Bengal Classical Music Festival will draw towards its closure today. Sujata Mahapatra the celebrated oddisi dancer from Belasore, India will render the opening performance. This is probably the first appearance of the dancer in a Bengal Classical Music Fest. It can still be hoped that she would not upset in continuing the tune left the day before by a host of classical dancers who also happened to lay the opening to the show.
But there is another thriving news for entertainment enthusiasts today. Giasuddin Selim, the director of hit film Monpura will release the first promo of his second film Shwapnajal today right in the middle of the Classical Music Festival. The connection between the festival and film has been cited to be none other than the single production house working behind the two, Bengal Creations. Selim has reportedly said that he would submit the film for censorship right after today's promo release. The film is due to get released in the first week of February, next year.
In the fest meanwhile, alongside Sujata there are a few performers today compared with earlier days. Mohon Bina will be presented by Pundit Vishwa Mohan Bhatt shortly after her performance. Then there will be kheyals, two segments of setar and finally melody of flute one after another till the curtain falls finally. Like previous times flutist Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia will render the final performance.
After Mohon Veena by Pundit Vishwa Mohan Bhatt there will be Khayal by the Kolkata based-Brajeswar Mukherjee. Sitar will be presented by Pandit Kushal Das. Coming from a rich musical background, his father being a prominent sitarist and grandfather being a master of Esraj- Kushal will be imparting his charms today with the promising Kalyanjit Das. Then there will be yet another sitar composition accompanied by Khayal from Pandit Kaivalyakumar.
Earlier yesterday Manipuri, Bharatnatyam and Kathak were presented in vibrant colours by a number of Bangladeshi and Indian classicists. Sweety Das, Amit Chowdhury, Snata Shahrin, Sudeshna Shayamprava, Mehraj Haque and Juwairiah Mouli were the prodigious dancers rendering this sharply moving classical choreography. The day was dominated by instrumentalists mostly holding strings as aid as the performances included Sarod, Violin and Cello. The archaic melodies of Sarod were presented aptly by pupils of Bengal Parampara Sangeetalaya to accompany the thriving tones of violin and cello. Ustad Rashid Khan came up with his kheyals just like he did in the closing ceremony of last year's festival. And he did do justice to his chipping in between instruments to give the listeners the relief of vocal symphony before another kheyal Pundit took to the stage two segments later. Thus listeners were kept entertained by Sarod master Tejendra Narayan Majumdar and violinist Dr Mysore Manjunath to the delicate twangs streaming through the stage. And after Pandit Jasraj rendered the second and the last vocal rendition with his kheyals strings got back on the stage only this time it started with unique fusion both in terms of history studies and musical studies. Indeed it was the Dutch born Indian Saskia Rao-de Haas who actually highlighted the show with her strong historic buildup. Educated in Amsterdam and Rotterdam the improviser got trained in Indian classical music under Pandit D.K. Datar, Pandit Deepak Chowdhury and Pandit Shubhendra Rao, the last one being her husband. Saskia did not only migrate to India but also brought her knowledge and experiments on Western and Eastern European music to bring up a new fusion of classical music coupling with Indian heritage. Pandit Budhaditya Mukherjee was the last performer of the day with his sitar.
