It was a breezy weekend for Hindustani music aficionados in the city as Chennai-based music society Hamsadhwani organised a three-day Hindustan music fest on Friday. The festival, a departure from the normal programmes, was inaugurated by Padma Bhushan awardee, T V Gopalakrishnan who was awarded the Sangeetha Choodamani title by the Krishna Gana Sabha recently.
The opening day of the fest saw singer Lalita Sharma perform with Vyas Murti Katti on the harmonium and Viswanath Nakod on the tabla. Hamsadhwani, which started in Chennai in 1990, has been doing regular Hindustani music concerts as an annual event, combining with Chennai’s January-April music season as a means of breaking the North-South divide. “But this time they have gone with a short, three day fest,” said Lalita Sharma.
The second day proved a treat to the audience with a Carnatic and Hindustani Jugalbandhi, with Sanjeev Abhyankar on Hindustani vocals and V Shankarnarayan on the Carnatic vocals. The final day was musically magical with a Hindustani instrumental concert by Poly Varghese, a disciple of Pandit Vishwa Mohan Bhatt, on the Mohana Veena and Suro Jatho Roy on tabla.