Pantula Rama @ Gayana Samaja, Sri Rama Lalitha Kala Mandira Annual Festival, 05 Jan 2020

Vocal : Vid Pantula Rama

Violin : H N Bhaskar

Mrudangam : Patri Satishkumar

Ganjira : B S Purushotham

List

01 vanajAkSi (varNam) –  hamsadhwani – Adi – Manambuchavadi Venkate Subbaiyer

02 vallabha nAyakasya – bEgaDa – rUpakam – Dikshitar ( S )

03 sogasujUDa taramA – kannaDagauLA – rUpakam – Thyagraja

04 sakala garaha bala nInE – aThANA – khaNDa chAp – Purandara Dasa ( A )

05 pAlintuvO pAlimpavO – kAntAmaNi – Adi – Thyagaraja ( A,S )

06 bhajarE rE mAnasa – AbhEri – Adi x 2 – Mysore Vasudevachar ( A,N,S )

neraval & swaras @ ‘rAjakumAram rAmam pavanajAtmam avanijA manOharam’

07 palukavEminA deivamu – pUrNacandrika – Adi – Thyagaraja

08 AragimpavE pAl AragimpavE – thODi – rUpakam – Tyagaraja ( A,N,S )

neraval & swaras @ ‘raghuvIra janajakAra pavitratamu venna’

09 RTP – kannaDA + kAnaDa – chaturashra tripuTa, mishra gati, 5 aksharam eDuppu

pallavi line ‘rAmA shrI rAmA kannaDa valadayyA(?) , inta parAkA naDaci vaci nannu brOvavayyA’

09b tani Avartanam

10 shLOkam ( hE gOpAla)

Ehi murArE kunja vihArE – yamunAkalyANi? – Adi – Jayadeva

11 tambUri mITi tava – sindhubhairavi – Adi – Purandara Dasa

12 thillAna ( tadhIm dhImta tara nom) –  parash – Adi – Patnam Subramanya Iyer

13 nI nAma rUpamulaku – saurAStram – Adi – Thyagaraja

She was the last minute replacement for Bombay Jayashri, who was supposed to start the month long festival of Sri Rama Lalitha Kala Mandira, yesterday at Gayana Samaja. This year, the usual two phase – one as sankranti festival at their own premise, and the Spring Fesitval in Feb at Gayana Samaja – are combined and will have a long season of music , by the Mandira. The line up of artists are also impressive.

Pantula Rama’s announcement prompted me to change my plans ( of skipping the day 1) and I made it to the samaja. The hall was full, the concert started promptly at 5:45, as the audio checks and corrections were done in advance. Concert progressed in an uncertain way, not in her usual confident way, until the aThAna kriti.

It was  with the kAntAmaNi, the whole scene changed. A profound alapana, though it kept us guessing,  beautiful presentation of the kriti followed with a stupendous kalpana swaras. Some of the laya variations during the swaras were super impressive. I still think, this has propped the concert up. A beautiful alapana of abhEri, and predictably Mysore Vasudevachar’s masterpiece came in. Tricky neraval, with some stretches around rAmam and rAjakumAram, elaborate, whilst technically brilliant.

Thodi alapana started well. Did not have those slow, deliberate short phrases which I like, but had a lot of fast paced vocal gyrations, which of course was good. She did a smooth grahabhedam to hindOlam( i think) and back. H N Bhaskar in his turn did a shift to mOhanam, but the return was a bit abrupt, lacked the smoothness. Expected a big one, but she decided on Aragimpave. Slightly shortish neraval, albeit done well. Very short rounds of swaras, done in the second speed, giving us the hint of a pallavi in the offing.

She announced a dwi-raga pallavi in kannada and kaanada. Good alapana done separately for both ragas, no intermixing of them as we see with TNS and others. Tanam was also largely done individually, but did have alternating phrases between the ragas towards the conclusion.  Pallavi line had the ragamudra incorporated for both. Overal a good pallavi, not a super duper one. The percussion champs did an energetic tani avartanam, as one would expect from them.

Short intermission, before she continued the concert with a chain of short pieces. The ashtapadi, woth the shloka preceded, stood out. Concert lasted 3hr 20 mins, and in all, I liked it.

