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Bhajan Samraat Anup Jalota charms his followers |
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Written by admin
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Friday, 03 June 2011 15:03 |
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Reviews & Photos
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Anup Jalota - the Bhajan Samraat- was in Atlanta on Sunday May 29th, the eve of Memorial Day holiday and gave soulful performance at the Gwinnett Center Performing Arts. Despite Rahat Fateh Ali Khan performing at the same time at the other side of the town, the Gwinnett Center auditorium was almost filled to the capacity.
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The program started two hours late due to some technical difficulties but the audience waited outside patiently. Once the program started there was no stopping. Bhavna Jadonauth (Jalota’s disciple) warmed up the audience with two beautiful renditions- aaj Jaane ki zid na karo and Ek Radha Ek meera- and set the stage for the divine mood that to follow. From the moment Anup Jalota entered the stage, he captured their hearts with his signature bhajans and ghazals for almost three hours.
Anup Jalota is known for initiating a unique cultural renaissance of bhajans in India and around the world wherever Indians are settled. He has made countless trips to all over the world in last quarter century, and still commands affection and reverence from the audience – such is the magic in his singing.
Besides lending his voice to film music and radio very early on in his career, Anup also composed some of the songs in film after which his link with devotional songs was firmly established. Anup Jalota is now a household name when it comes to bhajans. Known for his versatility, the smiling and ever obliging artiste from Lucknow renders bhajans, ghazals, geets and film songs with equal grace and finesse.
It is said that an evening spent listening to Anup Jalota is like listening to the divine. The concert was entertaining and transported the audience into a devotional trip as well. The setting itself set the mood of the audience much before the mellifluous voice of Anup Jalota transported them into realms of tranquility.
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The Bhajan Sandhya and Geet organized by Harry Chowbey was like a summer shower to the heat-harassed Atlanta-Indians. Jalota is par excellence. His bhajans are not to evoke an ecstatic emotional fervor, but rather to stir the soul with a soothing touch, which is enlightening. They are far from noisy like the hackneyed bhajans; they are to be appreciated in silence. Even the applause between one composition and the other seems disturbing though it is spontaneous. That is the Anup Jalota effect. Unveiling the evening with the sought after Aisi laagi lagan, Meera ho gayi magan in Keervani, the singer showed his stylistic variations in the lines woh to gali gali Hari goon gaane lagi, which were simply superb.
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The ease with which he gets over any external hurdle or interrupting his flow for the formal string of felicitations, he regains his composure in no time and reverts to bhakti bhaava which never seems to abandon him as he is singing. The audience kept their minds in tune with the musician.
The two didactic pieces, Jag mein sundar hai do naam and Ram naam athi meeta hai, especially the refrain Bachpan bheeta khel, khel mein, bhari jawani soya sounded more meaningful in his rich voice. Payogi maine ram rattan dhan payo gave a new dimension to the concept of bhakti (devotion). Mat kar tu abhimaan reached emotional depths stirring unshed tears among those who got totally involved in the recital. |
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Rang de chunariya, a mixture of keervani and dharbari was wrought with pada vinyasas (stylistic rendition of lines) testifying the singer's technical expertise. Jalota can drench his viewers in piety at one stage, love and longing in another and inner happiness at the final phase. Very few artists these days can quietly convey and revoke such responses. He restates his mission and message in singing "there is only one source from which we all derive our energy; then why the disparities?"
The bhajan recital was interspersed with a few lines from film songs and few lines from Jagjit Singh ghazals. Toni Ramsaron on tabla and Bashir Ahmed on the instrument provided the necessary accompaniment with credit. At the end the audience felt that they had an armchair devotional trip to heaven. |
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Last Updated on Friday, 03 June 2011 16:22 |
