City music lovers had a date with a delightful musical evening on Friday where tabla maestro Surjeet Singh and kathak exponent Rohit Pawar performed at a monthly baithak series programme organized by the Pracheen Kala Kendra at the M.L. Koser Indoor Auditorium in Sector 35, Chandigarh.
Tabla Exponent Surjeet Singh
Surjeet Singh mesmerised music lovers drawn from distant corners of the Tricity to be part of this mega musical evening. Surjeet, a graded artist of the All-India Radio, started learning the subtle nuances of tabla playing under the tutelage of Guru Kulwinder Singh when he was all of four.
Surjeet commenced his recital with the traditional Uthan, which was followed by Peshkar based on teen tal of the Punjab Gharana. He moved on to present with finesse Kayda, Rela and Palta, et al. The technical part of the recital consisted of gats, ‘Chakradar’ that left the audience spellbound amidst thunderous applause. He concluded the recital with a crisp and captivating bandish of the gharana. He was accompanied by Ishwar Singh on harmonium.
Kathak Prodigy Rohit
The other star performer of the evening was Rohit Pawar, a kathak exponent, who has evolved into a fast rhythmic kathak dancer from amongst his peers across the country. He honed the subtle nuances of this classical form of dance under the astute stewardship of Guru Vaswati Misra and sibling Rahul Pawar.
Rohit, who has been performing live on stage since the tender age, has given solo performances at various dance concerts in the country and overseas, earning laurels for his stellar performances.
He started with the Shiv Stuti (Invocation of lord Shiva), followed by a powerful kathak presentation in teen taal with vilambit, Madhya and drut layas that added to the engaging performance. He also presented the traditional ‘tode tukde gat paranas’, uthaan, ladi ,etc.
He concluded with the typical Rajasthani mand ‘kesriya balam padharo humare des’, bringing the robust rustic flavour of the land of sand. This was followed by a powerful jugalbandi of sawal jawab on tabla. His fine and flawless footwork, in sync with bhav, abhinay, and taal, drew him admiration from the audience.
The team of accompanists included Zaheen Khan on tabla, Mahavir Gangani on pakhawaj, Ghulam Waris on sarangi and Sohaib Hasan on vocals.
