MUMBAI: 'Raag Rang' is a series of Indian Classical Music Concerts and is being organised at India Habitat Centre every month. Recently the fourth evening of the series was held at Stein Auditorium at the India Habitat Centre. Organised by Spandan Communications in association with National Students Talent Association and artistebooking.com the evening had an audio-visual concert by vocalist Shri Pushkar Lele, showcasing the vast and varied musical contribution of Pandit Kumar Gandharva to the world of Hindustani Classical Music. The evening was organised to pay tribute to Kumar ji on the eve of his death anniversary.

On this occasion Oscar Fernandes, Avinash Pasricha, Ravi Gosain, Rashmi Malik (Director, Spic Macay), Ustad Rehmat Khan Langa, Ajay Prasanna, Vinay Mishra, Sanjit Kumar, Anshuman Pandey (Director, Spandan Communications), Manmeet Singh Rattan (artistbookings.com), Tejinder Pal Singh (National Students Talent Association), Deepak Gupta, Air Commodore A.K. Mehta (Chief Pattern, N.S.T.A) etc. were present there, while Anshuman Jain was the compere for the evening and Deep Singh Parihar read the script.

Pushkar Lele started the evening with a humble offering to his antarik Guru- Pandit Kumar Gandharva 'Kumar Gandharva Darshan'.

He performed and said an iconoclast, Kumar ji broke free from the shackles of gharana-s and developed a style of his own which was an amalgam of the most beautiful elements of North Indian Music. Some called him a rebel, some hailed him as a prodigy, but his music never failed to attract attention. A classicist, an innovator, a cerebral musician, Kumar Gandharva was a music impresario par excellence.

Sh. Lele said that it is my privilege to belong to the lineage of this great legendary singer having been learning from Pt. Vijay Sardesmukh and Pt. Satyasheel Deshpande, both being senior disciples of Kumarji.

This programme was a sincere effort of presenting what he was been able to understand, learn and assimilate about the musical ideology of Kumarji. It tries to give an overview of the vast musical contributions of Kumarji and includes traditional bandish-s sung by him, Kumarji's self composed bandish-s from Anoopraagvilaas, Thumri-Tappa-Tarana, compositions from Kumarji's thematic programmes on seasons namely Geet Vasant, Geet Varsha, Geet Hemant & Rituraaj Mehfil, Natyageet-s from Kumarji's Mala Umajalele Balgandharva, Marathi bhavgeet-s from Kumarji's programme Tambe Geet Rajani, and devotional compositions from Kumarji's thematic programmes namely Tulsidaas Darshan, Surdaas Darshan, Tukaraam Darshan, Triveni and Nirguni Bhajans not to mention folk songs from Malvaa ki Lokdhune.

This script-bound programme interspersed with audio-visual clippings of Kumarji (some from his childhood), interviews of his close associates and montages of some of his rare photographs.

Anshuman Pandey said, this programme is not an attempt to present the life history of Kumarji but focuses solely on his music and his thoughts related to music.