The Connoisseur of Indian Classical Music and Marathi theatre artist, the legendary Dr Vasantrao Deshpande’s memories are still fresh. South Central Zone and Cultural Centre every year conducts festival in memory of this legend. This annual festival experienced a melodious note on its day of commencement, at the same hall named after Dr Deshpande.
The program initiated with lighting of the traditional lamp at the hands of the dignitaries. The dignitaries that graced their presence were M.P. Vilas Muttemwar, Pt Prabhakar Deshkar, Dr Ravinder Singal and deputy director Anita Meshram.
Beginning with the introductory speech, Dr. Ravinder Singal, director, SCZCC, welcomed all other dignitaries, along with deputy director Anita Meshram, emphasizing the joy of this 22nd year of celebration of the program. He briefed the gathering about the proceedings of the program. Nagpur has got a chance to organize the closing ceremony of Silver Jubilee celebrations of seven cultural centres on November 16th that shall be graced by the honorable President himself, informed Dr Singal.
Further, Vilas Muttemwar added words of appreciation for efforts in this direction and such organization of festivel. While talking to Nagpur Today, he quoted, “Nagpur is definitely passionate about ‘Natak’, ‘Nritya’ and ‘Sangeet’. It was considered to be a tradition when Vasantrao Deshpande come and graced the people around with his luring talents. An initiative that is worth praising was incredibly necessary, which SCZCC took. A stage to showcase peculiar and valuable talents is introduced.”
Pt Prabhakar Deshkar gave a ride of his old memories with Dr Vasantrao Deshpande, quoting that the pleasure of being with Dr Deshpande for a long time was very inspiring. He even let the listeners know about how this great soul was blessed as a child by Tajuddin Baba in the direction of music.
After nostalgia, the air got filled with artistic atmosphere as the extraordinary talents begin to get showcased. The beginning was made, when ‘Raga Yaman’ was played on a not-so-known, yet an exceedingly melodious instrument, ‘Sundari’ by Bhimanna Jadhav, that made the listeners forget the presence of anything else around them apart from music.
Bimanna was accompanied on ‘sundari’ by Yashwant Jadhav, Ashok Kumar on table, and Hanmant Vanshri on the ‘peti’, that added to the melody of entire musical session.
Further, another piece of art, in the form of Sufina Kathak was presented by Rani Khanum and two of her other companions from Delhi. The sound of the ‘Ghungroos’ proved to be an amusing one. Accompanied by the enthralling romance through the voices of Shoeb and Joeb Hasan, the beautiful performance captivated the spectators to an extent that the environment was left mesmerized. Especially when the ‘kalam’, ‘Tere Ishq Ne Nachaya Karke Thaiya Thaiya’ was heard, the people had themselves the most jovial, as was pictured in a way that the devotee in an effort to seek her lord, rejoiced while danced. Shakil Ahmed Khan on Tabla, Mohd Akbar on Dholak and Fateh Ali Khan on Sitar made added to the charisma of the performances.
