyami at Sisir Mancha on July 21, displayed a new assertive approach. The gliding, oscillating notes, gamaks and cascading taans were at their majestic best when the usually self-effacing veteran entreated Mian ki Malhar with a fascinating confidence. His meandering Gaud Malhar was followed by an emotive Bhajan. Hard-pressed for time, Debojyoti Bose’s sarod presented a trim, tidy alaap in Ramdasi Malhar and a dhamar with excellent layakari to which the pure bols of Ujjwal Bharati’s tabla added the traditional lilt. The crisp Desh focused on brilliant fast taans and jhala. Earlier, Madhami’s orchestra, under composer Harashan-kar Bhattacharya’s Jaffarkhani direction, offered a raga-tala-malika with neatness.
Meena Banerjee
The Eye Within, an internet-based art news magazine, organised a two-day camp at Fort Radisson in Roychowk with a view to raising funds for five young artists. Well-known painters like Prakash Karmakar, Sunil Das, Sekhar Roy, Subrata Gangopadhyay and Samir Aich participated in it, along with such promising but less publicised artists as Sudip Banerjee and Anand Panchel (Mumbai) and Buwa Shete (Pune). All of them worked in the acrylic medium, showing different levels of excellence. The pictures were little different from those usually executed at other camps in that they bore no impact of the beautiful locale or showed no relationship with the purpose of the project.
Samir Dasgupta
As the city experienced light drizzles almost every evening, entertaining oneself in a chamber concert with the plaintive strains of thumri soaked in the best traditions of north India was an attractive proposition. Those who assembled at the Chakra Boithak assembly hall on July 23 were treated to a delicate course of love and despair by Sohini Roy Chowdhury. Gifted with a warm voice with a slightly nasal twang, she had the elements of Benaras gharana. Beginning with a neat treatment of Sawan mase ayo sajani in raga Desh, she climbed up and down the heights of emotion, painting a melodious portrait of a nayika, alternating between the playful and the coy, for the next one hour. Accompaniment was dull, and the sarengi was missed. Otherwise the singer displayed enough potential to go miles.
Anshuman Bhowmick
