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Cornucopia of phrases

Photo: V.Ganesan

Seetha Rajan

Seetha Rajan’s concert on Sunday last was as cool as the morning, when the sun played hide and seek even at 9 a.m. Sore throat troubled her in the mandhara stayi sancharas but the tara stayi found her traversing with ease.

‘Nada Thanumanisham’ was a faithful rendition, with a smooth flow of sarva laghu swaras. She took up niraval in ‘Kalamuna Sobhillu’ (‘Meru Samanamevaru’- Mayamalava gowlai – Adi - Tyagaraja) with a liberal dose of purposeful swaras. B. U. Ganesh Prasad followed her like a shadow and excelled equally in both segments.

With Patri Satish Kumar on the mridangam what more can you ask for? Adjusting himself to the main artist’s style, it was a deft and telling stroke play like tennis ace Ramanthan Krishnan’s. The myriad patterns he wove were a connoisseur’s delight. Anandabhairavi alapana (‘Marivere Gati Evvaramma’ – Mishram – Syama Sastri)) was replete with phrases soaked in true sampradaya. Ganesh Prasad’s assets — clean bowing and poise — made him noticeable in his replies.

‘Govardhana Gireesham’ (Hindolam – Adi - Dikshitar) was followed by a detailed essay of Kalyani. The cascade of phrases she unleashed in the upper octaves was impressive.

She adorned the powerful ‘Kamalamba’ navavarnam with a garland of swaras that exhibited the raga’s beauty sans arithmetic.

‘Aravinda Pada Malar’ was preceded by the sloka ‘Kasturi Tilakam’ in ragas Karaharpriya, Varali, Sahana and Kapi. The delineations of both Seetha Rajan and Ganesh bore the classical stamp.

Seetha Rajan’s concert was followed by Sangeethanjali by the students of P. S. Narayanaswamy. Group singing always brings out the best of a kriti’s bhavam. Bhakti flavour takes the front seat and group dynamics comes into play.

The result: rasikas are left in an exalted mood. All these were evident when the groups performed.

Ranjani-Gayathri, Amrutha Murali, Radha Parthasarathy, Swathi Srikrishna,Vasumathi Desikan, Bharathy Ramasubban, Mythreyi, Ramakrishnan, Balamuralikrishna, Madhavan, Abhishek Raghuram, Anirudh, Aditya Prakash, Akshay, M. R. Subramanian and Siddharth sang together ‘Intha Paraka,’ ‘Lokavana Chathura,’ ‘Srikanthaneeyada,’ ‘Neekaydaya,’ ‘Nama Kusuma’ and ‘Sapashya.’ Sangeethanjali was continued by disciples of V. Subramanian – the first half by female students and second by the males.

Maya, Chitra, Srinidhi, Savitha, Jyothi and Usha rendered ‘Brochevarevaray,’ ‘Suryamurthe,’ ‘Ardhnareeswaram,’ ‘Kripaya Palaya’ and ‘Appan Avadaritha,’ while Rajeev, Hariprasad, Shankar and Sashi teamed up with gusto to present ‘Maha Ganapathe,’ ‘Meenakshi maymudham,’ ‘Pahimam Sri Rajarajeswari’ and ‘Nama Kusuma.’

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