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Festive melodies
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The Dasara concerts in Mysore didn’t quite live up to the hype
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ASSERTIVE Kalapini Komkali’s style is marked with clarity
Mysore Dasara Festival 2007 entertained the audience at various vantage areas of the city. As many of the concerts suffered with a lack of spontaneity and artistry, it was obvious that they did not suit the much-hyped prestigious occasion.
Janani Murali presented Bharatanatya (Jaganmohana Palace) accompanied by Padma Murali (nattuvanga), Ramesh (vocal), Narasimha Murthy (flute) and Janardhan (mridanga).
Janani is gentle in her style, but the movements need consistent vivacity and stability. Mild disposition has rendered the abhinaya sections relatively more appealing, but the approach needed better involvement in order to be convincing.
Consider the Varna “Konjum Salangai” (Lathangi - Madurai N. Muralidharan) for a brief annotation. The vinyasas should have been fully drawn, complete, swift and graceful, and the mukthayi adavus more professional. She could have efficiently framed the adavus to cover the stage adequately.
Anuradha Dwarakanath presented Bharathanatya (Jaganmohana Palace) accompanied by Revathi Narasimhan (nattuvanga), Bharathi Venugopal (vocal), Viveka Krishna (flute) and Gurumurthy (mridanga).
Her movements were crisp but lacked fluency. A pronounced lalithya would have made it pleasing. For the above reason, “Kande Karunanidhiya” (Purandaradasa) thrived on few movements of thandava.
A profound involvement would have carried “Jagadoddharana” (Purandaradasa) to the expected level. The singer wrongly split the lyrics (vishlista) undermining the general import.
R.K. Raghavan’s veena concert, accompanied by Kumara Swamy (mridanga) and Chandrashekhar (ghata) at Rajendra Bhavana, reflected the Mysore bani of his Guru the luminary R.S. Keshava Murthy (Veena Subbanna lineage). Focusing on Simhendra Madhyama (“Kamakshi” - Muthuswami Dikshitar) and Kalyani (“Shive Pahimam” – Thyagaraja), the artiste imaginatively delineated the ragas, the lyrics and the kalpanaswaras. He liberally and appropriately employed kampita, jaaru and vali gamakas to portray the majesty of the ragas.
Yet, the overall style inclined towards a display of special effects, and in this sense, a gentler approach would have brought out more fluency and melody.
Other important inclusions were “Sarasiruhasana Priye” (Naata - Puliyur Doreswamy Iyer), “Bhuri Bhagya Lahari” (Prathapavarali – Jayachamaraja Wadiyar) and a tillana (Behag - Veene Sheshanna).
Saptaswara Balaga and Department of Kannada and Culture had jointly organised Hindustani vocal concert by Kalapini Komkali. Kalapini sings with a khuli awaaz: quite resilient and assertive but stentorian at higher octaves. Her style has all the clarity while expanding the lyrics, and is more so while rendering bhajans.
She started with vilambit bandhish “Bolana Lagi” in Shuddha Kalyaan. She laid stress on the rhythm patterns than either on the melodic aspects of the rag or on the emotional content of the lyrics. Under such circumstances, the rhythm (tabla by Ravindra Yavagal) thrived well: the interlude beat phrases and thihais took up the lead in adding lustre to the cheez.
Soft vocal inflections and deep taans would have improved the whole picture by imparting lalithya and depth respectively to her style. Such observations gained further support in the drut sections too.
She presented “Deep Ki Joth” (Dhan-Basant- Kumara Gandharva) and two other bhajans on similar lines. Vyasamurthy Katti provided apt support on the harmonium.
V. NAGARAJ
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Friday Review
Bangalore
Chennai and Tamil Nadu
Delhi
Hyderabad
Thiruvananthapuram
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