PRAVIN AJGAONKAR
The young boys of Dhadeshwar Aarti Mandal from Bhandarvada in Brittona have recently launched their album ‘Aarti Dhadeshwara’. The master of the group Durgakumar Navti talks to team TNV about their journey.
Q. How did your journey begin?
– The batch of students who I used to train earlier, participated in Ghumat aarti competitions throughout the state and had made their mark by winning most of the competitions. But after that, there was a huge gap and our students were drawn away from Ghumat aarti. During this time, one of our friends and well-wisher Krishna Naik alias Dai took the initiative and started gathering boys from our village belonging to the age group of 15 to 20 years to start a new group.
Q. How did the group get its name?
– The group is named Dhadeshwar Aarti Mandal, and Dhadeshwar is also the name of the deity of our village temple. We believe that the blessings of lord Dhadeshwar will always be with us and will enable us to continue to serve him through our aartis.
Q. How would you describe the current scenario of Ghumat aartis in Goa?
– Presently the scenario is very favourable in Goa. There are around 100 Ghumat aarti competitions being organised by various associations in a year, due to which many Ghumat aarti groups have been formed, who participate in these competitions. However, there are various forms or ways of singing aartis or playing Ghumat like Chandraval, Bhag etc. which have been lost as the time went by, due to lack of interest.
Q. Tell us more about your recently launched album ‘Aarti Dhadeshwara’
– There are eight aartis in this album, which I have written and composed as well. Our group has worked hard for 3 to 4 months to launch this album. There were various hardships and difficulties which came in our way when we planned to launch the album. The financial problem was a major hurdle that stood in the way. If one wants to launch a CD then it costs a minimum amount of Rs 2 lakh. During these difficult times, our friend Krishna Naik and Gajendra Rataboli who is a parent of one of our students, came forward and helped us with getting sponsorships and also advised us to make contributions as well.
Q. What kind of response are you expecting for your album?
– The album and the quality of the content inside it is of very good standard. Many senior artists and experts in this field whom we had approached have given good review about it. People who have already listened to this album have complimented us for being creative as all the songs are new and originally written and composed by us. The quality of sound in the CD is also very good, for which I have to give credit to the efforts of Daulat Palyekar and Bhavesh Fulari who have helped us with technical aspects.
Q. Is there any person you would like to thank or appreciate?
– There are many people who have helped us in our endeavours. First of all I would like to thank Krishna Naik alias Dai, who has been tremendously helping our group to participate in various aarti competitions throughout Goa, and he has also taken initiatives to organise various cultural events in our locality as well. Secondly, I would like to thank the president of Dhadweshwar Devasthan, Pandurang Pednekar who allowed us to use the temple premises for practices. And lastly, I would like to thank all my boys who have been working hard.
Album Aarti Dhadeshwar Production Team: Durgakumar Navti (Lyricist, Music Composer), Krishna Naik (Production Manager), Gajendra Rataboli (Concept Assistance), Samesh Pednekar (Management Assistant), Raghuveer Parsekar (Prime Vocal), Krishnanath Chari (Accordian Player), Virendra Tari (Prime Orchestra).
Lead Singers: Sainath Naik, Omkar Shirodkar, Venkatesh Polle.
Chorus: Aditya Rataboli, Rohit Halarnkar, Pankaj Pednekar, Manjunath Kavlekar, Adarsh Polle, Akshay Salgaonkar.
Ghumat: Kuldeepak Naik, Sunny Phayde, Harsh Rataboli, Kunal Chodankar, Gauresh Naik, Shubham Tamoskar.
Kasale: Utkarsh Naik, Aditya Achrekar. Samel: Sitam Phadte
