In a range hard to beat

Spellbinding recital

Musicians Vasundhara Komkali and Bhuvanesh Komkali took the stage over the weekend at the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, as part of Hindustani Raag Sangeet, organised by Sursagar. With the City having so many Hindustani classical music lovers, it was not surprising to see the auditorium packed to the hilt with people even sitting on the aisle and steps.

Vasundhara Komkali and Bhuvanesh Komkali — the wife and grandson of renowned musician Pandit Kumar Gandharva —were accompanied on tabla by Ravindra Yavgal and on  harmonium by Vyasmurti Katti.

Bhuvanesh Komkali was the first performer of the evening. He started with raga yaman, which is the Hindustani version of the Carnatic raga kalyani, on which popular songs like Krishna Ne Begane Baaro are based.

Bhuvanesh performed this raga for almost an hour leaving everyone mesmerised with his vocal skills. He then performed raga gauri basant, which was beautiful. The range of his voice held the audience captivated. As he was performing this raga, he moved on to a bhajan called Ram Bina Siya.

The raga and the bhajan blended beautifully. After this, Vasundhara Komkali took the stage. One of the leading female vocalists in the country, Vasundhara is the representative and heir to the gayaki of the late Kumar Gandharva.

She performed the nayaki kanada raga and then presented a rare piece which consisted of five ragas. After this she sang a bhajan in bhairavi raga.

The audience thoroughly enjoyed the performances and was even humming along with the artistes. “Bhuvanesh is a great musician. His grandfather used to be a genius too,” said Ramaswamy, a senior citizen, who was a member of the audience.

“In this type of singing, there is a lot of stress on the notes. It’s highly personalised. It’s surely one of the best concerts that I have attended and even the accompaniments are good,” he added.

The organisers were delighted at the turnout too.
“It was heartening to see so many people turning up for the show. This was the first time that Bhuvanesh was performing in the City and Vasundhara was performing here after many years. I am sure they must have been very happy with the response,” exclaimed Susheela Mehta, the president of Sursagar.