Shankar Mahadevan and More

Saw Shankar Mahadevan live at Pune last night. The show was titled "From Katyar to Kajra Re." My favourites from the show are Kajra re, and the title song from Dil Chahta Hai, and all the Marathi numbers he sang, especially the ones from the film Katyar Kaaljat Ghusli (Marathi), a musical adaptation of a famous play. He starred in it as the protagonist also. One of the best films of recent times. Subodh Bhave who produced that film, was the compere, crisp and competent.

He was good in the classical numbers, and had excellent jugalbandis with the Sitar player and with the audience. There were a couple of other singers, Mahesh Kale and two female budding artists. The special effects were good, enhancing the visual experience. I did not like the bhajan/abhang (Indrayani kaathi, devachi Alandi) that he sang, maybe because Bhimsen Joshi and Kumar Gandharva have sung the same at a superior level.

All said, a great experience, though the handling of the crowd by the volunteers at the entry points to the back rows left a lot to be said about managing events. But that was forgotten once the magic began.

Met Ratnashree Tripathi, a former student who works for Jetsynthesys, a digital firm in Pune. Was meeting her after a few years, so we covered a lot of ground, including many writers from IMT Nagpur, and writing and reading in general. 

No comments:

XLRI Doctoral Colloquium 2024

 Pics from a well-organised event.  With TAS Vijayaraghavan, my classmate and XLRI prof., and Dr. Prashant, host. My talk on Building Academ...

These Were Liked a Lot