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Ushering in a cheerful mood
STARTING HIS concert with a Tamil viruttam on Ganesha, T. V. Sankaranarayanan ushered in a cheerful mood to the evening. Accompanists V. V. Ravi on the violin, Srimushnam Raja Rao on the mridangam and Govindarajan on the ghatam also established complete rapport with him. Though he dealt with the nuances of Sankarabaranam in detail, wherein too he touched some harmonic chords of the major scale making the alapana attractive, what was more interesting was the manner he indulged in, in the elaborate delineation of Kamas and Vijayanagari, a Janya raga of Dharmavati. Though artistes sing kritis in these ragas, not many take up alapanas in them. Some rare sangatis found place in the Kamas alapana as well as the neraval of the kriti, "Brochevarevarura'' of Mysore Vasudevachar. Ravi too was in his element that evening and met the challenge well. He gave a good account of himself in sketching the ragas and the swaraprastharas.
Raja Rao seemed to enjoy the racy kalpanaswaras in interesting patterns for the Muthiah Bhagavatar kriti in Vijayanagari, "Vijayaambike,'' and the earlier Tyagaraja kriti, "Orajapujoo'' in Kannadagowla, leading him to offer an inspired accompaniment. The composition to follow Sankarabaranam was Tyagaraja's "Ethutanilachithe''.
Unusual swaras
Suguna Purushothaman too presented an enjoyable concert. She has the expertise to handle the elaboration of even rare ragas with élan, and one had the opportunity to listen to Bhavapriya, to be followed with "Srikanthane'' and Suddhasaveri in which she again sang a not-too-often-heard "Janani Pahi,'' a Navaratri kriti of Swati Tirunal with neraval. Both had interesting and unusual combinations of swaras in the kalpanaswara passages. Another rare song to come from Suguna was "Sudhamadurya Bhashana'' of Tyagaraja in Sindhuramakriya. An evocative "Venkatashaila'' in Hamirkalyani was followed by an elaboration of Chakravaka raga. Though violinist M. R. Gopinath was reasonably good in playing the ragas, he had difficulty in playing the tala in swarakalapanas, even when the eduppu was only on samam. One could not help remembering Suguna's guru Musiri Subramaniya Iyer, when she took up a detailed sketch of Bhairavi followed by "Neepadamule,'' with neraval of "Sri Panchanadeesda''.
Thanjavur Kumar on the mridangam and Ernakulam Ramakrishnan seemed to be content with a brief tani, though one must appreciate their understanding support through the concert. Several short pieces keeping with the devotional spirit of Margazhi also were presented. Of these, the ragamalika, "Govinda Hare'' could soon become popular.
LAKSHMI VENKATRAMAN
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