Rarely heard Kishori Amonkar Part2
This film was made by First Edition Arts of Mumbai, a Mumbai based organization that promotes Indian Classical Music and is also dedicated to the creation of high-quality films on Indian art and music which have been shared on the First Edition Arts channel on YouTube. The audio and video recording, as well as still photos in the film, reflect the painstaking efforts of First Edition Arts
This programme was hosted by the Mariwala family in Mumbai in April 2018
Senior Disciple of Gaanasaraswati Kishori Amonkar, Dr Arun Dravid presents a unique analysis of Kishoritai’s early vocal career from 1960 to about 1985. The reason for choosing this period of Kishoritai’s career is that during this period her musical content was more tilted to the characteristic of Jaipur Atrauli Gharana compared with the latter half of her career. There are very few listeners today who have minutely heard and studied her music of that era. This programme will, therefore, serve to showcase, through old live recordings, her early music for today’s young generation, as well as bring back memories of her early days for senior connoisseurs of her music who may have heard her 40 years ago.
This programme also highlights, again through old recordings, Kishoritai’s singular command over “Shrutis” and precise positions of notes in various Raagas. It also sheds some light on liberties she used to take with orthodox rules of our Raag system to create flashes of beauty, even though she did end up displeasing some purists of music.
Kishoritai composed some new Raags, and also sang some specialities of Jaipur Gharana Raagas which she rarely sang in the second half of her career. Short clips of these are also played in this programme.
Dr Dravid also makes vocal presentations of some of Kishoritai’s own Bandishes in several Raagas which she sang rather sparingly in her later career.
This programme and also the Marathi version was presented in Mumbai, Pune, Ahmedabad, Goa, Dombivli, and two cities in the U.S., all to standing room only audience.
This video recording is a unique opportunity for connoisseurs, teachers and students of Hindustani classical music.
Grateful thanks to Pandit Dr Arun Dravid for sharing this remarkable programme with the music lovers all over the world.