Imagination is her forte
GARIMELLA SUBRAMANIAM
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The ability to develop alapana and neat kalpanaswara was the strength of Banu Kannan.
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PHOTO: K.N. MURALIDHARAN
FLUENT: Banu Kannan.
Few can dispute that Banu Kannan, who featured some rare compositions in her performance for the Music Connoisseurs' Club recently, possesses a strong voice, and in that respect, enjoys a clear edge over many contemporary vocalists. But there may have been some in the audience, like myself, who felt that she could have channelled her vocal energies more effectively.
The two exceptions to the predominant tendency to over-use ornamentation (gamakam) were Kannan's exposition of ragas Bilahari and Simhendramadhyamam. With the result, her delivery, beginning with the Adi tala varnam in ragam Hanumatodi, betrayed a sense of undue hurry than real command over speed. Kannan may have found her bearings if she had commenced her curtain-raiser piece in the madhyama rather than the dhurita kalam.
It is something of an unwritten code, influenced, at least partly I believe, by the fascination of instrumentalists and over-enthusiastic percussionists, that artistes give a racy treatment to Tyagaraja's ``Vararagalaya" and ``Nenarunchinanu." Kannan's approach to these two compositions was one of implicit faith in that method, where the opposite might have endeared her to the audience.
Core competence
Dikshitar's ``Sri Madhurapuri Viharini" in ragam Bilahari was the first of three not so common compositions that you hear in a kutcheri. Kannan's exposition was evidence that her core competence lies in her imagination to develop long alapanas and neat kalpanaswara.
The second rare composition was Koteeswara Iyer's ``Unnai Allal Vere Gati Undo" in Simhendramadhyamam. Kannan's fluency in the elaboration of the neraval and the interesting variations in laya in the kalpanaswara were enjoyable.
``Enna Kavi Padinalum Un Manam Irangavillai," a composition of Anayampatti Adiseshayyar was as rare a tail piece as ragam Neelamani in which it is set to tune. The song remains a lingering memory and that is entirely to the credit of Kannan's spirited singing.
Violinist Kallidaikuruchi Balakrishnan, his accompanists Shertalai B. Ananthakrishnan and Harisundar, on the mridangam and the ghatam respectively, contributed to a pleasant listening experience. At times though, one was reminded of veteran vidwvan Vellore Ramabadran's pithy observation: the mridangam should not be beaten (`adikkakoodadhu"), it should be played (``vasikkanum.")
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