18 February,2013 12:02 PM IST | | Kartiki Nitin Lawate
Over 50 artistes will take up the centrestage to pay tribute to Hindi music legends at the Sugam Sangeet Sammelan, a three-day music festival starting from Sunday. The festival will see an orchestra made of 15 violin players, six rhythmists and 30 singers coming together to present the best of Hindi music in a variety of genres including Natya Sangeet, Lok Sangeet, Bhav Sangeet and Chitrapat Sangeet to Puneiites. While the first two days will see performances of classical Marathi songs, day three will see a performance of songs from Hindi films up to the 70s.u00a0
Rahul Deshpande
Suvarna Mategaonkar, another participant singer, says, "We will be singing songs from Hindi films up to the 70s, as a tribute to the legendary actors who made it all possible. There are a lot of classical music events, but Sugam Sangeet Sammelan is different. The focus here is not just on Classical, but also on Hindi cinema songs. Besides, there will be no break. There will always be some instrumentalist playing at the festival. We want people to be able to feel the old era," he says.
Devaki Pandit
The festival kicks off with artistes like Madhuri Karmarkar, Mandar Apte, Rajesh Datar, Tanuja Jog, Priyal Sathe and Rahul Joshi performing Lok Sangeet (local songs) Bhav Sangeet (devotional songs) and Chitrapat Sangeet (film songs). Following it will be a music performance by the trio of Rahul Deshande, Devaki Pandit and Anand Bhate exploring genres like Natya Sangeet and Abhang Sangeet.
Urmila Dhangar
The variety, believes Rahul Deshpande, one of the participating singers, will make the festival more interesting to the audience. "I'm sure that the Pune audience will appreciate good music, whether it's Hindi or Marathi," he says, terming the introduction of Hindi music as a welcome move.
Rahul Deshpande
On the second day, the festival will start with a musical conversation with Shala and Kaaksparsha fame Ketaki Mategaonkar hosted by Arun Nulkar followed by an audio-visual programme by Marathi Sugam Sangeet's executive president Girish Atre, exploring themes like spirituality, science and music with performances by Suvarna Mategaonkar, Ketaki Mategaonkar and Girish Atre. The latter half of day two will see performances on songs by renowned music directors like Ajay-Atul, Avdhut Gupte and Salil Kulkarni. "Apart from Marathi film and folk songs, this year we have also included Hindi songs as part of the festival. We hope the audiences will appreciate it," says Atre.
