The 51st Bhaskara Rao Nritya and Sangeet Sammelan, held at Tagore Hall, recently concluded. The engaging seven-day concert was inaugurated by Hon’ble Governor Banwarilal Purohit. On behalf of the Chandigarh-based Pracheen Kala Kendra, S K Monga, Dr. Shobha Kosar, Ashutosh Maharaj, Yashpal Singh, Sajal Kosar, and others were in attendance.

After ‘Gunijan Sammanna’, Talayogi P. Suresh Talwalkar commenced the inaugural concert  He was accompanied by his disciple-daughter, Sraboni Talwalkar (tabla), Nagnath Adgaonkar (vocals), Abhishek Sinkar (harmonium) Paranje (Kajan and Padant) and Rituraj Hinge (Kalbas). His selection included Peskar and Punjabi Kaida, Raga Sohini, Chakradar, etc. Sarodia P. Debashis Bhattacharya hails from Calcutta. Apart from his father Pt Shyamsunder Bhattacharya, his gurus include Ravi Laha, a disciple of Pt Radhika Mohan Maitra, and sarod-artist, Pt Buddhadev Dasgupta. This artist from Senia Sahajanpur Gharana started his session with Raag Jhinjit, which belongs to Khamaj thaat.

Later Kalanavati and Mishra Pilu were heard. Sitarist Partho Bose from Kolkata has been a disciple of Manoj Shankar, an artist of the Maihar genre since childhood. His style of playing is mixed with the playing style of P. Ravi Shankar and P. Nikhil Banerjee. In addition to Bihag (alap, jod, jhala, Vilambit teentaal, Madhyalaya, and Gatkari) he has played Mishra Kafi thumri. Dr. Tulika Ghosh Padmabhushan is the daughter of tabla player P. Nikhil Ghosh. Flute player Pannalal Ghosh is also a close relative of his. Tulika lent her voice to the Raag Shri. Then she performed ragmalika comprising twelve different ragas. She concluded with a Benarasi bhajan. P. Pravin and Saroj Godkhindi, the father and son dueted on the flute. Their brilliant performances included Raag Jog and Mishra Pahari. Pt Yogesh Samsi also regaled the audience with his robust Teentaal tabla beats.

There were two dance programs. Vaijayanti and Troupe performed a variety of Kuchipudi items while Dr. Padmaja Suresh did a Bharatanatyam solo.

Other notable artists of this edition thus far were Rahul Sharma (santoor), Sanjeev Abhayankar, P. Shaunak Abhishek (both in vocals) and on the concluding day, Pt Viswa Mohan Bhat took to the stage. He began with his own created raag, Vishwaranjani which is a mixture of Shiva Ranjani and Madhubanti. Later he called his son, Salil and disciples to present Jog-Jazz. The entire evening was dedicated to ML Kosar, the founder of PKK.

Ustad Sabir Khan, Subrata Dey, Rajendra Prasad Banerjee, P. Ramkumar Mishra, Durjoy Bhowmik, Abhishek Mishra, Parmita Mukherjee, and others provided valuable assistance in tabla, harmonium, tanpura, and the likes. Sameera Kosar, a kathak dancer and executive member of PKK did a superb job of anchoring during the entire week.