A fusion affair
GUDIPOODI SRIHARI
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Anoorada and Sriram Parasuram blend Hindustani and Carnatic.
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LOVEABLE PAIR Sriram Parasuram and Anoorada.
Anoorada and Sriram Parasuram make a loveable pair of classical musicians, who tread altogether a different path expounding their multifarious talents. Sriram is well known as a violinist right from his young age. Now he adds to his repertoire Hindustani and western music systems too. Anoorada is a fine singer with a vocal compass and impressive diction, the traits that Sriram too has. Now that both are good at Hindustani system, they evolved a method of singing both in one stretch in Carnatic raga and then in its equivalent in Hindustani.
They chose compositions from both systems and make them into a garland. Sriram appears to have been concentrating more on blending both the styles into what can be called a total Indian music. He says that the skeleton is the same and the musical mass added to that is a bit different. All these aspects of their musical output was witnessed when they sang for a cause, taken up by Lions Club of Hyderabad Majestic, undertaking eye donation campaigns, adoption of schools for economically weak and then rehabilitation of street children. The concert was held at Ravindra Bharati.
It is a pity that Ravindra Bharati did not gain anything after repairs undertaken recently spending heavily on it. On the other hand it has lost previous comfort.
There is lot of echo now in the auditorium that affected the beauty of this concert. The front rows are so low that you will not be able to see the footwork of a dancer. Even the comfort in the seats that existed earlier is gone. Sriram often made request to adjust the mikes to suit his intonation and guided them how to do. One way this concert exposed the drawbacks of the renovated theatre.
The couple opened their show with Kalyani varnam in two speeds and then sang Yaman, in Hindustani style, equivalent to the Carntic kalyani. In Yaman they presented a chota Khayal in medium and high tempos - Madhya and Drut, adding high breeze swara-based akaras. The delineation of Revathi went to the share of Anoorada.
After a pleasing essay, she chose to sing Annamacharya's composition Naanati Bathuku Natakamu in this. She treated it as a main Carnatic piece of the concert. But looking at the philosophic content of the composition, one might feel that it does not suit that slot of a main piece. Yet the rendition by Anoorada was with feeling. This is one of great compositions of Annamacharya. Siram then sang Revathi's equivalent in Hindustani Bairagi Bhairav, with a small composition O Savaria in it. The piece is finished in high tempo.
Then came the Manohari piece, akin to Kamala Manohari. Both the artistes rendered it and the song they chose in it was Nee Muddu Momu of Thyagaraja.
Notable
This piece was particularly notable for the way the percussionists - D.S.R.Murthy on mridangam and Rajender on tabla went for an exciting Tani avartanam. Both displayed great understanding.
Then Sriram spoke of Rama Katha, rendered in various parts of the country in a ballad form.
As a sample he rendered the one rendered in Bengal by Kirthi Basu. This part narrated the joy of people of Ayodhya as they watch their Lord Srirama returning to his kingdom victoriously. This was set in raga Chandra Kauns.
The concert then concluded with a composition of Sant Kabir, the gist of which compares the journey of a bride taken in a palanquin in a procession to her in-law's place with the last journey of a soul to attain moksha.
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