Swaras in summer
VENKATESAN SRIKANTH
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C. Mahalakshmi gave a creditable Carnatic vocal recital in New Delhi the other day.
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MUSIC IN HER GENES: C. Mahalakshmi in concert.
Very few organisations in the Capital venture to arrange Carnatic music concerts in the summer months because of the heat wave conditions and because many rasikas go away on vacation. The disadvantages notwithstanding, Gayathri Fine Arts and Thala Bhakthi jointly organised a vocal concert by C. Mahalakshmi this past this week, in memory of the late N. Nataraja Iyer, who was an astrologer and musicologist. It was left to Mahalakshmi, a Delhi-based young artiste, to see that her concert turned out to be a pleasant one for the rasikas who had turned up, braving the heat. Creditably, she did live up to expectations in her two-hour, well structured recital.
Mahalakshmi began her concert with a neat presentation of the Adi tala varnam, "Innum Yen Manam", in the raga Charukesi. Apart from a fine presentation of Muthiah Bagavatar's composition, "Siddhi Vinayakam" in the raga Mohanakalyani, set to Adi tala, Mahalakshmi's swaraprasthara towards the end was rich in imagination and flowed with considerable ease. "Sobillu Sapthaswara", in the raga Jaganmohini, and "Sadha Madhindaladu", in the raga Ghambiravani, both compositions of Tyagaraja, were presented with respective raga bhavas flowing. Mahalakshmi's next presentation, "Durga Devi" in the raga Dharmavathi and set to tala Adi was marked by a scintillating alapana of the raga and a fine swaraprasthara.
Manodharma talents
The main song of her concert, "Chakani Raja", a composition of Tyagaraja, in the raga Kharaharapriya, set to tala Adi also underwent fine treatment. Earlier, she presented a fine alapana of the raga. Her manodharma talents were revealed in the niraval of the phrase, "Kantiki Sundara..." (the only niraval taken up in the entire concert) and subsequent swaraprasthara, which were creative and rich in imagination.
V.S.K. Chakrapani (Mahalakshmi's father) on the violin, and Kumbakonam N. Padmanabhan on the mridangam provided good and understanding accompaniment throughout.
In particular, while Chakrapani's delineation of the ragas Dharmavathi and Karaharapriya were good, Padmanabhan's tani avartanam in Adi tala had depth. Hailing from a musical family, Mahalakshmi is the great-granddaughter of the renowned violinist, the late Kumbakonam Rajamanikkam Pillai. Initially a disciple of Visalam Mani of Coimbatore, she is now under the tutelage of the Delhi-based Vasantha Sundaram.
Cell phone menace
A word of advice for rasikas, who are one of the four pillars of any concert structure - the other three being organisation, artistes and sponsors. While one tends to agree that in the age of communication and information technology it's important to be connected always, members of the audience need not show their importance by taking calls on the mobile phone and yelling in the auditorium while the concert is on. Another interesting `side show' during the recital was a rasika giving bouquets to the artistes while Mahalakshmi was presenting her alapana an exercise requiring her full concentration. Such deeds not only distract the artistes as well as other rasikas, they also simply smack of bad manners.
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