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Music Season
MUSIC ACADEMY
With a few rough edges
KRIPA SUBRAHMANIAM
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Subashree Ramachandran seemed to be in a tearing hurry; the Sattur style came alive in the recital of Bhuvana and Lalitha.
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Photos: V. Ganesan
Devoid of gimmicks: Sattur Sisters.
Subashree Ramachandran’s concert got flagged off with ‘Evari Boda’ Varnam of Patnam Subramania Iyer in Raga Abhogi, Adi Thalam. The next song was on Lord Ganapathi by Sri Ganapathi Sachidananda Swami in raga Hamsadhwani followed by swaram. While rendering the swarams, sruti was a little tentative.
A well-aligned voice with sruti will score more points for the artiste. Only relentless sadhakam will ensure this. There was a tremor in her voice, which lacked grip. Lathangi is a difficult raga in the sense that it can stray into Kalyani if the basics are not in place. In the upper octaves of Lathangi, the brigas were good bringing out the raga bhava.
The Karnaranjani piece of Ambujam Krishna, ‘Om Namo Narayana’ tuned by Charumathi Ramachandran fell on the ears pleasantly. There was a short spell of Malavi which turned out to be a very fine effort by the artiste. The kriti was ‘Marivere’ of GNB in Adi talam. Next Subahshri moved to the main raga, Khambodi in which ‘Evari Mata’ was rendered with niraval and swaram.
The Khambodi delineation was mediocre and ‘Evari Mata’s beauty did not come through effectively. While rendering a kriti the mandatory singing of every sangati twice gives the listener a chance to savour a kriti better rather than going through mechanically. The desired impact of the good kriti rendition was thus lost.
Subashree Ramachandran.
For Tukada , Subashree took up ‘Krishna Nee Begane’ in Yamuna Kalyani, an Ashtapathi verse in Kapi, ‘Bharo Krishnaiya’ a ragamalika and ended the concert with a slokam from Narayaneeyam in Sindhu Bhairavi.
Subasree gave an impression that she was in a tearing hurry with the result the Sowkyam element was missing. Akkarai Swarnalatha on the violin did not give out her usual best and perhaps this was due to the total hurried mode of the concert. Akshay Ananthapadmanabhan’s mridangam was not a great aid to the concert.
Sattur Sisters, Bhuvana Rajagopalan and Lalitha Santhanam commenced their concert with a lilting ‘Mathey’ in Khamas set to Adi Thalam. Later they proceeded to sing a Navagraha kriti, ‘Suryamurthe’ (Muthuswamy Dikshitar, Sourashtram), apt for a Sunday. Syama Sastri’s ‘Para Kela’ in Kedara Gowla , Adi Thalam had the stamp of Sattur style and it evoked memories of Sattur Subramani Iyer.
The Bushavali kirtana, ‘Gopanandana’ in Adi Thalam by Swati Tirunal is normally a peppy song but the presentation did not live up to that. Next came ‘Pakkala Nelabadi’ (Tyagaraja) in Kharaharapriya, Misra Chapu and had the innate characteristics of this raga in full measure. Their Akaara rendition made it all the more pleasing. Devoid of gimmicks this song came out in Sattur style. Niraval was done at Manasuna and the Kuraippu swarams were executed.
‘Kumaran thaal’ in Yadukula Khambodi by Sivan made one sit up, for till then the kutcheri lacked lustre. Lathangi was handled by the sisters competently, the raga exuding dignity as it followed the natural progression. Later Thanam was taken up. The Pallavi ‘Raja Mathangi Lathangi’ was sung as a ragamalika, comprising Revati, Ranjani, Vaasanthi and Bagyeshree. It was a double Nadai Pallavi. The first half had Tisra Nadai and the second half had Khanta Nadai. The pallavi rendition was neat and flawless.
On the whole, the concert exhibited their sincerity of purpose and they upheld their concert responsibility to a great extent. The advantage of the duo singing should have been exploited better. In the Ragam-Thanam-Pallavi section, the niraval was taken up for all the ragas and this could have been avoided since it cut into the time of the Thani of the mridangam. Their execution of kalpanaswaram in the ragamalika was a treat.
The time management and the Tukkada rendition naturally suffered. Sattur sisters’ vidwat came out amply, but for a concert to succeed one needs a well- planned combination of ragas and thalas with appropriate kalapramana. Violinist Kalyani Shankar supported them ably but needs to take care of her Sruti component a little better. Erode Nagarajan played on the mridangam unobtrusively.
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