A young whiz in concert
B.R.C. IYENGAR
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Anantharaman is talented, but should be sparingly praised.
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IN CONCERT Anantharaman exudes great poise.
Besides his astonishing ability, it was more a novelty of sorts that drove the packed Kalasagaram audience to harebrained euphoria and arousing infatuation on the occasion of the vocal concert of Master Anantharaman, who is just 14 years of age.
To do what he did in last week's performance, it is doubtless that one needs intuitive talent and a great gift, but the unabashed warning is, "early bloom, early fade."
There have been several instances where such kids and some even more talented have vanished like last year's clouds, as early as their 25th birthday, more so because, where there should be praise, there is unabashed pampering.
On the day, for instance, the innocent audience sent raptures of applause and exhilaration at whatever the kid did-good or not so good-and there was nothing but smile, emotion and even tears. The dynamic compulsion behind this is the singular phenomena. It may not be out of place to mention that such attitude on the part of the audience sometime sends out wrong signals to the young artiste and may even drive him to impudence and insolence.
This is only a caveat. Even more tragic is that in our world of art, a kid of such talent is passionately claimed by some leading singers as their disciple, as indeed it is the case with Anantharaman. It is very important that the artiste is not overexposed and it is the duty of every music lover to shelter this whiz kid.
Anatharaman has an immaculate sense of sruti; it is captivating and resilient when he stays at thara shadja but it is as frail when he reaches the mandra sthayi. This is a natural process of progress and he should be able to project it well soon. He has great poise and can daringly take up tough topics. While he renders the krithis precisely, his manodharam sangitha, the alapana in particular, needs proper design and approach in the sense that each raga has to be planned on its own merits; the yardstick cannot be uniformly same.
But the work he did on the occasion was nevertheless splendid although in limitation. Even so, his attempts in swarakalpana need discreet perspective, which can easily be won by listening to past masters and honing one's own skill.
Truly objective
The concert had a variety of songs and an array of thalas, which made the episode objective. Starting with a varnam in Kaanada, the artiste moved on to Sri Mahaganapthi in Gowla, which had its share of Swarakalpana followed up be a rare krithi, Manamukavalnnu of Muthiah Bhagavathar.
The song was rendered with all feeling. Hindola (Neerajakshi of Dikshithar) had a poor portrayal of the alapana.
The song has more attractive sangathis, which were missed on the occasion. Saranga thereafter was an ideal choice bringing out the marked difference in the melody.
Varali was brisk and the legendary krithi, Eti janmamidira was presented in the right Kalapramanam and rightly conveyed the composer's objective.
Thyagaraju who accompanied on the violin, is relatively older and is that much more mature; he cautiously reverted to sobriety whenever it was missing.
Burra Sriram is a frequent player on the mridangam in Kalasagaram programmes and has impressed to be the right accompanist for young artistes.
He does not interfere but lends a great helping hand in the overall construction and the format of the concert.
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