A sea of talent
B.R.C. IYENGAR
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The annual Kalasagaram art fest was a showcase of young talent.
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Sushma Somasekharan
The Annual Youth Festival of Kalasagaram has brought to fore a host of promising and talented artistes. In the three-day programme conducted last week, Chandanbala Kalyan gave a vocal recital on the first day. The impressive part was her confidence in taking up the most elusive, tricky and thorny episodes and make them sound simple and yet melodious. With a wealthy and deferential voice, the charming axiom in her alapana and alluring songselection, the facet gave the concert a complete and captivating effect. The commencing ata thala varnam in Shankarabharanam promptly established her prowess both in terms of ease and precision. Gajananyutham in chakravakam even so, was a routine affair. The raga, varali sounded a wee bit excessive and the kalapramana of the krithi, sechachalanayam was rather pedantic. Annapurne in sama was sensitive. It was in the alapana of kamboji and the following song, eavari mata that Chandrabala came out with her flair and dexterity. The raga had the brilliance of expression and the krithi, a discipline of pure reason. The neraval was easygoing but the swaakalpana was annoyingly extended with routine calculated thirmanams, totally devoid of musical elation or delight. Chandanbala's father Dr. Nataraja Murthy on the violin was not quite in equation with his daughter, while D.S.R. Murthy on the mridangam was classic.
Sushma Somasekharan's vocal was an honest attempt to project the best in her. She has a reasonably good voice and equally good imagination. What she is handicapped with is the right padanrtharam. After all, she is still young and it is unfair to expect finesse. With good sruti sense and choice selection, she impressed the audience with traditional design and perfect balance. At such a stage, there is bound to be some amount of nervousness and Sushma did get over it. The best part of her performance was the raga alapana of bhairavi and the accompanying krithi, rakshabettare. With right kalapramana, and inspiring bhava, she carried the audience with her. It was equally striking in the item mayamma ani pilachithe in ahiri. Sada achaleswaram in bhupalam was yet another item which was attractive. What she has to improve upon is in her alapana episodes providing comprehensive and yet objective design.
The support on the violin by M.V.N. Prasad could have been better although Somayajulu did support and encourage the singer all the way. The final day's concert was a vocal recital by 16-year-old Bhavaraju Lakshmi Surya Teja from Vishakhapatnam. A kid of that age participating in a full-length concert is incredible. What she did in the two-hour concert was the best one could do.
She has the talent, a rich and pliable voice, courage and good imagination. Her confidence in developing the raga sahana, which included a rare krithi, nijamuga of Thyagaraja was not only practical but also logical. Thodi was well presented but the song koluvamaregada was a hurried effort.
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