Shree Music Fest ends on a high note

The three-day Shree Music Festival in Jaipur at the Jawahar Kala Kendra (JKK) ended on Sunday with an amazing performance by southern sensation, Hariharan (picture).
The imposing JKK amphi-theatre began to look small when nearly 5000 people gathered at the venue. The newspapers reported that it was the largest crowd at JKK in recent memory.

By the time the program started and Hariharan went to the stage, there wasn't a wee bit space left. Even on backstage floors and the lawn were occupied as people squatted on the floor. Even the weather Gods smiled and it became very pleasant. 

With Manisha Agarwal

Hariharan too was in full mood and played out to the galleries with his hits. The program overshot it schedule by over an hour and I had to intervene with a request to call it a day.

Earlier the third day began with a sitar recital by Amita Dalal of Ahmedabad. She was accompanied by Pt Ram Kumar Mishra on the tabla and Pt Praveen Arya on the pakhawaj. Post event during the dinner, she informed me that she has never performed in Kolkata till date. 
Before Harihran, it was Vishwamohan Bhatt who took to the stage and displayed his mastery over Mohan Veena.

Frankly, I never thought that the Shree Music Festival would be such a huge success. It is often said that some times there are certain venues and stages that bring out the best in the performer. I think JKK was such a venue. 
The Times of India, in its December 8 edition had aptly reported "Times stands still at JKK music festival.

With Amita Dalal

The second day of the festival began began with unique Jugalbandi on sitar and violin by Jaipur’s own Jagdish Chandra Mothiya and Kailash Chandra Mothiya. In their presentation, the duo started with raag jog and ended with jhala. They were accompanied by Prithviraj Mishra on the tabla. The idea of putting local and budding artists with top established and reputed artists was appreciated by the media as well the common man of the city.

The next performance came from Jodhpur’s classical vocalist Pt Rajendra Vaishnav. He started his performance in ek taal in Puriya Kalyaan and sung Gao Gunijan Satguru ke Gun. Then in tritaal he sung Jao-Jao na Chedo. Pt Rajendra Vaishnav concluded his performance with a bhajan Suno Sakhi Anhad Naad Baje. He was accompanied by Mahendra Dangi on tabla and Pt Alok Bhatt on the harmonium. 
Sufi singer Parvati Kumari and Ambarish Das entertained the audience with their sufi and classical offerings respectively. 
Pulak Sarkar and Arun Kumar showed skills on keyboard and drums.

The day 2 of the music fest concluded with my good friend Bickram Ghosh's (pic) sterling performance on tabla. He held the audience transfixed with his masterly performance of The Dance of Shiva in raag jog and Zink.

Even the post even parties at the Rajputana Resident Lounge was also immensely successful. During all the three nights, the dinner went on till the wee hours. No doubt this musical festival is being seen as a major milestone and a landmark event in history of Jaipur's cultural circuit. I must thank Shree Cement, Rajputana Sheraton, Vinod Joshi of Jaipur Virasat Foundation and his team and of course the Jaipur Citizen Forum who helped us in co-ordinating and arranging for all the logistics at the JKK.

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