Precision goes hand in hand with feeling
GOWRI RAMNARAYAN
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Jayanthi performed without a trace of gimmickry.
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QUIET AND CLASSY: Jayanti Kumaresh. Photo: K. V. Srinivasan.
True, this is not the decade of instrumental music, not if it is the quiet classy kind. Yet, Jayanti Kumaresh had a reasonably good audience for her morning veena recital at the Narada Gana Sabha. She did not disappoint the listeners. She held their attention without gimmickry or clamour. The Khamas daru ("Maate") shimmered on the strings. To add interest it had a vocal rendering of the sahitya too.
You wondered why sweet-voiced Jayanti did not sing it herself, and other pieces too, in the old tradition of vainikas who sang as they played. Anandabhairavi was followed by "O Jagadamba." It was an example of how precision could go hand in hand with feeling. The raga lives in gamakas and hearing them on the veena gave them a special feel.
Our enjoyment was enhanced by the fact that the artiste brought them off without drawing attention to herself or her mastery of technique. Jayanti's use of the different strings added sunadam.
Sankarabharanam was impeccable, even a simple phrase like ni ri ga was enough to show its beauty. Swaras in the second speed were just right for the madhyamakala kriti "Alarulu." Rasali ("Aparadhamulanorva") was not just a contrast. She modulated its limited scale, especially in the faster swaras, with a teeming variety that gave an impression of fullness.
Dharmavati mingled the sportive and the serious, enriched by a suave tanam. The pallavi in mishra beats enthused sensitive accompanists P. Satheesh Kumar (mridangam) and Giridhar Udupa (ghatam) to participate fully. Patterns of rhythmic melody are her family heritage. On that day Jayanti also played sawal-jawab with mridangam and ghatam, though longish pauses made it less taut than it could have been. Ragamalika swaras in sarvalagu slots tumbled over each other in a cool flood.
The rounding off was aesthetically pleasing. However, nothing stood out memorably in the post-tani pieces, Kapi or Behag. They merely had the easy charm of her school.
With her first phrase the voice switched on a light that filled the hall. It was bright, clear, resonant, traversing highs and lows. S. Mahathi's choice of ragas was well suited to demonstrate her vocal strengths. Confidence personified in "Maate" (Khamas), ``Ni Bhakti Bhagyasudha" (Jayamanohari) or "Kalyanarama" (Hamsanadam), she soared effortlessly into upper madhyama or panchama. The voice could handle gamakas but the preference was for brikhas.
All these gifts ended in disappointment. The voltage fluctuations were far too many. Nor did the singer heed them in racing through her schedule, negligent of the sruti. This was more irksome in gamaka-demanding Sankarabharanam than in Hamsanadam or in the kriti in vivadi raga Mararanjani. The singer was adrift in a swara-based alapana which could neither shape the raga satisfactorily, nor find its soul. "Enduku Peddala'' could not come through with its weight, and the sheen imparted to it by the masters of the past.
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