Friday, April 16, 2010

Live With Legendary Pandit Jasraj !




Spellbound! Memorable! Time stopper! What else one can call such a performance? Even at the age of 80, Padmavibhushan Sangeet Martand Pandit Jasraj was in his best moods when he recited different ragas at Tagore Theater in Chandigarh on 14th April.

Pandit ji started with ‘Manglam Bhagwan Vishsu’ and enthralled the audience with Mahakali Stuti, Ganga Lahari and Shankra. I don’t think even a single person in that jam packed theatre would have realised how the time flew and sat hypnotised during the two & half hour long concert of Pandit Ji. People of every age and from every walk of life were present and occupied every seat, stair, passage and corner of the theatre. Jugalbandi of Vijay Ghate at Tabla and Sridhar Parthasarthi on Maridangam won huge applause from the audience.

For me, singing along Pandit Jasraj playing in my car is a routine but singing Ganga Lahiri (Luckly I remember it by heart) live with Pandit ji was too thrilling. This performance was no doubt a cool breather in the hot, humid and tiring summer days. This can be measured by this way that even Vande who usually keeps away from Classical Sangeet, enjoyed this concert and thanked me for bringing her along.

Eagerly waiting for another such breather and this time I would carry a much faster and much bigger zoom lens with me.


2 comments:

kirti said...

Praney,
Lucky you! poured over by panditji's sur must be a great treat to ears . have you heard Kirtans by panditji ? my fav is -lag gopal gulal hamari ankhan me ji na daro ju. I can describe them in a single word as "madhur".
I loved his pic. can you post some more?

Anonymous said...

I can imagine- how it have been. Have heard Pandit Hariprasad, Zakir Hussain and Jagjit Singh. Live shows are really the soul string stirrers.

Wish to hear Pandit Jasraj ji once. Good post buddy. Thanks..