Star studded new moon day

We all know that the sky looks most star-studded on a new moon day. But what I am talking here is a little different. It was a new moon alright, but with char-chand shining. Hold on, I will explain. What will you say when the King of Indian percussion, Tabla and the Maharaj of Kathak are performing together? Yes, you guessed it, I am talking about the live concert performed by Ustad Zakir Hussain and Pt. Birju Maharaj which was held in Dombivali's Savitribai Phule auditorium on the 25th nite. And I was one of the blessed few who attended it, very much by strong luck. I got 2 tickets for the concert only by luck, as the one who had bought it was not able to attend (I know...how unlucky).

So we reached the audi and the show started after a boring initial felicitation by the organisers, of the organisers, for the organisers, which seemed never ending. The audience finally was so irritated that the speakers were greeted with claps as soon as they stood for saying a few words, hinting them clearly to shut it up. And then Ustad started off with his magic. I was hearing him live for the first time and was mesmerized right from the start. His fingers on the Tabla were ruling the auditorium. And soon after, Pt. Birju Maharaj entered to a huge round of applause. And the show finally started. His feet moved so swiftly, that were the ghungroo alive, they would have asked for rest. All this at the age of 71. He presented a big variety of kathak sequences with detailed explanation, which helped even an illiterate like me understand the dances. Ustad Zakir Hussain was competing very efficiently to the steps. Pt. Birju Maharaj showed the varied rendition of the nos. from 1 to 8, 1 to 5, some short story sequences among many other sequences. The best were the elephant walking and the peacock, which is very famous, and which took the crowd to amazement.

During the break, the organisers again came on stage for felicitation of the maestros, and then before we knew that we were there for a surprise, they announced that the Queen of Indian Hearts, and an expert kathak dancer had come to attend the function. Who you are wondering? Well take a look for yourself...


Yesssss, Madhuri Dixit had come with her two kids, and family to attend the extravaganza and we were all blessed by her presence. The fourth chaand of the nite was Faisal Qureshi, brother of Ustad Zakir Hussain and an ace percussionist himself. They all were given bouquets and then Madhuri spoke a few words about her experience with Pt. Birju Maharaj during Devdas shooting, in Marathi. Ahahaha....it was pleasure to the ears.

The show soon resumed with Pt. Birju Maharaj's student Saswati Sen's performance, and she too danced elegantly, with no. sequences and narrations. The last dance on the poem composed by Panditji himself was exquisite. Yes, he is a very versatile artist, who knows dance, tabla, poems, singing, and maybe a lot of other arts. Then Maharaj again stepped on the dance floor and performed a few more grand sequences. I missed a part of it, since I went backstage to take a glance of Madhuri, when she left.

The jugalbandi between the two maestros was definately out of the world and I am proud to be a Hindustani which is home to such great artists. I salute Ustad Zakir Hussain and Pt. Birju Maharaj and thank the almighty for giving me the chance to witness the grand concert. This was the second surprise in a concert, the first being Asha tai's presence at the 72nd birthday of Pt. Hridaynath Mageshkar, on the eve of Diwali, last year. More about it in later posts. I wish I get more such concerts and surprises too!!

PPI making news

I came across this article which has an interview with R V Krishnan, president of the PPI (Professionals Party of India). He has talked about the views and aims of the party. Here is the link -

http://www.merinews.com/catFull.jsp?articleID=157085

I wish him and the party all the very best!!

5-Star Grand Finale!!

Since the past few months, every week begins with a musical extravaganza. Monday and Tuesday nights are booked for marathi orchestra and its an amazing musical treat for the eyes and ears. I am talking about the Sa Re Ga Ma Pa - Little Champs on Zee Marathi. Week after week, the champs (or giants rather) present excellent songs one after the other and we still feel it's not enough. The apetite is ever growing. The skill, ease, expressions, technique and confidence with which they sing is really unimaginable. You just keep wondering how they do that. I am sure not a single orchestra in India currently is as talented as this group of kids. Unfortunately, till yesterday, one little champ kept going out of the competition every week, as per the rule of the competition.

It used to be a very sad thing to bid one shining star good bye. So finally there were 5 of them left, the best ones obviously. I personally felt that some champs didnot deserve the dropping out. And so did a lot of fellow fans. And so, Zee Marathi decided to conduct a call-back episode for the 7 champs who were dropped out. But 4 of them wisely opted out of the episode. I say wisely because the call-back didn't change the results much. It was just a TRP-raiser for Zee Marathi. In the call-back, all the 3 who participated were selected back into the group. In the following week, Radhika, who was dropped out first of the 8 initially, got dropped out first again. Avanti was next to follow and lastly, Shalmali. In the initial drop-out, it was Kartiki in place of Avanti. But I am very disappointed with Avanti's drop out. She was an equally good singer and so was Shalmali. It was very unfair to play with the emotions of the kids just to raise TRPs of your show. The earlier 3 drop out episodes became useless, since the results didn't change much. They should instead have directly included all of them in the Megafinals.

So, yesterday again was the day of dropping out one champ. And, evidently, none of them was even a micro less than the others. All are equally good which even the judges and public knew. Everyone felt that all of them should go to the megafinals. So, after a lot of drama and timepass, Pallavi announced that all the 5 stars have made it to the megafinals. It is indeed a late decision, since I personally feel that atleast Avanti and Shalmali also deserve to be in the final. But, at least the decision has been made. So, we are going to have a 5-star Grand finale, literally with a 7-member jury panel (what a force to evaluate 5 little champs). This itself is a proof of their extreme capacity and huge talent. I wish all of them the best of luck and may all of them win and make all of us maharashtrians proud. Way to go Champs!!!