Sawai Mahotsav To Feature Film Festival, Photo Exhibition And Live Interaction

December 6, 2017

Bahauddin Dagar - Photograph by Sateesh Paknikar

Sawai Gandharva Bhimsen Mahotsav, which is scheduled to take place between December 13 to 17, will have sideline activities like ‘Shadja’, a film festival, ‘Antaranga’, an interaction with musicians and a photo exhibition.

“The film festival and the interaction will take place on the first three days of the event. ‘Shadja’ will showcase documentaries made on classical music and musicians. In ‘Antaranga’, I will be interviewing classical musicians like vocalist Kaushiki Chakraborty, veteran tabla player Pandit Nana Muley, vocalist Aarti Ankalikar Tikekar and Mahesh Kale,” said Shrinivas Joshi, Executive President, Arya Sangeet Prasarak Mandal, while addressing the media on Tuesday.

Documentaries shown will be based on the history of music in India, on the life of Pandit Ravi Shankar, Pandit Vishnu Digambar Paluskar, Pandit Mallikarjun Mansur along with 1995 film ‘Tarana’ by Rajat Kapoor and ‘Sarangi – The Lost Chord’ by P K Saha.

‘Shadja’ and ‘Antaranga’ will take place at Sawai Gandharva Smarak, Ganeshkind Road, between 10 am to 12 pm. The photo exhibition will take place at the festival venue. ‘Glory of Strings’ is the title of this exhibition which will show the work of noted photographer Sateesh Paknikar.

“I’ve clicked various artists along with their string instrument in monochrome. There are over 70 pictures which will be shown. These include artists with string instruments like rudra veena, sitar, sarod, santoor, guitar, violin and more,” he said.

Last year, due to demonetisation, the festival organisers started to sell tickets online. This year, they continued to keep an online portal to sell tickets. “Most of the tickets for this year’s festival have already been sold online in a few days. We may decide to keep an online ticket sale next year too,” added Joshi.

Completing its thirteenth year, the Vatsalabai Joshi Award, this year, will be conferred upon Pandit Nana Muley for his contribution to Indian classical music as a veteran tabla player.