By Shrimathi Devi

Passion, love, devotion, hardwork and penchant for pursuing art form, surely yield opulent fruits you desire for. It is heartening to note that the present young generation in spite of the over loaded distractions of social media they are able to carry out their passions in the way traditional sadhakas need to perform in the age old standardised patterns. The new generation musicians are very well informed, sportive, competitive, friendly and social. They toil much for their career.

Three such young vibrant talents were presented at ‘Ninad Griha Sangeet’ series of Ranjani Memorial Trust of Udupi, at Kergalli in Mysuru in April, May and June.

Anagha Bhat (April): An able exponent of Gwalior Gharana, Anagha Bhat is now under the tutelage of the veteran Pt. Ullas Kashalkar. Her vilambittilwada exposition of alap, sargam and boltans in Rag-Pooriya  highlighting  its serpentine movements and importance centered round Ga-Ni, were worth mulling.

The drut that followed was equally powerful. Rag-Chayanat, almost a patented raga to Gwalior Gharana portraying its Kalyan ang, was very effective. The tan patterns were speaking of Anagha’s hardwork sadhana during her talims. Tilak kamod which followed later along with bhajan in Rag-Parameshwari were well-received by the learned audience. Sumith Naik on tabla and Soorya Upadhyaya on harmonium were very adept in their skilful following.

Aniruddha Aithal (May): This was the 6th baithak in the series at Ninad. Aithal has a high pitched voice transporting one to recall vintage music.

Once, he strums like the swings of the age old Abdul Karim Khan Saheb of Kirana Gharana; sometimes delves into the gunjans of Vasantrao Deshpande ji, at times remembers us Nazakat-Salamat Ali duos at his brisk and brilliant tans and harkat of Jayatirth Mevund, yet another time — all combined into one.

True, Aithal’s singing is energetic and quite attractive. Poorya Kalyan, Jana Sammohini, Kaunsi Kanada, Kannada Rang Geethas, and Bhairavi were Aithal’s choices.Jana Sammohini, which Aithal had learnt during COVID times through Club House from Pakistani singer was interesting, refreshing and entirely new.

Kannada renderings were also quite new to the classical platform. Aniruddha Aithal deserves all appreciation for his concerted effort in bringing out the best in him.

Amrita Shenoy (June): Though hailing from Mangaluru, Amrita is a Mumbaikar. An engineer by academics, has taken music as her career. Her penchant for music has made her rigorously honed at the feet of three gurus — Jayashree Patnekar of Pune, the veteran Yashvanth Mahale and Apoorva Gokhale of Mumbai.

Rag-Poorvi, one of the rarest of rare ragas, was Amrita’s choice. It is usually the choice of connoisseur singers. The intricate and complicated sancharas of Poorvi was brought out effortlessly, but challengingly with meaningful tans.

The next piece appeared in tal Jhumra was in Rag-Hamir, yet another connoisseurs’ choice. It was a composition by Pt. Ratanjankar which was rendered competently with its gallantly woven word settings. Another rare gem was Ramdasi Malhar.

This raga manifests an intermixture of different hues of different ragas, unlike its Malhar allies. Amrita was successful in bringing out the natural colour of this raga. Amrita fits for a rave for her scholastic renderings, never discounting classicism, like her illustrious gurus. Nayaki Kanada, a couple of Dasakirtanas were refreshing.

The young virtuoso from Udupi, Prasad Kamath on harmonium was a delight to the listners. His impromptu reply to the vocalist were spontaneous, careful, subdued and intelligent.

Megha Shyam Keshav of Bengaluru, an engineer by profession, has ably supported on tabla especially in tilwada and Jhumra pieces with his perfect acumen on tala and laya.