On Saturday there was a program to felicitate Pt. Y. Mahale on his 75th birthday. He was a direct disciple of S.N. Ratanjankar and particularly close to K.G. Ginde who he considers guru as well as guru-bhai. A cd with over 100 of Mahale saheb’s compositions was released also and Varda Godbole and Apoorva Gokhale sang several of his bandishes in the first part of the program. Mahale saheb is a warm, sincere, intelligent, modest man who is devoted to music. His compositions are excellent, in my opinion, and he has deep knowledge and experience in music. Here is one of his bandishes sung by him (in rag surya kauns) Pt. yeshwant mahale, surya kauns . After the speeches and felicitation Manjusha Patil sang what she called rag bihari. Isn’t it the same as shudh nat or bihari kalyan? bandish- “javoji tuma javo” in madhya laya. What can I say? She was outstanding. It was announced that she is taking guidance now from Vikas Kashalkar and Ulhas K. I am not surprised that she is a student of Kanebua. I met him years ago in Ichalkaranji and he was one of the nicest most inspiring men in the music world that I have ever met. I hope her youthful dynamism and charisma matures into something magnificent. Sometimes it doesn’t as seems the case with manjiri asnare-kelkar whose music doesn’t seem as wonderful as before. Manjusha patil then sang “chalo mitawa balama..” , paraj and a bhajan that she said Kane bua used to sing.
