28th January 2018, Kolkata – The Indian Centre for Cultural Relations and the Santoor Ashram collaboratively paid a tribute to the legend Pandit Ravi Sankar at ICCR this Saturday evening. Renowned classical musicians like Pandit Vishwamohan Bhatt, Pandit Tarun Bhattacharya, Pandit Ronu Majumdar and Tanmoy Bose.
Pandit Vishwamohan Bhatt on ‘mohanveena’, Pandit Tarun Bhattacharya on ‘santoor’, Pandit Ronu Majumdar on ‘flute’ and Tanmoy Bose on ‘tabla’ weaved a magical evening along with a surprise extempore performance by the famous Odissi dancer Guru Sanchita Bhattacharya.
Pandit Vishwamohan Bhatt says,
“I am really happy to be a part of the classical music festival organised by the Santoor Ashram by our beloved Pandit Tarun Bhattacharya. We are playing a trio program which was long ago conceptualised by Pandit Ravi Shankar ji. The idea was to have different kind of instruments, totally different from each other, the wind instrument, plucking instrument and the hammering instrument and sync them into a single performance. Pt. Tarunji is doing a wonderful job by teaching students at the Santoor Ashram.”
When asked about the children’s interest in classical music Pt. Ronu Majumdar speaks his heart, “Children has turned to be a gadget these days. They do not know to limit the usage of gadgets which results. They do not go for socialisation as much of it is done on the internet. The face to face interaction has decreased to an extent. The listeners of classical music develop a personality of their own so children should listen to classical music from their childhood.” On asking about the musical apps available to teach music Pandit Majumdar says, “These apps or technology are misguiding the children. I am forced to state this that Google cannot be the teacher. Few students come up to me and say that I sing like Salamat Ali Khan. Google cannot teach them to do ‘reyaaz‘. I had written a poem ‘Guru Darpan hota hai‘ and that Google cannot replace the ‘Guru‘.” He further added, “I want to say the parents who think that giving the materialistic things to the child will fill up the company for the child it is wrong. A child needs most the time of his or her parents.” To this Pt. Vishwamohan Bhatt opines, “The Government should be pressurised to make classical music as a compulsory subject so that the students get the ‘taalim’. Music gives the power to concentrate.”
Tanmoy Bose says,
“Music has a great role to play and in fact, any medium of arts and culture has the immense potentiality to groom one’s personality. The presence of all these genius musicians makes me feel that it is a family function as we all had been so close to Jethamoshai (Pandit Ravi Shankar).”
Pt. Tarun Bhattacharya expresses himself on the event,
“We do this every year as a tribute to Pandit Ravi Shankar. We have with us Grammy award winner Pandit Vishwamohan Bhatt, Academy Award winner Pandit Ronu Majumdar, Tanmoy Bose and I perform every year also with a purpose to give a stage to the best students of the santoor ashram. We see that even the good students do not get the right exposure to showcase their talents.”
