As expected, the third and final evening of the Bhubaneswar Music Circle-hosted annual national music festival staged at the Rabindra Mandap here witnessed a fitting finale with a captivating concert by Vidushi Kalapini Komkali on Thursday.
Being the daughter and disciple of iconic Kumar Gandharva and veteran vocalist Vidushi Vasundhara Komkali, Kalapini had, obviously, raised much excitement and expectations among the city’s musicians and connoisseurs. And she lived up to their expectations while proving her own identity beyond the shadows of her parents. The total silence that reigned in the auditorium throughout the concert spoke volumes of her impact upon the intimately-involved audience.
Endowed with a bold and distinct voice that is rooted in the rich music tradition of Malwa region, where her illustrious parents had also evolved as icons of Indian music, Kalapini, who performed in the city years ago, chose the rarely-heard raag Nand as the focus of her concert. Each of the three segments, vilamvit, madhyalaya and drut (slow, medium and fast tempo), were rendered with complete command and clarity. The drut segment Aab To Aa Ja was a popular composition by her father.
Her other shorter renditions included a Rasia, a distinct music genre that has derived its name from rasa (emotion) is popular in Uttar Pradesh region and a popular Nirgun bhajan of Saint Kabir sunta hai guru gyani. Brilliant and restrained were her two young but highly-talented accompanying artists Abhishek Shinkar on harmonium and Ramendra Singh Solanki on tabla.
Earlier in the evening, Puri-based vocalist Achyuta Maharana, the lone artist to represent host Odisha’s own Odishi music tradition in this national platform, performed. Though his concert had four typical songs including the unique Harachandi-Malashree and ‘Sari Bari Vihara’, the song that describes the rituals of the Jagannath Temple, he failed to impress. Since Odishi music is striving to establish itself as an Indian classical music tradition, the hosts could have chosen one of Odishi’s accomplished vocalists to establish justification of Odishi’s claim to classical fame.