Richly gifted
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Vishnubhatla sisters are intense in action, open to every new idea and eager to learn.
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Vishnubhatla sisters
Chandrasekharendra Educational Society has the unique knack of finding talented but less exposed artistes in the field of Carnatic music. The duel vocal concert of Vishnubhatla sisters conducted by the Society last week was one such.
Hailing from Vijayawada, the sisters have proved to be richly gifted. Their voice is pleasing and blends with each other. Their energy is harnessed to reason, wedded to order and is in good taste.
If their youthful exuberance is commendable, it directly needs sagacious channelling. It is not their failure but the atrocious addiction to populist ideas of speed, exhibitionism, tasteless acquisitiveness for applause has overpowered the chastity of classicism and, the sisters are no exception.
Yet another deprecating feature is that manodharma sangitham has become kalpitha sangitham. For instance, it was sad to watch them reading out from slips of papers the koruvaius written down, while playing swarakalpana. This certainly is not manodharma sangitham.
In their discipline of alapana too, unbridled speed resulted with repetition of sangathis beyond prudence.
The concert started well with saveri varnam, rendered in different nadais and later switched on to vathapi ganapthim baje in Hamsadwani. The event was run of the mill with predictable sangathis and conventional swarakalpana. They struck gold, as it were, in rendering the krithi, Amba Nilambari in Nilambari. It was decently presented and honourably terminated. It was in the item gangadhara in Poorviukalyani that excellence and mediocrity played hide and seek. If the alapana was mediocre, the krithi was well presented. If the vyavaharam was good, the swarakalpana was uneven and even annoyingly dreary.
The feeling for form, precision and clarity for proportion and order — these are what the sisters need. They do have it in large measure; they need only to learn how to orient them. Durga Bhavai on the violin is a talented artist but in toeing the line of the main artistes, has not much choice. BVS Prasad on mridangam added thrill by his contribution in the form of sarwalaghu; it is however an easy matter to accompany for a madhyamakala (faster) format, as indeed it was on the day. Ramanamurthy on the ghatam was seldom heard as the microphone set for him did not work satisfactorily. All in all, the concert was good in part, although holistically it was far from being outstanding.
B.R.C.
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