Pune: As the venue for the Sawai Gandharva Bhimsen Mahotsav has changed this year, the Pune Mahanagar Parivahan Mahamandal Ltd (PMPML) will run a special bus service on four routes before and after the event each day, said PMPML Director Siddharth Shirole on Thursday.
The Sawai venue this year changed from the usual New English School playground, Ramanbaug, to the Maharashtriya Mandal Sports Complex in Mukund Nagar. The festival organisers are doing their best to see that the regular audience of the event, mostly comprising senior citizens, do not face difficulty in reaching the new venue.
Along with the buses, Ola and Uber Apps will also show the destination ‘Sawai 2018’ on their apps.
“We have arranged the buses on four routes starting from Kothrud Depot (Paud Road), Warje-Malwadi, Sinhagad Road (Dhayari) and Pimpri-Chinchwad (Bhakti-Shakti Chowk, Nigdi). These buses will start from their first stop one hour prior to the timings of the festival each day and take passengers back after the event ends,” Shirole said.
The number of buses on each of the routes will be determined according to the response on the first day, stated the organisers.
Saath Sangat - A photo exhibition
Like every year, this year too, renowned photographer Sateesh Paknikar will be organising an exhibition based on a unique theme. This year, the black and white photo exhibition will feature artistes playing musical instruments with the highest skill to accompany the main vocalist or the other instrument player. There will be over 90 photographs of renowned accompanists such as Ustad Allarakha, Pandit Kishan Maharaj, Pandit Samta Prasad, Ustad Zakir Husain, Pandit Anindo Chatterjee and others. It will be inaugurated in the presence of Mauli Takalkar, a taal player, Pandit Arvind Thatte, harmonium player, Pandit Vijay Ghate, tabla player and Shriniwas Joshi.
Special programmes
The special programmes ‘Shadja’ (documentary screening) and ‘Antaranga’ (interviews of the artistes) will be held on the mornings of December 12, 13 and 14. The documentaries that will be screened include ‘Pandit Vishnu Digambar Paluskar’, ‘Pandit Birju Maharaj’, ‘Girija Devi’ and ‘Jamuna Ke Teer - Abdul Karim Khan’ over the three days. In ‘Antaranga’, the audience will get a chance to witness the interviews of Pandit Basant Kabra, one of the eldest disciples of late sitar player and musician Annapurna Devi, veteran tabla player Pandit Suresh Talwalkar and renowned vocalist Aarti Ankalikar-Tikekar.
