Enticing interpretations
LAKSHMI VENKATRAMAN
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Without frills and gimmicks, Bombay Jayashree kept the audience enthralled.
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BOMBAY JAYASHREE
Bombay Jayashree Ramnath's control over the main aspects of ragas and her intelligent and imaginative interpretation of them in her alapanas and swaraprastharas were enticing. She avoided unnecessary frills and gimmicks. The programme too was quite off the beaten track.
Right from the word go, Jayashree kept the audience enthralled. After "Sadasivakumara" in Suddha Saveri and Tiruppavai "Mayanai Mannum," the vintage favourite Harikambodi kriti "Entuku Nirdaya" made listeners sit up. An excellent exposition of Oormika preceded ``Entani Vina Vintuna."
If the raga delineation of Kanada came with depth, the swaras for "Sri Mathrubhoohtam" had some very attractive patterns. V.V.S. Murari ably supported her in her efforts.
MOHAN SANTHANAM
With proper time planning, Jayashree took up the main item — an RTP in Sriranjani set to Tisra Roopaka Tala in Misra Nadai. She took her time exploring the raga with effective voice modulation and came up with some unusual sancharas. The ragamalika was appealing in its swarakalpana.
An impressive tani was provided by B. Ganapathiraman on the mridangam and Tiruvananthapuram Rajagopal on the kanjira. All the three accompanists seemed happy to be part of the concert and offered excellent support to the main artiste. The concert ended with some evocative tukkadas including "Tiruppathimalaimele" in Yaman, the ragamalika piece "Devaki Kulakkozhundai" in Anandabhairavi, Vasantha, Suddhadanyasi and Neelambari, and the Sivaranjani tillana.
S. Srinivasan, known for his classical excellence, did not quite live up to his standard. Enthusiastic support on the mridangam by Trichur Narendran and on the ghatam by A.S. Murali did not do much to lift it. Beginning with "Siddhivinayakam" in Shanmukhapriya followed by a longish segment of swarams, he moved to "Smarane Onde" in Malayamarutham and "Poorayamamakam" in Bilahari, the delineation of which was decent. The alapana of Karaharapriya was reasonably good before the song "Janakipathe." "Sarasasaamadhana" preceded the alapana and tanam of Poorvikalyani. The song chosen in this raga was "Ninnuvina" with kalpanaswaras. The tani avartanam was pleasing.
Mohan Santhanam made a helpful gesture by not only mentioning the name of the Melaraga Nasikabhushani, which he elaborated in an impressive manner, and a rare Sankarabharana janya raga Sindhumandari, but also by singing their arohana-avarohana for the benefit of the audience. In the former he sang "Thandarul Aiyya" of Koteeswara Iyer. T.K. Padmanabhan on the violin also impressed with his alapana. Sindhumandari sounded somewhat similar to Kadhanakuthuhalam and the Patnam Subramania Iyer Kriti "Karuninchutaki" had lively chittaswaram, which would be very apt for instrumental music. The elaboration of Sankarabharanam by both Santhanam and the violinist was good. The main raga was Subhapantuvarali. The alapana was suitably plaintive and the Dikshitar kriti, "Sri Satyanarayanam," was rendered with some poignant touches followed by a spirited swaraprastharam. N. Subramaniam played a short tani. "Om Namo Narayana" and "Vallikkanavan Perai" seemed to make the audience happy.
Young Aishwarya Raghavan certainly showed promise, but she would do well to wait for a couple of years before climbing the dais. She was troubled by a bad throat in her early afternoon performance. Her expositions of Malayamarutham and the neraval and swaras for "Danyudevado" did not last more than two minutes each.
"Siva Siva" in Pantuvarali too had extremely brief swaras — were they really kalpana? The Anandabhairavi alapana preceding "Marivere" was passable. Violinist Karthick did a better job of this and the following Mohanam, which was the main item with raga alapana, the kriti being ``Mohana Rama." S.R. Ethirajan provided able mridangam support.
If amplification had cooperated a little more, T.V. Ramprasad's concert would have been more appealing, given that he has a booming voice. And will he kindly pay attention to lyrics?
After "Vallabhanayakasya" in Begada and "Varasikhi Vahana" in Supradeepam, the delineation of Danyasi by him and violinist Mysore Manjunath was good before the kriti "Meenalochana." "Varugalamo" was rendered with appealing fervour. The main raga alapana of Nattakurinji had a similar character. But a better modulation of the voice would have made it better. Manjunath's effort was impressive. The chosen song was Tyagaraja's "Manasuvishaya" . The mridangam and ghatam accompaniment by Srimushnam Raja Rao and V. Suresh was as supportive as ever.
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