It takes two for a classical tango
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Sriram Parasuram and Anooradha Sriram enthralled the audience with their renditions.
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Classic duo Sriram Parasuram and Anooradha Sriram strike a chord
The ambition of the well-known musician couple Sriram Parasuram and Anooradha Sriram is to give their audience a comparative picture of the styles and ragas in Carnatic and Hindustani styles of classical music. While Anooradha also happens to be a playback singer in South Indian cinema, Sriram was a child prodigy who grew up to be a great violinist in the Carnatic style and did research in the western too. A young scholar today, his voice has become so bold that, at times, it sounds as vigorous as that of Bade Ghulam Ali Khan. He gets lost at times in his birkas. Anooradha, on the other hand, is a mellifluous singer with a gifted voice that can scale to three octaves with comfort.
Perfect partners
Being good at both the styles, they developed such a method that they can move into opposite styles when required. While Anooradha sings in Hindustani, her husband takes up an equivalent raga in the Carnatic system and vice-versa. Or, they sing a Carnatic or a Hindustani composition together at times.
All this was seen when they performed a jugalbandi organised by Laya celebrating its second anniversary, at Thyagaraya Gana sabha last week.
Sriram began the show with the Alap of Ahir Bhairav. The vilambit phase revealed its beauty at various phases, on a wonderful sruthi base. Then he moved to Chakravakam, the corresponding Carnatic raga, and Anooradha picked up from him.
The significant difference in both styles is the rendition of the gamakas. They rendered Gajanana Yutam in Chakravakam with excellent swara structuring. Then they changed over to the Hindustani style again for the Khyal but stepped up tempo in Madhyalaya and drut phase in Teen Tal. As usual, the finishing speed was a thrill.
Aarabhi was the chosen raga as it is closely equivalent to Durga of Hindustani. Sriram and Anooradha, shared the rendition of the two ragas in both the styles. Sriram and Anooradha joined in presenting the famous Pancharatnakriti of Thyagaraja — Sadhinchene in Aarabhi. Bhavani in Madhya and Dhrut tempos, with Akaar Taans and Sargam, turned out to be a beauty.
Revathi and its Hindustani equivalent Byragi Bhairavi was their next choice. B.S. Narayan (violin), S. Arvind (mridangam), B. Kulkarni (harmonium) and Najmuddin Javed (tabla) were in the musical ensemble contributing to the overall appeal.
The noisy audience who became part of the jugalbandi in the most uncalled for fashion, in addition to the sultry atmosphere and uncooperative mike system, were certain things that did not go well with the concert.
Pleasant rendition
In another concert held last week, accomplished carnatic vocalist Devarakonda Vijayalakshmi gave a performance at Necklace Road, a fine venue offering a perfect ambience for a vocal recital of this standard. Vijayalakshmi is the disciple of nadaswara vidwan K. Veerabhadra Rao of Kakinada.
Gifted with a mellifluous voice, she was accompanied by Komanduri Venkata Krishna on violin and Sridharachari on ghatam. She opened her concert with Varavallabha Ramana in Hamsadhwani, as an invocation to lord Ganesh. Then she rendered Nenarunchinanu of Thyagaraja in Malavi.
The major raga of the evening from her was Hindolam. She evolved it well giving it comprehensive look. She rendered in this Samaja Vara Gamana also of Thyagaraja. It was a pleasant rendition and the kriti part had a fine swaraprasthara in the raga chain of Bilahari, Kaanada, Behag and Revathi .
The concert was followed by brief Kuchipudi dance by Sowmya and Kusuma. Ganesa Panchakam and a Javali-Sarasamuladetanduku in Kapi and Dasavathara Sabdam were impressively presented.
GUDIPOODI SRIHARI
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