THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: It was jugalbandhi flavour all the way at the Nishagandhi Festival here on Saturday evening. While Jayanthi Kumaresh and Pandit Ronu Majumdar combined the magic of veena and flute respectively, accompanied by the terrific Patri Satheesh Kumar on the mridangam and talented Sudhir Pandey on the tabla, Ashwini Bhide Deshpande and Sanjeev Abhyankar presented Jasrangi, the jugalbandhi concept developed by Pandit Jasraj.
``Jugalbandhi is about oneness of mind and learning from each other. We need to give space to each other and should have understanding of each other’s music,’’ said Ronu, who has performed across the globe and was even nominated for the Grammy Award in 1996. Jayanthi, a member of the country’s first-ever classical band called `Shastriya Syndicate’ added: ``The people are always thrilled about veena-bansuri (flute) combination, with veena standing for Goddess Saraswathy and flute for Lord Krishna.’’ On jugalbandhi, Patri Satheesh Kumar, who is part of almost all music festivals in the country, said: ``I enjoy playing with every artist in a different way.’’ Sudhir Pandey has accompanied Ronu on many concerts and is from the Ajrada Gharana.
The Jasrangi jugalbandi was a unique experience for the music lovers, as it is about the divide of the male and female voices and the possibilities of union. Ashwini and Sanjeev unanimously said: ``It has an impact which is not heard before.’’ The best part of their jugalbandhi is that it was the coming together of two gharanas also, Jaipur and Mewati. Based on the system of moorchanas, the two singers sing different ragas in different scales at once.
