Vocal : Manasi Prasad
Violin : Mathur Srinidhi
Mrudangam : N Vasudeva
Morsing : Bhagyalakshmi Krishna
Special thematic Concert “Rare Janaka Ragas of Popular Janya Ragas”
List:
01 SLOkam ( nA ham)..
muddumOmu ElAgu – sUryakAntam – Thyagaraja ( O )
02 rAmA nannu brOvarA – harikAmbOji – Thyagaraja ( N,S )
neraval & swara @’meppulakai kannatAvu nappu baDaga‘
03 EdayyA gati – chalanAta – Koteeswara Iyer ( A )
04 idi nIku nyAyamA – gamaNASramam – Mysore Vasudevacharya
05 srI vaLLi dEvasEnApatE – naTabhairavi – Papanasam Sivan ( A,N,S )
neraval & swara @ ‘ mAmava sadA SivakumArA’
06 RTP – dharmavati -khaNDa triputa x 2 kaLai , starting at +1/2 from samam.
pallavi line “vidhiyuvatE bhagavatE mahatE bhAratE, SAradE dharmavathE’
swara in dharmavathi, no rAgamAlika swaras.
06B. tani Avartanam
07. jAnE rO ( javaLi) – khamAs – ??
08 ugabhOga ( gOvindanA kaNDE) – hamsAnandi
kaNDEnA gOvindanA – hamsAnandi – Purandara Dasa
rang rang ro shAmji – hamsAnandi?- ?
09 thillAna ( tata dhIm tadhIm jhamta Namta tOm) – madhuvanti – Lalgudi Jayaraman
10 mangaLam – saurAshtram – Thyagaraja
Thematic concerts are where you get to listen to something new. They make the aritst to think differently, beyond the normal planning of a concert. Hence after a series of Keeravanis and Simhendramadhyamam, I was fairly confident that one of them will not feature today as the main. The theme is intersting, as she introduced this as “neglected parent of a famous child“. What I was inquisitive to see, was her choice of ragams for the theme. I was a bit worried when she picked up harikAmboji as one in the early stages. Agree, Kamboji and Khamas are prominent, but one get to listen to Hari kamboji in concert. But, it was ok, as the rest of them did justice to the scheme and theme.
Also, the concert did pick up steam after the harikamboji neraval and swara. There was some thing amiss in the overall listening ambiance. The sound system wasn’t all that clear. Vasudeva was subdued as one of the mike was picking up the vibration and causing al sort of discomfort with his left side. Every ‘beat’ on the left was overly echoing in the hall. Luckily, things settled after a few cushions and some shifting of the seating. The concert did move pretty well from there on.
First Alapana came in chalanata. Fairly decent affair by both vocalist and the violin. After hearing Sanjay sing a pallavi couple of years ago at Fort School, this is the first time I am listening to a detailed alapana, and it was good. Koteeswara Iyers kriti came in with style, and against my expectations, there was no kalpanaswaras. Vasudevachar’s gamanashrama kriti was next. Good choice, and I personally think this has larger scope of elaboration as there is a distinct flavour for this raga.
Natabhairavi was the main alapana of the day. Quoting Prof.SRJ’s remark of ‘regrettably neglected’ raga, she mentioned the famous MLV pallavi, which stood as a reference in Natabhairavi. On her part, Manasi Prasad gave a very good alapana of the raga and Srinidhi on his turn did another brilliant job lifting it up by a notch. Papanasam Sivan’s kriti with neraval and kalpana swara was top class.
A Pallavi was main in dharmavati. Neatly build up and progressed alapana with some exquisite phrases marked the evening, which superbly replicated by Srinidhi on violin. Despite a few repetitiveness, I thought she did a grand job. Pallavi was very good with well executed trikalam and swaras. However pallavi line was sung with some heavily accented diction I was confused if she is singing ‘vidhiyuvathi, bhagavathi’ or ‘ vidhiyuvathE bhagavatE’. There as no ragamalika swaras.
Post main she decided to pay respect to the janya ragas. A javali in khamas, a devarnama in hamsanandi before the Lalgudi thillana in madhuvanti ( the janaka of all three were performed in the main section) before the mangalam.
Overall, it was a very decent presentation. Her selection of kritis and composers were good. The measure was appropriate and the overall planning and control was amicable. The supporting artist joined in effectively. Vasudeva and Bhagyalakshmi were apt, and they played a nice tani avartanam. Very well planned and executed concert by Manasi Prasad.
Brain Drain 