Ruturaj Thavare started attending Sawai Gandharva, the annual classical music festival held in Pune, when he was in Class 4. Back then, his parents would take him along. Now 20, he attended the event with his friends this year. Thavare has not learnt classical music but calls himself a shrota or a seasoned listener.
After the extraordinary Kuchipudi performance by Dancer Yamini Reddy, a father and son duo was seen eagerly waiting backstage so that the ten-year-old could get a picture with her. Scanning the audience, stalls and empty spaces, one observes parents trying to keep their children engaged at the scene. “This young crowd will be taking this legacy forward,” said Anand Deshmukh, who has been the anchor for the festival for the last 31 years. “The young crowd started coming in around the last 15 years. They are developing an interest in classical music and understanding its beauty and the legacy.”
Deshmukh said it has always been considered prestigious to attend this festival and people felt proud for just attending, even if they did not understand the music. But the young come with an understanding and a willingness to learn.
He narrated a story of a young boy who approached him with a diary of notes he made while listening to the performances. “The boy told me that when Parveen Sultana was singing ‘Todi’, she used pancham… So they are thinking about classical music with a certain depth,” said Deshmukh.
The anchor also linked this to the rise of great young artists like Pt Sanjeev Abhyankar, Mahesh Kale and Shounak Abhisheki, believing that it is they who have drawn the younger crowd to the scene.
Sumatindra Korti is from Karnataka but his family has settled in Pune. He is part of the younger crowd and has been attending the festival for a few years. He comes from a family where no one is a musician or a shrota. He took up veena and started playing both Hindustani and Carnatic music. “I have no idea how that happened. I just felt drawn towards it,” he said.
Thavare said, “When I was in Class 4, I would see very few youths. But today I came here and bumped into my college friends, which is a positive sign.” His friend Vaishnavi Atre, 20, too has attended the festival over the years. “During my schooling years, I learnt harmonium as part of Hindustani classical music and also learnt Bharatanatyam. I would come here to watch dance performances. Earlier, the audience would treat dance as a break time and proceed to food stalls. But everyone was hooked to today’s performance,” Atre pointed out.
According to Shrinivas Joshi, executive president of the Arya Sangeet Prasarak Mandal in Pune, “Music lovers of all age groups have been attending Sawai Gandharva Bhimsen Mahotsav. In fact, a lot of Punekars who are settled abroad come to India for Sawai every year. There is a lot of enthusiasm among youngsters about being a part of this iconic festival.”
