Hyderabad does not usually give up its Sunday mornings to a concert. But this weekend was special, thousands did just that, filling the Botanical Garden in Kondapur for a morning of Marathi music. Presented by Tatvaa Arts, Swar Deepawali brought together music lovers from across the city. Seated in the front were chief guest DGP Mahesh Bhagwat and his wife, Sunita M Bhagwat, IFS, additional principal Chief Conservator of Forests, whose department was the event’s venue partner. She followed every song with the quiet attention of someone familiar with every lyric.
Holding the morning together was veteran anchor Sudhir Gadgil. At 77, with more than 3,000 interviews and shows to his credit, he brought an unmistakable warmth to the proceedings. His Marathi carried the familiarity of a voice one might have grown up listening to, while his pauses and anecdotes gave the programme an easy rhythm.
Behind the singers, the accompanying musicians kept the performances in sync. Amey Thakur Desai played the tabla and handsonic, Siddharth Kadam handled the octapad and dholak, while Zankar Kanade and Sagar Temghare took charge of the keyboards. Together, they filled the open-air venue with music that carried across the lawns as the sky gradually shifted from grey to pale gold.
Then came Madhura Datar, whose musical training under legendary singers late Lata Mangeshkar and Asha Bhosle was evident in the way she approached each composition, holding notes with patience and precision. Appreciating her performance, DGP Mahesh Bhagwat said, “With both of them no longer with us, the closest we can get to hearing their music is through singers like her.”
Speaking to CE, Madhura Datar said, “I have come to Hyderabad five or six times now, and every time I leave wanting to come back. The audience knows every song and every lyric, whether it is Hindi or Marathi. They sing along and are wonderful listeners. I have even tried a few Telugu songs for them, and they have welcomed those too.”
The energy in the crowd soared when she moved to lavani. Her rendition of Reshmachya Reghani drew one of the loudest responses of the morning, with audiences who had until then been seated politely beginning to sway to the rhythm. She followed it with Asha Bhosle favourites Aao Huzoor Tumko and Piya Bawari, drawing an equally enthusiastic response to the Hindi numbers.
Among the listeners was Atul More, a Marathi-speaking resident of Hyderabad for the past 20 years, who attended the event with his family. “We have lived here for a long time, but a morning like this makes the city feel like home all over again. The language, the songs and the faces around us, everything felt familiar. We drove back feeling that we had carried a little piece of Maharashtra with us,” he concluded.