IT was an unusual jugalbandi between a Hindustani flautist and an Odissi vocalist – Mohini Mohan Patnaik and Ramahari Das – that the connoisseurs of classical music witnessed at Rabindra Mandap in the Capital on Sunday as part of the monthly Sangeetayana concert series hosted by Bhubaneswar Music Circle.
Usually one comes across jugalbandis between two vocalists or instrumentalists. But a jugalbandi between a vocalist and instrumentalist is a rarity. Apparently this unusual experiment provoked both the artistes to come together to stage the same experiment after 11 years!
When the two maestros met, the audience obviously expected a masterpiece to take shape and the duo did not disappoint. Accompanied on mardal by Kalandi Parida and on tabla by Sandip Rout, they set the mood of the evening with rendition of raag Bagesree – the popular late night raga that usually depicts the sentiment of a woman waiting to be united with her man. The rendition that stretched over more than 45 minutes had an aalap (the introduction of the raga without accompaniment of the musical instruments) of about 10 minutes that emerged as the most attractive aspect of the presentation. And fortunately, neither the artistes nor the audience were in a hurry to skip the aalap.
Moving on towards elaboration of the raag, Ramahari Das chose to sing sajani ki laje sarili, dari maruthae jare ta najare padili (a poem of romance penned by Kabichandra Kalicharan Patnaik) while Mohini Mohan neatly expressed the sentiments of the couplet through the flute. As the rendition was in progression, the audience was amused to come across dialogues between the two percussionists – literally – through their rhythmic extravaganza. Both were brilliant in rendering their restrained support – the mardal accompanying the Odissi vocalist and the tabla supporting the flautist and finally the four coming together for a fitting finale.
After Bageshree, it was the turn of raag Kalavati, another raga that is also rendered during night. Das and Patnaik opted for an ashtapadi from the Geet Govind. This rendition had dominance of the vocalist while the flautist was in the role of an accompanist. Without any variation in their rhythmic patterns, the mardal and tabla accompaniment also sounded monotonous throughout this recital. The concluding recital of the duo was based on raga pahadi that has its origin in folk tunes.
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