Folk with a filmi twist
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Mahalinga and group offered an almost rustic folk music experience
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INTERESTING ATTEMPTS Mahalinga and group; (right) Mangalooru Anantharaman
Mahalinga and group treated the audience to folk music under the auspices of Bhasange Balaga in Mysore.
The artiste’s voice, having trained in Hindustani music, has markedly adapted to the subtleties of folk music, but better meets the requirements of sugama sangeetha. His voice is rich and capable of reaching high pitches with admirable consistency and timbre.
The style needed honing
In spite of the gifted talent and remarkable vocal inflections, the style needs meticulous honing, so that his voice can stand alone to meet the singing challenges without depending on any technical special effects.
This would also render the music more pleasing, and bring it into closer proximity with nature, as the art form of his choice would warrant.
After all, it is for their idyllic beauty, rustic punch, masculine grit and unstudied simplicity that folk songs are admired, and dilution in any form is not acceptable.
Most of the numbers he presented retained the original folk tunes, but were overshadowed by modern elements as well. The musical interludes had either popular Hindi or Kannada film song tangents.
Of the many, “Oththaaredhu” (lyrics by Sa. Jagannatha and music by Mysore Ananthaswamy), “Naayi Thanmelina Budhi” (H.S. Venkateshamuthy), and “Hyaanga Mareyalavva” exemplified his fine vocal inflections, emotive expressions, involvement and admirable flow.
A song on “Uththanahalli Maaramma”, “Muththu Bairavaswamy” (sung by Akshata Jadav), “Kallava Thaayi” (with wafts of pleasing melody) “Bidhuru Naanaarigalladhavalu” offered a rich folk experience.
“Ello Jogappa Ninnaramaane” and “Kodagana Koli Nungiththa” were other popular folk tunes, of course, wrapped in modern mantles.
Apart from Mahalinga, the ensemble comprised Anand and Akshatha Jadaav (singers), Purushotham (keyboard), Kiran (tabala) and Prasad (rhythm pad).
*** Mangalooru Anantharaman’s saxophone recital, sponsored by Nadabrahma Sangeetha Sabha in Mysore, only partly met the expected standards, despite his earnest efforts.
The melodic aspects unequivocally showed his control over blowing techniques and capabilities over dexterity. As a consequence, Thyagaraja’s two compositions “Jnanamosagaradha” (Purvikalyani-without any embellishments) and “Pakkala” (Kharaharapriya-with brief swarakalpana), though not elaborated to the extent one expected them to be, rose to reasonable heights.
This senior artiste could have easily overcome the negative factors, had he given due importance to rhythm in structuring the progressions and to imagination in elaborating the chosen numbers.
More imagination needed
A short alapana preceded “Paahi Jagajanani” (Vaachaspathi-Swathy Thirunal), but the lyrics went without any swarakalpana. Fertile areas, such as this, for exploring one’s artistry were thus ignored. The ragas and lyrics could have been instantly captured with reasonable imagination and planning.
Raga Mohana- thana and pallavi established the artiste’s commitment and artistry, but at the same time revealed discrepancies in uniformity in rhythm.
He was accompanied by R. Dhayakar (violin), Kumaraswamy (mridanga) and M.R. Manjunath (ghata).
V. NAGARAJ
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