An Evening of Music by HRISHAV
Sunday, April 26, 2015
Classical Hindustani vocal is well known art both in India and world over. Its melody and its depths need no special mention. The art of bringing this kind of rich music to everyone in most understandable and pleasing way can only be with a few who have mastered this form of music.
The well-known cultural forum in Kuwait HRISHAV did exactly this job on 18th April’15 at the ICSK Auditorium, Salmiya, splendidly under the expert guidance of its founder Guru Mrs. Banani Bose. The master touch came in the form of presenting the sandhya arati followed by a Stotram from one of her music Album "SWASTIK" recently released in Kolkata, India followed by rich classical raaga based music by rendering many critical film songs. The voices of the students being mellowed by constant practice under the tutorship of Mrs. Banani Bose, gave that extra melody to the usually heard film songs and sounded different and pleasing to the ears of the packed audience.
The compere of the show Smt. Mahasweta Bhattacharya inaugurated the meeting by welcoming all to the grand gala evening. She showered accolades on Mrs. Bose and spoke highly of the Guru couples’ devotion to Hindustani Classical Music. She said HRISHAV conducted many music programs consisting of its students, local and Indian famed musicians. She explained the theme of the evening is to present the Hindustani raagas as basis for some of the famous folk and film based songs.
Mrs. Banani Bose began the evening program by invoking the blessings of Lord Ganesha with the rendition of song " VAKRATUNDA MAHAKAYA". The maturity, experience, dedication all showed up as she rendered the song with utmost devotion. The famous Guru Manthra (Gurur Brahma, Gurur Vishnu..)rendered by her truly made hair stand up.
HRISHAV has so many students and all were given equal opportunity through a perfect planned system. The students were divided in different groups depending on age and the maturity of voice. In each group all students were given equal opportunity to exhibit the talent they have honed as members of HRISHAV. The students were exceedingly well accompanied by Master Manmit on Tabla and Mohd. Arshad on Flute.
Group A - Contained those students in the age group of five to seven years. The innocence on their faces and their bright colored red dresses added that touch of beauty and dazzle to the songs they rendered. They sang many songs with varied tunes based on different Hindustani raagas.
Group B - A little more aged children dressed nicely designed purple dress began their performance with Hindi Prayer song "ALOKITO KARO"……..and so on with Raaga Behag Bandish and other melodious hindi songs.
Group C - Contained those students who are transitioning into matured singers. Started with a Bandish on Raaga Kafi, they also adorned nicely designed blue and green dresses.
Group D - They were in brightly colored yellow dresses. Some of the songs they rendered were also a tribute to the great classical music legends of India has produced. Started with a description of Basant Ritu (Spring season), a bandish were placed in a very tuneful voice with Tal EKTAL (12 Beats).
The songs they rendered were mostly pure classical based film songs such as raga Rageshree, Mishro dhun, etc. They sang twelve songs with great tempo and enthusiasm.
Group E - They were all ladies who adorned bright blue sarees. They being senior most rendered regional folk songs with relatively difficult raagas. The song "SWAGATAM, SHUBHA SWAGATAM" composed by Late Pandit. Ravishankar, The great Sitar Maestro of India. Many other songs were Bengali folk songs on different rhythm on Tal EKTAL and KEHARBA .
The program came to an end with Mr. ManoJ Bose taking the center stage for the first time in the entire program but with different purpose – thanks giving. He first of all thanked the sponsors of the evening without whose support this program could not be conducted. The sponsors were M/s Kuwait Engineering and Metal Machining Co., Mohamed Naser Al Sayer & Sons Est, Co.; Al Rashed International Shipping Co. ; Advanced Technology Co.; M/s Rezayat Trading Co. ; Al Omar Center ; DOLLARCO Exchange Co. ; Gulf Drilling & Maintenance Co. ; WesternGeco
The following people who worked behind the scenes to make this program a grand success were thanked profusely and mementoes were presented to them as token of thanks by Mrs. Banani Bose.
Mrs. Shakuntala Bhattacharya for photography support; Mr. Varghese Paul for sound system support; Mr. Venugopal for Sound Track Management; Mr. Amit Roy for photography support, Mohd. Arshad on Flute accompaniment, Master Manmit on Tabla accompaniment and Mrs. Mahasweta Bhattacharya, excellently rendered Anchoring during the whole show.
One of the senior students of HRISHAV, Mrs. Kamal Jain, penned and recited a poem honoring Mrs. Banani Bose and Mrs. Manoj Bose as a perfect Gurukul. Another student Miss Meha Chakraborty presented to Mrs. Banani Bose a self drawn portrait of Mira Bai with Lord Krishna in the background. A group of students presented a handmade card to the Guru couple as a token of appreciation with nice composed shayer honoring their mentor Mrs. Bose. A group of students presented a gift and bouquet to the Guru couple.
Thus ended a gala evening with happy tones of our National Anthem sang by whole participating children and audience thereafter laughter and amidst thunderous applause from one and all present in the auditorium.
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