Venue: Kamani Auditorium

Monsoon pours in different ways. There is no other season that inspires music and arts than monsoon. HCL CONCERTS facilitated this avatar of monsoon through their MONSOON Rhythms concert at Kamani Auditorium last week. The ceremonial lamp was lit by Kiran Nadar, the founder of Kiran Nadar Museum of Art. Thereafter the first artist for the evening, Vikku Vinayakram and his percussion group “3G” took stage.

Vikku Vinayakram is a Grammy award winning percussion artist. He plays Carnatic music with ghatam, the clay urn and is a forerunner in popularizing this instrument. The name “3G” signifies his three generations who form this band. Ghatam is a little known instrument up north. So when the veteran Vinayakram hit the first notes on the ghatam, the whole auditorium sat up in attention. It is difficult to imagine the sort of melodious music the earthen ware and the air inside it produce. One has to actually hear it to believe and we only have gratitude for HCL CONCERTS for bringing this to us.

The band sang notes and couplets along with the percussions. They also involved the audience by making them clap at beats. Along with the ghatam, the band also had drums that were played by Vinayakram’s son. The train sounds that they emulated with the drums were most entertaining.

The second part of the evening was a dance recital by the National Award winning actor and danseuse Shobana and her troupe. They performed a set piece based on Indian mythology and religious harmony. Shobana was remarkable in her roles as Goddess Kali and Lord Krishna. There was a film that was being played on the screen at the back and that was somewhat distracting. The costumes also looked very Palika Bazar and the piece overall had Bollywood overtones. Although entertaining for a while, we were definitely expecting more from this part of the evening.

Overall, it was an enjoyable program and kudos to the relentless efforts by HCL CONCERTS. The MONSOON Rhythms was a worthy precursor to the real monsoon in Delhi this week.