Chaurasia, Mohan Bhatt help Dhaka classical music fest end on a high

Dhaka, Dec 31 (IANS) Ace musicians Hariprasad Chaurasia and Pandit Vishwa Mohan Bhatt were the star performers on the final day of the five-night Bengal Classical Music Festival organised by Bengal Foundation at the Abahani grounds in Dhanmondi here on Saturday.

A packed weekend crowd lapped up Chaurasia's flute recital and Bhatt's Mohan Veena towards the latter half of the night which saw an end to five days of soulful performances by top artists.

The maiden performance was Odissi dance recital by Vidushi Sujata Mohapatra with co-artist Soumya Bose. Accompanying them were Soumyaranjan Joshi on flute, Rupak K Parida on vocals, Ramesh Chanda Das on the violin and Eklabya Moduli on the pakhawaj. Lights were done by Jaydev Das.

After the first performance, the closing ceremony of BCMF2017 took place with Professor Emeritus Dr. Anisuzzaman chairing the proceedings. BRAC Chairperson Sir Fazle Hasan Abed was the Chief Guest of the event. Among the special guests were cultural exponent and President of Chhayanaut Dr. Sanjida Khatun, Managing Director of Impress Telefilm and Channel i Faridur Reza Sagar and Aminah Ahmed, the mother of Abahani Ltd Vice President Kazi Nabil Ahmed.

In his speech, Anisuzzaman said that it's a matter of pride that every year the classical music festival is reaching a new height, which will add new pages in the history of reviving the heritage of classical music in Bangladesh under the patronage of Bengal.

Sir Fazle praised the organizers for arranging this mega event despite such uncertainty and various obstacles arising from time to time.

Sanjida Khatun urged the importance of traditional festivals and the need to arrange such festivals all over the country. She also mentioned about making folk genre a part of this kind of event, which eventually can ignite a great sense of humanity amongst all people.

Sagar expressed his gratitude to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina for providing permission for arranging this festival.

Aminah Ahmed, on behalf of Abahani Limited and the grounds authority, felicitated everyone who is a part of this event. She expressed her optimism that the festival will be arranged in this field next year too.

Abul Khair, Chairman of Bengal Foundation, expressed his gratefulness to Sheikh Hasina for permission to arrange this event. He also mentioned about hundreds of coworkers and colleagues and above all the leading professionals of Bengal Foundation and Blues Communication who have worked relentlessly to make this event a success.

The next performances of the night were by Bhatt on his Mohan Veena, and accompanied by Pandit Subhen Chatterjee on the tabla. He performed Raga Maru-Bihag and dhun. Attorney General Mahbubey Alam handed the crest to the artiste.

Brajeswar Mukherjee was the next artiste to enthrall the audience with Khayal rendition where he performed Raga Jog. Pandit Subhankar Bannerjee was on the tabla and Gourab Chatterjee on the harmonium. Eminent singer Shama Rahman handed the crest to the artiste.

A wonderful 'Jugalbandi' of sitar by Pandit Kushal Das and Kalyanjit Das enchanted a sea of people at the dead of night. They performed Raga Jogkauns. Artist Monirul Islam and Singer Aditi Mohsin handed the crest to the performers.

The penultimate performance of the night was Khayal by Pandit Kaivalyakumar. He performed Raga Gorakh Kalyan and a Thumri in Raga Khamaj. Accompanying him were Sridhar Mandre on the tabla, Sudhangshu Kulkarni on the harmonium and Kumar Malakar and Abhijit Kundu of Bengal Parampara Sangeetalay on the Tanpura. Festival memento was handed over to him by Dr. Syed Saad Andalib, Vice Chancellor of BRAC University.

The concluding performance of the mega festival was Chaurasia's mellifluous flute recital. He was accompanied by Pandit Subhankar Bannerjee on the tabla, Pandit Bhavani Shankar on the pakhawaj, Vivek Sonar and Uka Nagai on the flute and Mushfiqur Islam on the tanpura. He performed Raga Lalitha as well as a folk tune and bhajan.