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COMMITTEd Mahalakshmi has a powerful voice

The young artiste has a lively captivating powerful voice that can effortlessly reach the desired pitches attuned to the shruthi. This performer who kept the audience transfixed had a methodical approach with a presentation that was far beyond her age and experience.

Consider “Lagi Mori” (Vilambit) and “Paayaliya Jhankar” (Drut) sung in Purya Dhanashri. Her magnetic voice rightly set off from the graha swara (mandra nishaada), progressively unravelling the salient features of the rag.

Only after sufficiently working on the poorvanga, she systematically stepped into the uttaranga extending the expatiation into the taara sthayi. In the transitional areas, she would give lift to the badhat by inserting short strains of sargams.

Nevertheless, if she had incorporated more attractive behlavas, murkis and the like into her exploration of the bandhish, it would have installed her extempore on a more creative pedestal.

Further, she could have resorted to vidyut taans after having sufficiently and aesthetically introduced the listeners to other varieties of taans in different speeds and amplitudes - a preferable artistic approach to embellishments. She sang with emotion and commitment “Giridhar” (Mira Bhajan), “Enendalenendalo” (Nadadi Keshava), “Devadeva” (Sudhindra Tirtha), and more. Veerabhadraiah Hiremath (harmonium) and Bhimashankar Bidnoor (tabala) provided scholarly support.

Archana Bennur the great great grand daughter of the luminary has now sung and recorded some of his compositions. R.V. Raghavendra (Ananya fame) released the CD; G.L.N. Ayya (President, Ganabharathi) presided over the function; R. Sathyanarayana (musicologist) was the chief guest.

In adoration, Archana presented a concert accompanied by Aditi Krishnaprasad (violin), G.S. Ramanujan (mridanga) and V.S. Ramesh (ghata).

Archana elaborated Anandabhairavi in a slow tempo, strengthening her scholarly articulations with deep graces. In “Rama Nannu Neranammi” of Veena Sheshanna, a feel of the composer’s creativity and exceptional competence instantly came to the fore. Yet a neraval and a few strains of kalpanaswaras would have rendered it more impressive.

Dikshitar’s “Shri Kanthimathim” (Hemavathi) and Veene Sheshanna’s “Shripathe Premamuga” (Ganamurthi), “Siriye” (Jinjhooti) and a tillana (Behag) were other inclusions.

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