""Shashwati mandal paul

'​

​Born in a family with a musical tradition, Shashwati started learning music at a very tender age. She is the grand-daughter of Pt. Balabhau Umdekar a court musician of the Gwalior State and an accomplished singer of the Gwalior Gharana. Initially Shashwati was trained by her mother Smt. Kamal Mandal and by her uncle Shriram Umdekar a well known sitarist . And later she was trained under the vetran singer Pt. Balasaheb Poonchwale to master the nuances of Khayal and Tappa.

Today she is one of the rare young generation artistes who have a good command of the subtle complexities of tappa. She also  received training from Pt. Madhup Mudgal and Smt Purnima Choudary. It is to the Gundecha brothers that Shashwati turned for a brief period to learn the durphad tradition,infact from which the gwalior khayal gayaki evolved. Shashwati has performed at several prestigious music platforms and has been widely praised by critics and common listeners. An 'A' grade artist of A.I.R. and Doordarshan She is recipient of the tiltle Sur mani awarded by Sur Singar Mumbai and the Mani Mann fellowship awarded by Sanskriti foundation New Delhi. She is the empanelled artist in hindustani vocals at ICCR and was nominated to the top ten of the world songlines award by songlines magazine for her album 'Tappa Journey '

Shashwati has a seasoned and steady voice with good flexibility for a form like Tappa. Her exposition of the Khayal is chaste and pure. She enhances her singing with a numbe of musicial ornaments and variety of taan patterns. The power and resonance of Shashwati's voice ,the intensity of notes that flow in the form of thunderous taans, the gamaks kampita andolans and the scintillating

murkis lend a rare beauty especially to her tappa, the dancing quality of her pronounced  notes, every aspect contributes to a dynamic whole meditative genuine and soul filling.