Marathon effort
M. RAMESH
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The Malladi Brothers kept the audience riveted for over three hours.
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ENTERTAINING MUSIC: Malladi Brothers. Photo: R. Shivaji Rao.
When two-hour concerts have become the norm, the four-hour ones provide a welcome break. They, however, get curtailed to three-and-a-half-hour events because of trouble in setting up the audio system but this provides some relief to the vocal chords of singers.
In the first half-hour of the Malladi Brothers' concert for Mudhra, the mikes intermittently went off air. But the brothers provided entertaining music for the rest of the time. The only negative aspect was the concert was a shade lower in standard than their previous two concerts — at the Mylapore Fine Arts and the Indian Fine Arts.
Opening with the Kanada varnam ("Nera Nammitti"), Sriram Prasad and Ravi Kumar took up "Pahimam Sri Rajarajeswari" — Ramaswamy Sivan's composition in Janaranjini — which was presented without an alapana but with plenty of swaras in the pallavi. Then came Tyagaraja's "Undethi Ramudugadu" in Harikambodi . (Interestingly, Harikambodi and Subhapantuvarali seem to have become the ragas of the season.) Neraval and swaras were rendered with finesse at "Tamasadhi Guna Rahitudu."
It was time for the sub-main piece. Ravi Kumar took up Panthuvarali. His is a rich deep voice well suited for bass and brikhas, and Panthuvarali came out in its full splendour. Dikshitar's "Ramanatham Bhajeham" followed with neraval and swaras at "Kumara Guruguha Vinutham."
Sriram Prasad took the lead in swara singing and brought forth some very imaginative swaras indeed. Two fillers came after Panthuvarali. One was "Manavyala" in Nalinakanti. Interestingly, the opening line was rendered as "Manavi Yala," as it should be, perhaps. The Malladi Brothers' knowledge of Telugu helped. The next piece was Papanasanam Sivan's "Kumaran Tal Paninde Sthuthi" in Yadukula Kambodi, a lovely little song popularised by D.K. Jayaraman.
The main piece was Mohanam. It was a lengthy alapana, rendered by Sriram Prasad, at the end of which the singer's face broke into a wide grin of satisfaction. The satisfaction was justified. It was a good Mohanam. At this point, violinist Mysore Manjunath displayed his sense of humour by starting off with the opening lines of "Nannu Palimpa," "Ninnu Kori" and "Evaroo Ra" one after the other, causing a wave of giggles across the hall. He then presented a lovely Mohanam, which contrasted with his plebeian Panthuvarali.
Manjunath's Panthuvarali was delivered in a series of broken phrases, giving an impression that the whole apalana was rendered in tisra nadai notes.
Tyagaraja's "Mohanarama" was presented with some exhilarating sangatis, thanks for which are perhaps due to Malladi Brothers' guru, Nedunuri Krishnamurthy. Neraval and swaras came at the pallavi line and the tani that followed, by K.V. Prasad and Suresh, was highly professional.
"Thunga Teera Vilasam" and a piece in Pahadi were the other offerings at the concert.
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