Pune Sawai fest to showcase audio visual production on Bhimsen

To make up for the absence of Pandit Bhimsen Joshi at the 59th Sawai Gandharva Bhimsen Mahotsav, an audio visual production on Panditji will be presented during the festival. This will be the main attraction among the sidelights  of the festival which will be held from December 7 to 11 at Ramanbaug.

The festival was started by Panditji as a tribute to his guru Sawai Gandharva. A special audio visual production will unfold the extraordinary journey of his musical life in front of the audience.

This biographical audio visual production commissioned by the organisers Arya Sangeet Prasarak Mandal and being created by Indian Magic Eye (IME) has been divided into 5 major parts of his life.

These parts are ‘Dhyas Parva’ (The early days of his life when he developed  passion for music), ‘Guru Bhet aani Shikshan’ (The time when met his guru and learned important music lessons), ‘Prasadik Gane’ (The period when discovered his music style), ‘Prachar-Prasar’ (performances, recordings and about his effort to promote Indian classical music) and lastly ‘Sangeet Vichar’ (His thoughts about music). This would be played during the festival in the form of short clips between the performances of artistes.

Executive president of Arya Sangeet Prasarak Mandal Shreenivas Joshi said, “The IME team has travelled extensively to various places in Karnataka like Kundgol, Gadag, Hubli, Dharwad and to Jalandar (Punjab) and New Delhi in an attempt to explore the special relationship that these places and people there had with Panditji including his favorite dhaba at Jalandar.’’

A special interview of his 92-year-old friend Ashwini Kumar based in New Delhi was also taken, added chairman of Indian Magic Eye Private Limited Shrirang Godbole.

‘Shadja’, the film festival and ‘Antaranga’, an interaction with senior personalities from Indian classical music are among the other activities.

‘Shadja’ will showcase a film on Panditji made by noted film and television personality Ravindra Mankani on December 7, a film on Kishori Amonkar by celebrated actor / director Amol Palekar on December 8 and a film on Pt Rajan-Sajan Mishra by Makarand Bramhe that marked the inauguration of Goa International Film Festival on December 10.

"Antaranga’, will feature Pt Ajay Pohankar on December 7, Pt Ronu Majumdar on December 8 and Prabha Atre on December 10, where they will throw light on various aspects of music in an interactive session. A special audio visual presentation by Bakul Bhavsar, a music scholar who has done a lot of study on Panditji, will present some rare audio and video recordings of Panditji.
Entry to ‘Shadja’ and ‘Antaranga’ would be free on first come first serve basis and the timing of ‘Shadja’ would be 10 am to 11.30 am. ‘Antaranga’ would be conducted between 11.45am and 1 pm. The venue for ‘Shadja’ and ‘Antarang’ would be Sawai Gandharva Smarak at Shivajinagar.

An exhibition by award wining caricature artist Prabhakar Wairkar is another attraction. Many caricatures to be displayed at the exhibition have been drawn by him on the spot while watching the artistes performing.

The prestigious Vatsalabai Joshi award given annually for outstanding contribution to the field of music shall be given to Pt Vijay Sardeshmukh this year.