Music in the Park Holi Special
Meghduttam Rangmanch recreated the mood and flavour of Holi in its latest edition of ‘Music in the Park’ held three days before Holi, on Sunday 05 March. After a few karaoke songs as a prelude and warm-up, four rounds of Musical Antrakshari were organized for three groups of participants, all invited from the audience. Compered by standup comedian and popular anchor, Pradeep Pallavi, with each round more challenging than the previous, and with members from the audience participating as well, the game was thoroughly enjoyed by one and all.
Following the Antakshari rounds, our curated programs were compered by Kapil Pandey, popular storyteller, singer and educator.
We have all heard of jugalbandi. For the first time we presented a tigalbandi, an innovative combination of a semi-classical song accompanied by beatbox percussion and a Kathak dance!
Dr. Mridusmita sang the popular “Rangi sari gulabi chunariya re”, a Hori geet based on Raga Mishr Pahadi. She was accompanied by Dhananjay Chaudhary, a beatboxer. A beatboxer is a vocal percussionist who imitates drum machine sounds. (Dhananjay works as a web developer for Cognizant). Two young Kathak dancers, Saumya and Suhaani, students of dance exponent Prerna Sharma, performed a contemporary dance based on Kathak with this semi-classical song.
It is admirable that the Kathak dancers choreographed the dance for this song with their guru,Prerna ji, in just two days.
Popular poetess, Mamta Varshney, presented a humorous poem followed by a Phaag folk song, which is sung during Holi celebrations. Kapil Pandey presented a satirical poem written by Kaka Hathrasi, followed by a short satire on inspector raj in schools.
Sarla Adhikari, and her colleagues from Maitri, Neera, Anoop and Deepa, presented a Braj ki Holi folk song, aaj biraj mein hori re rasiya. Audience members joined in the chorus with one lady even rushing on to the stage to dance along with the music!
The finale of the evening had our Meghdutam Rangmanch musicians presenting live performances of a medley of Holi Bollywood songs. Rang Barse was led by Pankaj Sharma and Namrata Tewari; Holi khele Raghubeera, led by Mridusmita; Holiya mein ude re gulal led by Kiran Singh and Amit Varshney; and finally Holi ke din dil khil jate hain, led by Pankaj Sahasrabuddhe and Padmaja Verma. While the medley songs were being sung, the audience also celebrated the festival with Phoolon ki Holi. Flower petals were arranged by Sarla Adhikari.
Live percussion accompaniment for the entire musical evening was provided by Manisha Varshney on the dholak and Amit Varshney on djembe.
Pankaj Sharma faced the challenging task of balancing sounds of several voices and instruments in this predominantly group performances event typical of a social festival like Holi. Friends and musicians associated with Meghdutam Rangmanch volunteered their support in this program and we thank them in making this event a success.
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by Vinod Agarwal (Sagar Presidency; 9899437350)
