A Review : An Evening With Pancham – June 29, 2008

Following is the Review of the event by our very Swapan Das.....

A Review : An Evening With Pancham – June 29, 2008

Venue :Kalamandir, Kolkata.

With the passage of time, the popularity of R.D. Burman – Pancham da has grown and posthumously (its 14 years now) his music has become more popular and admirable. You cannot fathom his contribution to music with the statistics of the awards he has won. He was never awarded a national award though the singers of his films has won. May be during those days, the jury has given much attention to the `vocals' – to the good melodies, and paid lesser attention to the `non-vocal' part. May be they were not ahead of their time to fathom the hidden beauties of orchestra, rhythm and the total music arragement of our Pancham da. So its not RD Burman who was unfortunate with awards, its literally our `shame' that we have not given our due respect and recognition to this genius when he was alive. Or it took us these many years to understand the hidden beauties of Pancham's music? Recently Euphony came up with their 4th show - `An Evening With Pancham' on R.D. Burman to showcase this
aspect with the original musicians from R.D. Burman's team. The show was also a tribute on Rahul Dev Burman's 70th Birth Anniversary (27th june).

A detailed account of this instrumental show, which was held on Sunday evening , June 29, 2008 at Kalamandir, kolkata and happened to be housefull and aired `LIVE' by a satellite channel (though in pieces) is given below:-

MORNING SCENARIO:

The passion for Pancham's music, with Euphony's previous shows' credibility and the support from sponsors provided unprecedent interest this time. Literally Euphony guys were scared of any kind of unpleasant outbursts for the non-availability of tickets. Instances were like – Couples coming in the morning for just two tickets had to
be detained for two hours and could be provided with tickets not with same series. The husband and wife agreeing to get separated for Pancham's show. They knew its a 3 hours separation – accept it or miss something for a life –time. They chose the first option!

EVENING SCENARIO:

Euphony team was feeling the pressure of housefull this time. Kalamandir arena was getting over-crowded, people were bcoming restless to occupy their seats while non-ticket holders were madly looking for tickets of any denominations. Euphony volunteers tried their level best to make arrangements for the tickets but as the
demand was too much could do little for these section of crowd. Some went home with the hope to catch the event `live' on Star Ananda channel. Meanwhile, on the road the van of the satellite channel was giving final touches to get the live feed from the auditorium and get it hooked up to their studio in the H.Q. Pefect setting for the show
with a full house.]

AND THE SHOW BEGINS…:

The curtain was raised with the Jalpari music – which has now become a sort of signature music of Euphony. Ambrish the anchor from Euphony welcomed the audience and paid tribute to BOSS. He pointed out that the Boss is very much `alive' in our hearts, so Euphony does not pay tribute to Boss's photo with a garland – which somehow depicts the Boss is no more. See the passion! Ambrish then handed over the microphone to his co-anchor (& co-member) Debabrata. Debabrata then
presented to the audience a `surprise', which had been kept a secret. He welcomed Mr. Abhijit Dasgupta, the mamaji of Pancham on the stage! The crowd was amused with this surprise, as they were not at all aware of this. Mr. Abhijit Dasgupta who is younger to RD but is in relation Mama (maternal uncle) of RD, shared his experience with Pancham. Because of his courtsey, a slideshow on Pancham containing rare pictures of his childhood shown to the audience. The surprise was not over. As Mr. Abhijit Dasgupta called upon the stage five gentlemen who were the childhood friends, the school classmates (Ballygunge Government School) of Pancham on the stage! They shared all the funny incidents of their `Rahul'. Yes they address our Pancham da/RD Burman as `Rahul' – their friend. This session was very much unexpected and the audience got the chance to know how RD Burman was during his school days. This session has a great archival value, Euphony should take care to preserve it.

After this session, the Euphony anchors handed over the stage to the main anchor of the show – one and only Ankush Chinchankar – the chalta-firta Encyclopedia of RD Burman. He described and demonstrated many attributes of RD Burman's music, like – the style & scale (sur) changes RD has made in songs. "Yeh Main Kahan Aa Phansi" – CARAVAN, has change of scales for three times. Then he said about the artists who were lesser known in Hindi Film songs ,like Aarti Mukherjee,
Anoop Ghosal but have terrific RD's scrores to their credits. Among such names comes Chandrasekhar Gadgil. And then Ankushji welcomed Mr. Chandrasekhar Gadgil on the stage. This was a surprise –as everyone knew its an instrumental show. Chandrasekhar Gadgil has sung in the film Kudrat. Which song? Its `O Dukh Sukh Ki Har Ek Mala'. He sang this song so brilliantly, which happened to be the only vocal piece that evening, that the crowd was spellbound. He got a great round of applause from the audience.

