Mitali Sengupta

The soaring spirits of the metro’s lone gharanedaar Ladies Music Circle did not get deterred by the heavily soaked and virtually choked evening of September 22. It being Mahalaya, they welcomed the arrival of goddess Durga with almost all the idioms of classical music in one raga — Durga. Sutanuti Parishad presented the event in the temple of Chhatubabu-Latubabu’s residence with warmth befitting the festivity.

In the absence of an apposite traditional thumri bandish in Durga, Mitali Sengupta had composed one with the approval and blessings of her guru, Girija Devi, the doyenne of the Benaras School. Sengupta lustily rendered it on this auspicious occasion along with Chandralekha Banerjee.

The genre of khayal included a saadra by Sanchalika Bhattacharya while faster ektal and teetal compositions were sung by Helen Mukherjee and Kavita Gupta respectively. Jayashri Das sang a tarana to Sharbari Basu’s kathak recital. Later, the same composition reverberated on the sitar of Sharmila Dutta along with Swagata Banerjee’s gaudiya nritya .

The evening commenced with stotras and devotional songs. Subrato Gupta and Debashish Chowdhuri accompanied the artistes on the tabla, and Pradip Palit and Sanatan Goswami on the harmonium.

The East Zone Cultural Centre presented classical music on September 20 at its imposing but near-empty auditorium in Bharatiyam Cultural Multiplex. Sarod-player Pankaj De Sarkar’s choice of raga was apparently inspired by the school he belongs to, as Durga was a favourite of Baba Alauddin Khan, the Maihar gharana founder. He began his alap with simple phrases and moved on to the jod for rhythm-based elaboration. Aided by Ashok Saha’s inspired jawabi and well-coordinated saath-sangat, his slower teental gatkari displayed an old world charm. Later, the high pitched tabla for faster gatkari added variety of tone and mood. Simple layakari led to the concluding jhala.

Earlier, Mainak Banerjee played Bageshri on the sitar. He was more concerned with the playing technique than the purity of notes. But as he progressed, even that did not come to his rescue and. EZCC can afford to be more selective and make an earnest attempt to offer its prestigious platform to more deserving aspirants! The customary introduction of the tabla accompanists in a classical event was ignored too.