Indian classical music concert in the city

While Carnatic music doesn’t believe in the time theory of ragas, Hindustani music carries the tradition of performing a raga at a particular time of the day. Though the city often witnesses Hindustani classical music concerts, an opportunity to listen to a raga, at the particular time to which it’s designated, is rare.

But Pratahswar, a classical musical concert, will give Mumbaikars a rare chance to wake up to the morning ragas this Sunday.

This monthly morning concert by Pancham Nishad, organised every year from October to May, will feature Padma Shri and Hindustani classical music maestro Pandit Ulhas Kashalkar. He will be accompanied by Nishad Bakre as a co-vocalist and Tanmay Devchake on the harmonium.

Talking about the speciality of the morning ragas, Pandit Kashalkar says, “People like bhakti ragas in the morning. So if we talk about calmness, ragas like Bhairav, Lalit and Todi are very soothing as opposed to ragas like Darbari and Shree.”

Though Pandit Kashalkar is trained from the Jaipur gharana, he is known for his skills of blending styles from the Gwalior, Jaipur and Agra gharanas. Through this concert, he seeks to take the audience through a versatile range of ragas. “I’m planning to present compositions on Bhairav and Bhiwani. Todi and Bhairav are long ragas and can be sung for about an hour. So I’ll take up either of them with a couple of other smaller ragas,” says Pandit Kashalkar.

It might be surprising to know that in spite of being an early morning concert, a lot of youngsters comprise the audience. “I’d visited one of the concerts earlier and it’s great to see a balance of youngsters and the older generation. It gives me immense pleasure to see that so many young people are inclined towards Indian classical music,” says Pandit Kashalkar.

Difference between ragas on the basis of time
One way of classifying ragas is according to the time they are performed. A day is divided into two halves — the diurnal and the nocturnal. Of these, the ‘Dinegaya’ or ‘Suryamsa’ ragas are rendered during the day and the ‘Ratrigeya’ or ‘Chandramsa’ are sung at night. There are about 300 morning ragas out of which only 100 are practiced these days.

Some of the popular morning ragas are:
Bhairav
Bhankar
Bhatiyar
Todi
Lalit
Hindol
Bhiwani

Pratahswar will happen on November 25 at Ravindra Natya Mandir, Prabhadevi from 6.30 am onwards.

Entry to the concert is free.