Shubha Mudgal and Jackfruit 2023 | Unchained melodies

It’s Jackfruit season in Bengaluru again! The beloved children’s music festival of this name comes back in its fifth edition, and this time, they have renowned Indian classical vocalist and composer, Padma Shri Vidushi Shubha Mudgal, curating the talent as Festival Director. “Basically, I get to dream and imagine and hear lots of wonderful music from which I have the challenging task of selecting artistes, repertoire, and details related to presentation,” says Mudgal.Gayathri Krishna, Managing Trustee of the Bhoomija Foundation, which is behind this annual music festival, says, “We called it Jackfruit because the fruit kind of personifies classical music—hard exterior, sticky, and a difficult way to the real fruit that is incredibly sweet! Much like the journey to realising classical music as an artiste!” She adds, “Way back in 2013, Bombay Jayashri directed our first Children’s Carnatic Choir, and I was astounded by the talent! Since then, we’ve been doing a bit of work with youngsters.” She is visibly excited about the artistes participating in Jackfruit 2023, which will be organised in association with the Indian Music Experience Museum and held in Bengaluru between September 12 and 17 at the museum and MLR Convention Centre at JP Nagar.Performers under the age of 17 from across the country are all set to showcase their work to young music aficionados in two stunning flagship showcase concerts conceptualised and directed by Mudgal along with her husband, distinguished tabla maestro Dr Aneesh Pradhan. Chotu Khan (Manganiyar), Rohan Das (Bengali Folk), Dnyaneshwari Ghadge (Hindustani Classical) and Rahul Vellal (Carnatic Classical) come together in ‘Singing into the Future’. Dr Pradhan’s ‘Kamaal Dhamaal’ promises a vibrant blend of folk and classical percussion, soulful vocals, melodic instruments and more. Expect to be enthralled by drums from Manipur, dhols, khartals, and dholkis from Rajasthan, ghumat and kansalem from Goa, halgi from Kolhapur, sambal, tuntuna and manjira from Ahmednagar, dhol and tasha from Pune, vocalists from West Bengal, and Carnatic percussion instruments and harmonium from Bengaluru, performed by 38 artistes, including some as young as seven. Tabla maestro Aneesh Pradhan (Photograph by Varsha Panwar) The young drum artistes from ManipurThe icing on the cake is workshops with some of the music world’s top names like Shantanu Moitra, Bickram Ghosh and Aruna Sairam. The festival, while emphasising the talent of the artistes, also encourages diversity, with many genres coming together, and opening with a special concert by M.D. Pallavi singing for children with intellectual disabilities plus a workshop by Ghatam maestro Giridhar Udupa.Throughout her career, Mudgal has been recognised as someone with high integrity who uses music as a channel for social change. “Honestly speaking, I have learnt from the many inspiring artistes from earlier generations whose lives and work spoke for their values. They set an example for subsequent generations by using their art to speak about social change and to share their convictions. I haven’t really done anything new. I also realise that while I have loved singing for many social causes that I have been associated with, there is a lot more that needs to go into bringing about social change. I mean, I have sung about women’s rights and dreams for decades.... Has it really made a change to the status of women in India? Is violence against women going down? And yet, as an artiste, I feel I must continue to sing about issues close to my heart,” Mudgal muses.Although she has a considerable body of work in khayal, thumri, dadra over the decades, most lay listeners in India still respond to ‘Ab Ke Sawan’, which released in 1999 and is aired on radio even today every time it rains somewhere in India! We ask Mudgal how she straddles the divide between pop and more traditional/folk/classical musical forms. “My involvement with khayal and thumri has been a sustained one, while I have only occasionally done popular music. The fact that some of the tracks I recorded decades ago still remain in circulation gives me great satisfaction. Almost on a daily basis, I am tagged on reels where people are dancing to my tracks. But that doesn’t stop me from getting back to my tanpuras every day. And I feel quite blessed that despite being a first-generation musician, I’m identified as a musician/singer by so many people.”When asked to share some vignettes from her life in Delhi, her riyaaz and other joys, she says, “Music is an essential part of my life every single day. I can’t and don’t want to do without it at all. I have an indefatigable appetite for music as a listener. I travel usually for work, but I also make frequent trips to my home in Uttarakhand, which is really relaxing. I am a fairly avid reader, an enthusiastic foodie with almost 32 sweet teeth, and I am a crochet and knitting junkie too. And, oh yes, one of my daily rituals is to make my fur babies Ringo and Nargis sing with me, for a heavy fee that they demandâæ namely, biscuits!”While she hasn’t yet thought about a follow-up to her sparkling collection of short stories Looking for Miss Sargam: Stories of Music and Misadventure (2019), she does write occasionally on music. Mudgal is clear in her focus: “For me, the future is always music, music and more music.”Edited By: Aditya Mohan WigPublished On: Sep 7, 2023Must Watch

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