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LESS GUARDED

A man sitting two seats away from me at Neyveli Santhanagopalan's concert was causing no dearth of amusement with his exuberance. He even identified aloud all the ragas in the ragamalika swaras that the singer rendered at the end of his pithy Ragam-Tanam-Pallavi in Kapi. The recital showed that Santhanagopalan's voice is regaining its lost fluency and we see him less guarded in using it.

He sang well-known kritis like "Yochana," "Hechariga" and "Ka Va Va" with his eyes closed, fully into the raga, and paying tribute to the composers. The main raga was Kiravani, followed by ``Vaananai," a song that perfectly matched the raga in its expansive treatment and high quality. I like his approach to the raga, serious, nothing out of place.

The tani usually signals a rustle as people get up and leave the hall. Not in this concert. Umayalpuram Sivaraman's mridangam kept everyone in their seat. Sunder Kumar's kanjira was bright.

Bala Ramaswamy,
Kodambakkam

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