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TALENTED Nitin Rajaram’s scholarship surpassed his age and Anjana’s concert was a great pleasure to hear

In the present context, though the objective seemed to have given its due importance, the means to achieve it needed an approach from a different perspective. The young artiste’s scholarly accomplishments remarkably surpass what may be naturally expected of his age and experience. But at the same time when his great potentials are considered a few remarks seem to be admissible. He began with Purya Dhanashri discussing it from various angles –alap, vilambit, drut and drut tarana. Introductory pleasing alap ushered the listeners into a detailed exposition of the khyals. The artiste gave indications to suppose that he has admirably imbibed and inculcated characteristic styles and mannerisms of artistes of high repute in enriching his technical repertoire. This disposition to a certain extent appeared to interfere with profound involvement which was expected to emanate spontaneously from within.

Of the three-fold faculties and practical applications of vocal inflections - mechanical, melodic or emotional - ideally the artiste could have sufficiently supported the last two for a lasting impact. With noticeable ease he convincingly effects thaans, gamaks along with other subtle embellishments like meends (seemed to be exaggerated at times), sargams (though of short lengths) and so on. But, in the midst of the gushing expertise, young Nithin overlooked the importance of smooth soothing intonations in bringing about the much desired melodic ecstasy.

Similarly, he could have advantageously explored “Giridhar Gopal” (Bageshri) by pronounced emphasis on the import of the cheez, reinforced by more polished alankaranas to engender Bhakti. The accompanists were Shriram Bhat (harmonium) and Ramesh Dhannur (tabala).

N. Anjana’s concert indeed was a great pleasure to hear, for she sang with a voice bold, firm and pleasing. Further, the approach had an intrinsic element of innocence, fortified by confidence which when carried to professional heights will be exemplary. Moreover, a methodical approach in order to beautify the necessary ingredients at all levels keeping in mind the melodic aspects had a direct bearing on the lyrical significance. These qualities in addition to an unassuming style were sufficient to create subliminal experience.

Clarity in rendering the compositions was a great boon to the listeners. On this score it made no difference whether it was a varna (“Sarasuda”- Saveri - Kottavasal Venkatarama Iyer) or a krithi (for example, “Shankari Sadananda Lahari” - Sanskrit- Malawi- Jayachamaraja Wadiyar).

This very young artiste’s inherent faculties would see that a uniform rasa is made to flow through all the connected sequences - alapana, lyrics, neraval and swaraprasthara. This rendered each presentation on hand a continuous whole. Consider: “Balagopala” (Bhairavi) and “Vishalakshi” (Kamavardhini) both of Dikshitar.

Other similar ones were “Mahaganapathim” (Hamsadhwani - Mahavaidyanatha Iyer) and “Dristi Thakitho” (Desh - Shripadarayaru). She was accompanied by two more young artistes - Sughosh (violin) and Sanjay Tharanathan (mridanga).

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