[ Warning: Heavy Classical Music, read at your own risk]

Went to a concert by the Chitra Veena maestero Ravikiran (warning: background music) and the Mohan Veena genius Pt. Vishwa Mohan Bhatt.

I should say it was quite mind blowing. Pt Vishwa Mohan Bhatt was totally amazing..especially when he was playing the Teen taal . His fingers were moving so fast on the instrument that I could actually see a “motion blur”!

Ravikiran ji was no less. Matching flawlessly with Pt. Bhatt’s fast renditions, Ravikiran also consistently maintained the carnatic style and never ever missed a beat.

The jugalbandhi was even better with Pt. Vishwa Mohan Bhatt playing the Hindustani version and Ravikiran playing the carnatic keeravani. Apparently, Keeravani was polished for use in Hindustani music by Pt. Ravi Shankar. In between their exposition they flirted around with two other raagas - Sahana and Hamsanandi ( or was it suba banturali?). On the whole, the jugalbandi was beautiful, perfectly showcasing the beauty of carnatic and classical music.

The only bad parts would be the constant scratching sounds that were made by the instrument as each of the instrumentalists tried to outpace the other. The concert ended with a very beautifully performed “Vaishnava Janatho”.

The picture above was taken at the concert, when I had the misfortune of sitting in the last but one row and with a greater misfortune of a bad camera. The person on the left is Pt. Vishwa Mohan Bhatt, the person on the right is Ravikiran.