Charu Hariharan
| Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
A highlight reel from the Mahindra Percussion Festival from last year (2023) starts with slow beats.
Glimpses of the biggest names in the business — A Sivamani (drums), kanjira exponent V Selvaganesh and bassist Mohini Dey — can be seen giving the stage their all. Sweat beads on a sea of people, artistes and audience alike, form a rare sight in the Bengaluru weather but the beats at the festival command movement. They build to a crescendo and fall, promising an exciting, bigger second edition.
Keeping with the promise, the festival is back at Bengaluru’s Prestige Srihari Khoday Centre for Performing Arts. It has also been bumped up to a two-day show on March 23 and 24.
The aim of this edition is to spotlight young artistes. While the big guns like Vikku Vinayakram and artistes part of his ghatam symphony and Taufiq Qureshi’s band Surya, will be pulling their weight at the fest, the festival promises a deluge of rhythms in the form of rap, dance and a variety of instruments in the mix.
Taufiq Qureshi
| Photo Credit:
Special Arrangement
For instance, mridangam artiste Charu Hariharan will be on stage with a 25-member ensemble, bringing together the Jenu Kuruba community from the border towns and villages of Kerala and Karnataka (traditionally part of the honey collecting tribe) and the folk music group Kozhikode Nanthalakootam.
Charu who will be performing her own compositions as part of the quartet and practice, more recently, has involved a lot of travel between Kozhikode and Perambra in the North Malabar region of Kerala. “Most artistes performing as part of this festival are new to the idea of arrangement despite knowing their compositions entirely. The Jenu Kuruba artistes also use interesting elements like plastic drums and antenna dishes in their performance, adding a beautiful texture to the music,” she says.
She adds that while she is excited to see the likes of Viveick Rajagopal and Anantha R Krishnan of Two Summ perform at the festival, she is also looking to draw from the crowd’s energy at the festival. “None of the synergy between the crowd and the artiste is premeditated. The crowd contributes just as much to a performance,” she says.
Jay Shah, vice president (cultural outreach), Mahindra Group, says that percussion has always been language agnostic and can be attributed to the sound of civiliszation. “Because of its universality, the festival boasts an interesting local and international lineup,” he says.
VG Jairam, founder, Hyperlink and festival director, says that a sense of raw energy from contemporary musicians can be expected at the festival. The Mahindra Percussion Festival gives musicians a pride of place as the musicians are not treated as an aside, he says.
On the first day, Charu Hariharan quartet, Vikku Vinayakram’s ghatam symphony, featuring Grammy award-winner V Selvaganesh, V Umashankar and Swaminathan Selvaganesh among others, will be performing. The final act of the day will be Swarathma Percussive Experience, featuring Thavil Raja and Beat Gurus.
Kozhikode Nanthalakootam
| Photo Credit:
Special Arrangement
The second day’s lineup will begin with a performance titled Rhythms of India, an ensemble bringing together artistes who blend Indian classical sounds and the contemporary sounds by Darshan Doshi, Varijashree Venugopal, BC Manjunath, and Praveen Rao. The next performance will show eight archetypal heroines from ancient Indian literature in a performance titled Ashtanayika through classical Indian music, modern jazz, Bharatanatyam and rap narratives. Taufiq Qureshi’s band Surya, will be the closing act of the festival.
The Mahindra Percussion Festival, in association with The Hindu, is co-sponsored by Mahindra Finance, Paul John Visitor Centre and Carlsberg Smooth Soda and promoted and produced by Hyperlink Brand Solutions. Tickets are on bookmyshow.com.
