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Enchantment was a way to introduce Shri SM Anand to audiences in JB. Since joining TFA Singapore and JB in February 2008, Anand has endeared himself to all his students, and with this show, has made his mark with the audiences in Johor Baru too. Beginning with a solo rendition in the Raag Yaman, Anand immediately struck a chord with his soulful rendition of Alaap, Jod, and Jhala. He was joined by Hemkumar Menon on the tabla when he began his vilambit composition in teentaal. The duo quickly picked up the pace and flourished the raga presentation with a wide variety of todas, taans and tihayis. After successfully playing a drut gat, Anand and Hem ended with a well paced jhala and tihayi, and received a positive response from the house. This item was followed by Raga Kirwani, a presentation by 8 sitar students from KL and Penang, namely Ashvin, Mayilai Kumaran, Pramila, Jazlan Norman, Kumuda and Karunya Suppayah, Prajindra Sankar, and Mitali Chakraborty, and they were accompanied by Manoj Kumar and Hemkumar Menon on the tabla. Also accompanying them was their sitar guru (myself!!) This presentation of Raga Kirwani is a favourite of its composer, Usmanji, and has been performed several times by me with Jyotsna and Prakash, in Naad Pravaham. This rendition, however, included a Jugalbandi between the sitar students, and then a soal jawab, between the sitars and tablas. In all, the 15 min piece was an upbeat one, and seemed an appropriate way to declare the first half of the concert as complete, and to let the audience have their well deserved interval!! The second half opened with the Raga Durga, a presentation by the seniors in Singapore, Nor Cheltz, and Arul Kumaran and the seniors of TFA Johor Baru, Eshwari and Shweta. They were accompanied again by Hem Kumar, who demonstrated his 'tayari' or practise, over the last few months with his graceful embellishments on top of the steady accompaniment. Each student performed a toda on his/her own, and Hem Kumar too has a solo in the piece. The well executed piece ended with a Jhala. Raga Durga, being in a major scale, subtly shifted the mood into a lighter one after the Kirwani rendition, and was again easy to digest for the listeners. Anand and myself then played two dhuns together, flanked by the two tabla players from KL and Singapore. We played Charukeshi, in Dadra, and then Khamaj, in Keherwa, and had fun adjusting with each others spontaneous exchanges on stage. We had sat to practise these two dhuns at about 3pm that afternoon for the first time, and that too for hardly 20 mins!!. Nevertheless, I believe we were reasonably in sync, and that, I attribute to the fact that we both share the same gurus, and therefore were guided to 'feel' each others' movements and thoughts. Of course we shared each others' mistakes too! The highlight for the evening was also the finale, and this came in the form of bringing back on stage all the evening's performers to perform the Raga Bhairavi. The piece we chose was Usmanji's composition of the Sufiana Bhairavi, and the repetitive lines made it easy to coordinate all the students to play in a relatively short time. This was a powerful moment- to unite on stage, students from Penang, KL, JB and Singapore, and that too after a single rehearsal with each other. My thoughts at this point drifted back to my days in Pune, studying in Naad. Usmanji had put so much effort into making his students feel as though they belong to a family. He always addressed us as the 'Naad Parivar. ' Surely then, he would feel proud that his parivar has grown and expanded, and his 'grandchildren' are now performing, and they, in turn, are united on stage to form a new parivar, one that blossomed from his nurturing, under the umbrella or Swamiji's Temple of Fine Arts.
Enchantment was a way to introduce Shri SM Anand to audiences in JB. Since joining TFA Singapore and JB in February 2008, Anand has endeared himself to all his students, and with this show, has made his mark with the audiences in Johor Baru too. Beginning with a solo rendition in the Raag Yaman, Anand immediately struck a chord with his soulful rendition of Alaap, Jod, and Jhala. He was joined by Hemkumar Menon on the tabla when he began his vilambit composition in teentaal. The duo quickly picked up the pace and flourished the raga presentation with a wide variety of todas, taans and tihayis. After successfully playing a drut gat, Anand and Hem ended with a well paced jhala and tihayi, and received a positive response from the house. This item was followed by Raga Kirwani, a presentation by 8 sitar students from KL and Penang, namely Ashvin, Mayilai Kumaran, Pramila, Jazlan Norman, Kumuda and Karunya Suppayah, Prajindra Sankar, and Mitali Chakraborty, and they were accompanied by Manoj Kumar and Hemkumar Menon on the tabla. Also accompanying them was their sitar guru (myself!!) This presentation of Raga Kirwani is a favourite of its composer, Usmanji, and has been performed several times by me with Jyotsna and Prakash, in Naad Pravaham. This rendition, however, included a Jugalbandi between the sitar students, and then a soal jawab, between the sitars and tablas. In all, the 15 min piece was an upbeat one, and seemed an appropriate way to declare the first half of the concert as complete, and to let the audience have their well deserved interval!! The second half opened with the Raga Durga, a presentation by the seniors in Singapore, Nor Cheltz, and Arul Kumaran and the seniors of TFA Johor Baru, Eshwari and Shweta. They were accompanied again by Hem Kumar, who demonstrated his 'tayari' or practise, over the last few months with his graceful embellishments on top of the steady accompaniment. Each student performed a toda on his/her own, and Hem Kumar too has a solo in the piece. The well executed piece ended with a Jhala. Raga Durga, being in a major scale, subtly shifted the mood into a lighter one after the Kirwani rendition, and was again easy to digest for the listeners. Anand and myself then played two dhuns together, flanked by the two tabla players from KL and Singapore. We played Charukeshi, in Dadra, and then Khamaj, in Keherwa, and had fun adjusting with each others spontaneous exchanges on stage. We had sat to practise these two dhuns at about 3pm that afternoon for the first time, and that too for hardly 20 mins!!. Nevertheless, I believe we were reasonably in sync, and that, I attribute to the fact that we both share the same gurus, and therefore were guided to 'feel' each others' movements and thoughts. Of course we shared each others' mistakes too! The highlight for the evening was also the finale, and this came in the form of bringing back on stage all the evening's performers to perform the Raga Bhairavi. The piece we chose was Usmanji's composition of the Sufiana Bhairavi, and the repetitive lines made it easy to coordinate all the students to play in a relatively short time. This was a powerful moment- to unite on stage, students from Penang, KL, JB and Singapore, and that too after a single rehearsal with each other. My thoughts at this point drifted back to my days in Pune, studying in Naad. Usmanji had put so much effort into making his students feel as though they belong to a family. He always addressed us as the 'Naad Parivar. ' Surely then, he would feel proud that his parivar has grown and expanded, and his 'grandchildren' are now performing, and they, in turn, are united on stage to form a new parivar, one that blossomed from his nurturing, under the umbrella or Swamiji's Temple of Fine Arts.
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