Bhanu Gupta, who has now become a very familiar personality in Calcutta played "Tolo Chinnobina" song on Harmonica. Splendid performance even at this age on harmonica which needs lot of respiratory power, he also performed 'Kuch Na Kaho'.

Khopri Tarang, Marakas, Kokrio Khanjari (plz. Refer to DVD of this show for correct names) - were now on the stage! Who can bring all these unusual, peculiar instruments on the stage? Who else?! Its Homi Mullan, who played all these stuff one after another like a magician. It was amazing to see Homiji playing three instruments in a single
song! The song was "Ruth Na Jana.." – 1942 A Love Story. With his demonstration we could now relate many familiar sounds of great songs (like the use of Marakas in Kabhi Palkon Pe aansoon Hai- HARJAEE)

Then came SUNIL KAUSHIK. This man looks smart...handsome...he's flamboyant and when he plays the guitar the flamboyance is all over there...he plays with such an authority, and can connect with audience very well. He discussed what 12-String Guitar is and how RD Burman has used it in the songs.And he started with playing the
guitar live on the Jalpaari original theme which he created specially for this event.Went on to play the 12string live for Masoom and few more like the Guitaring of 'Dil Ki baat Kahin Labh Pe na aa Jaye'from Teri Kasam. On next show SUNIL KAUSHIK THE ROCK STAR has become a must, O Yes... along with him his 12-String Guitar should come!!

Jugalbandi of Sunil Kaushik & Ramesh Iyer - It was a treat to see their jugalbandi for the songs:
SAGAR – Chehra hai..
BOXER - Dekho Idhar…

The best was the jugalbandi playing the famous prelude of Pariyon Ka Mela Hai from Satte Pe Satta.It was simply awesome the way both of them played live on stage.
Ramesh Iyer like the previous shows was just outstanding.The icing on the cake was him playing the BASS GUITAR over the song Aisa Sama of Zameen Asmaan where he originally played the Bass.It was mindblowing.

Another musician worth mentioning is ROHAN who plays the Bass Guitar and actually a student of Rameshji who flew down from Mumbai for this event.A true champion.

MANOHARI SINGH & FACILIATION SESSION - When at the last session, Manohari da came to the stage with Bhanu da...the audience was overwhelmed to see him in person. Everybody was showering respect for this living legend. If he even didn't have performed...he would have got this respect and appreciation from the audience...what a humble person he is. There was a special facilitation of Manohari da by Bhanu da. Bhanu da presented Manohari da with the `Uttariya' (Saluting the legend!). All the other musicians were also facilitated by the Euphony at this time.

MANOHARI SINGH STARTS PERFORMING….

And when he starts his performance playing `Phire Elaam' on his sax....just mind blowing....its hard to believe a man of this prime age, and who is not physically well also...performing like that...the impact was so huge, everybody in the auditorium felt it. It was a lifetime experience which will always remain in our heart. Manohari
da, thanks a million for coming to Calcutta and giving us such heavenly experience. Imagine, the impact on audience when he played the chartbusters like `O Hansini' (on flute), `Aanewala Pal' and 'Musafir Hoon Yaron' apart from these Mahoharida also demonstrated the Flute from the song 'Hoga Tumse Pyara Kaun' from
Zamane Ko Dikhana Hai' those who missed this event must grab a DVD of this show to see the performance of this legendry man and his fellow great musicians.

And finally curtains dropped, with `Agar Tum Na Hote' from Manohari da. The show was such a great and filled with so many pieces and anecdotes that the reviewer was puzzled how to recapitulate and sum up the whole event. The reviewer has missed many things unknowingly and deliberately also, so that when you watch the DVD of this show, there are more surprises stored for you. During the event Vanita Music and Euphony released their CDs & DVDs, which sold like hot-
cakes during the interval. And this whole event was recorded and transmitted `LIVE' (deferred) by Star Ananda satellite TV channel. Before I wind up, would like to share one recipe with all of you, which surprisingly got from this musical event! Courtesy, Bhanu Gupta. Bhanu da said "Pancham was not only a good music composer, but
a good recipe composer also as from him I learnt to eat hot gulab jamuns with vanilla ice-cream on top of them." So, all of you may try this recipe of our Chef Pancham da.

Jai Pancham!

--Swapan Das