The Ramakrishna Mission Institute of Art and Culture in Golpark celebrated the Mallar Festival with a series of monsoon ragas (left). The programme commenced with a vocal recital by Samaresh Chowdhury. With the vocal assistance of his son, Rishabh, he sang a vilambit kheyal in the Raga Miyan ki Malhar. His performance was structured into regular movements of the key notes. Although his voice was well modulated, the vistaars and taans could not bring out any unique essence from these well known monsoon ragas.

But the gamaks in the lower octave were sweet to the ears. In his drut teentaal,Samaresh expanded the vistaars and taans through three octaves. The tarana in drut ektaal was enjoyable. The next presentation of the artist was the Raga Jayant Malhar, the combination of two monsoon ragas, Jayjayanti and Malhar. Although brief, the performance was alluring as the flavours of both the ragas were well expressed. He did not make the performance unnecessarily lengthy, and presented kheyals in teentaal and adachowtaal. Some boltaans, especially in the 14 beats kheyal, were interesting. The artist was perfectly accompanied by Samar Saha on the tabla and Hiranmoy Mitra on the harmonium.

The presentation on the Saraswati veena by R.K. Padmanabha was attractive; he smoothly switched over to an ambience of Carnatic classical melodies from the set atmosphere of Hindustani Classical music. He started with the Raga Hamsadhwani and played a traditional composition of Muthuswami Dikshitar in aditaal. His rendition followed a traditional path, but his spontaneity and expertise helped the charm of this soulful raga to flourish. His sweet style of playing made his listeners enjoy South Indian ragas such as Malayamarutham and Amruthavarshini. The energy seemed a little low while he played the Raga Behag, but his conclusion with the Raga Sindhu Bhairavi was beautiful. S. Shekhar ably accompanied the artist on the mridangam. Satish Vyas on the santoor was quite disappointing. He tried his best to bring out the full bloom of Miyan ki Malhar, but the rendition was not touching. Yet, some taans and small vistaars in vilambit jhamptaal and drut teentaal were good. He was accompanied by Sanjay Mukhopadhyay on the tabla.

The classical evening organized by the Bhawanipur Sangeet Sammilani (right) commenced with the performance of Darshna Dutta. She started with a kheyal in Kedar and also sang tappa and dadra. Ambarish Das also presented a kheyal in Kaushiki Kanada. The performance of the sitarist, Sugato Nag, was appreciated by the audience. He made a confident start with the Raga Surdasi Malhar, and maintained the temperament throughout. The gats in rupak taal and in teentaal expressed his efficiency. He ornamented his presentation with some sparks of vistaars and taans. Sujit Saha on the tabla was perfect.