RASIKA FINE ARTS
Highly aesthetic
Maharajapuram Srinivasan.
Despite being endowed with a flexible, metallic voice and genes inherited from a great lineage, Maharajapuram Srinivasan could give a performance that was only just about okay. His concert showed a complete lack of manodharma, sounding only like a recording of his illustrious father. A son of a maestro starts with some disadvantages— apart from the burden of high expectations, the world knows the father well and any imitating will be instantly recognised. But even after giving allowances for this, Srinivasan's performance was not quite up to the mark.
The Maharajapuram school lays great emphasis on aesthetics. In Srinivasan's concert, what was missing in manodharma was made good in aesthetics. Obviously, Srinivasan has abundant capacity to sing, but perhaps what he requires is exposure to various schools of music. The main features were Kalyana Vasantham (`Sri Venkateswaram Bhajaami' of Dikshitar), Mohanam (`Yaen Palli Kondeerayya') and Thodi (`Sri Krishnam'). Only the Thodi piece was taken up for niraval and swaras, which were good, but not what one would expect of a Maharajapuram school.
Mispronunciation of Sanskrit words was another disturbing aspect. Furthermore, he kept forgetting the words every now and then and had to depend upon the co-singer (his son) for help. Until his thani, mridangist Umayalpuram Sivaraman appeared disinterested in the proceedings and showed no signs of his usual brilliance. Thani of course, was thrilling. Violinist Nagai Muralidharan showed class, rendering his raga essays in Maharajapuram style.
M. RAMESH
Printer friendly
page
Send this article to Friends by
E-Mail
Music Season
