NCPA Bandish: A Tribute to Legendary Composers

Mumbai’s National Centre for the Performing Arts launched Bandish: A Tribute to Legendary Composers in 2010 to showcase iconic works by celebrated music composers through performances by some of the country’s finest artists. The festival is named after the Hindustani classical term ‘bandish’, the “melodic and rhythmic composition” that forms “the base upon which the edifice of a performance is sculpted and realised”.  In addition to Hindustani classical and semi-classical forms, Bandish has featured concerts of Carnatic classical music, Indian devotional music and ghazals as well as Hindi film songs.

Past editions of the festival have been graced with performances by Hindustani classical music singers including Ajoy Chakrabarty, Ashwini Bhide Deshpande, Ghulam Hussain Khan, Rashid Khan and Ulhas Kashalkar, presenting tributes to legendary composers such as Alladiya Khan, Bade Ghulam Ali Khan, Inayat Hussain Khan, Sadarang and Adarang, and Vilayat Hussain Khan. Carnatic classical vocalists Aruna Sairam, Bombay Jayashri and T. M. Krishna have also staged recitals at the festival. NCPA Bandish has frequently closed with shows by Bollywood music singers such as Hariharan, Javed Ali, Shankar Mahadevan and Suresh Wadkar rendering raga-based songs by renowned music directors like Jaidev, Madan Mohan, Roshan and S. D. Burman.  

After taking a break in 2020 and 2021 owing to the pandemic, the 12th edition of the NCPA Bandish festival returned in July 2022, with inaugural performances by Hindustani classical vocalists Ulhas Kashalkar and Rahul Deshpande. Kashalkar presented compositions by Dinkar Kaikini, Gajananrao Joshi and Ramashreya Jha, while Deshpande sang compositions by Kumar Gandharva and his grandfather Vasantrao Deshpande. 

On the second day of the festival, singer-actor Shekhar Sen helmed ‘Bhakti Sangeet Ki Indradhanushi Yatra’, a concert conceptualised by Sen, featuring an ensemble of vocalists. The show comprised a variety of forms of devotional music in multiple languages and from multiple regions across the country.  On the third and last day, Bollywood music director Shantanu Moitra led a tribute to revered film composer Salil Chowdhury. Singers such as Sadhana Sargam and Shaan as well as instrumentalists from the Symphony Orchestra of India performed Chowdhury’s tunes. His daughter, vocalist Antara Chowdhury shared her memories of her father during the evening.

Read about other music festivals here.