This morning Kishori Amonkar sang at Dadar Matunga Cultural Centre. I expected a huge rush for this baithak event at her favorite venue. There were many people but arriving promptly at 7 a.m. I had an excellent place to sit. Maybe because it was so early the lights were off and it was oddly dark. After the intermission there was even less light filtering in and the tube lights were put on. She started with miyan ki todi and in my opinion it was magnificent. Everything was working perfectly, her voice, sound, accompaniment and atmosphere. The charisma is electrifying. What drives it, I do not know. She has incredible technique combined with her quality of voice that demands attention. At the service of her impressive self-confidence is her creative spontaneity. Who could dare question her version? She showed dimensions of todi that went far beyond the barriers of grammar pure enlightening music. After the interval she sang bilawal (alihaya). The bane of so many programs these days raised its ugly head- sound system problems. It was sorted out eventually and she sang beautifully. When she began the drut bandish “kavana batariya” she was interrupted by Nandini Bedakar who reminded her to sing another bandish instead. She then sang her own bandish, “Dagara chalata saghere” and “kavana batariya” after. Nandini gives fantastic accompaniment to Kishoritai and when they do sawal-jawab passages it is thrilling. Tejaswini, Kishori’s neice or grandchild also gives a very good accompaniment. After the bilawal she refused a farmaish although it was only 11:30 a.m. and considering the late start and long interval she hadn’t sung for so long. I am glad I made the effort to go to this program and I look forward to Vijaya Jadhav-Gatliwar’s program coming up soon at Ravindra Natya Manch.