 

Pantula Rama @ Indiranagar Sangeetha Sabha, 20th Apr 2019

Vocal : Pantula Rama

Violin : MSN Murthy

Mrudangam : V Krishna

Ghatam : Omkar Rao

List:

01 jalajAkSA ninnedabAsi ( varNam ) – hamsadhvani – Adi – Manampuchadi Venkatasubbaiyer

02 shrI mahAgaNapatiravatumAm – gauLA – mishra chAp – Dikshitar ( O, S )

03 gOvardhana girIsham smarAmi – hindOLam – rUpakam – Dikshitar ( A,N,S )

neraval & svara @ ‘gOvinda nAma sAram, gajEndra rakSaNa dhIram’

04 nIkELa dayarAdu – kadanakutUhalam – Adi – Mysore Vasudevachar ( A )

05 shashivadana bhatkajanAvana – candrajyOti – Adi – Thyagaraja ( A,S )

06 cakkani rAja mArgamu – kharaharapriya – Adi x 2 – Thyagaraja ( A,N,S,T )

neraval & svara @ ‘kaNTiki sundarataramaku rUpamE’

07 tambUri mITi tava – sindhubhairavi – Adi – Purandara Dasa ( O )

08 mariyAda teliyakanE (jAvaLi) – suruTTi – rUpakam – Patnam Subramanya Iyer

09 thillAna – dhanAshrI – Adi – Swathi Thirunal

10 nI nAma rUpamulaku – saurAStram – Adi – Thyagaraja

;——

*Another brilliant concert by Vid.Pantula Rama

*Despite a short 2:20hr concert, she packaged a wholesome concert, including  4 detailed alapana. There was always time for a pallavi, though.

*Surprising short alapana for kadanakutuhalam. The violin return from Murthy had a better appeal. Probably, this raga is better suited for instrumental, especially the alapana.

*A request for vivAdi raga and she sang a good candrajyoti followed by shashivadana. Very good.

*A beautiful hindolam, brilliant neraval and svaras. This was the best part of the concert for me.

*Kharaharapriya main and I was hoping that it shouldn’t be another pakkala nilabadi. Chakkani raja in it all grandeur. Impressive stuff, the kriti, neraval and swaras.

 

Pantula Rama @ Seshadripuram Rama Seva Samithi 05 Apr 2015

Vocal : Pantula Rama

Violin : M S N Murthy

Mrudangam : H S Sudheendra

Morsing : M Gururaj

List:

01. endu kaugilinturA – shuddha dEshi  –  Thyagaraja

02. E dAri sancarintu rA –  shruti ranjani – Thyagaraja  ( A,S )

03.  cEDE buddhimAnu rA – aThANa –  Thyagaraja ( S )

04.  p(r)akkAla nilabaDi – kharaharapriya – Thyagaraja ( A,N,S )

niraval & svara @ “tanuvucE vandana monarincucunnArA’  and ‘manasuna dalaci mE maraciyunnArA’

05  kOdanDarAmam anisham – kOkilAravam – Dikshitar

06.  RTP – bilahari – chaturashra tripuTa x 2 kaLai, 6 aksharam eDuppu

pallavi line ‘ shrI raghurAma cArutuLasidAma shRngAra rAma’

rAgamAlika swaras in sahAna & naLinakAnti

07.  tani Avartanam

08. shLOkam ( shrI rAma rAma rAmEti )- chenchurutti

rAma rAma rAma rAma rA rA sItArAma – chenchurutti – Thyagarana

09.  pUla pAnpu mIda bAga – Ahiri – Thyagaraja

10. nI nAma rUpamulaku – saurAshtram – Thyagaraja         ( all the charaNams )

Fabulous concert yesterday evening at the Seshadripuram Rama Seva Samith by Vid Pantula Rama. What a refreshing list of raga and compositions. Each selection and presentation were a gem and very unique. I always liked her concerts, in its overall preparation and presentations. Staying with the tradition, she offers so much freshness to the listeners on every occasion that I’ve listened to her. Yesterday was even better.

Concert started with a beautiful composition in shuddha deshi. Very mellifluous bringing the entire audience into the realm of a different world. Nice little rounds of svaras added to the beauty of the composition. Soon she started her first alapana of the day. The initial phrases reminded us of ‘KAntAmaNi’ but soon it was evident it is not as she moved to the next few phrases which had a nice folkish feeling to it. Having someone like Keerthi next to you make it easier for you to get the name ‘shruthi ranjani’. MSN Murthy repeated those moving ‘sancharas’ in his alapana as well. No surprises on the kriti as it probably was the only choice after that brilliant alapana. E dAri sancArintu rA was sung with the same rich emotive quotient as the lyrics was conveying. MSN Murthy was equally eloquent in his turn. The kalpana swara that followed was in keeping the same feel alive.

A quick fire aThANa came in like a machine gun fire with a similar top speed swara fireworks. The percussion team always like these fast tempo high octane singing. The overall decibel levels and speed went up many folds, but was enjoyable.

An elaborate alapana of kharaharapriya came in its full grandeur. The way it was build was evident that she is taking it up for main. A few return to the same phrase before building up from there was observed. It was an alapana of top class. Few choices for a submain flashed through mind as it was fairly early for the evening. She, of course, had other plans. P(r)akkala nilabadi was superbly sung. The syllable ‘r’ was very strong in her ‘prakkAla’. Most of the Chennai / Kerala based singers sing it as ‘pakkAla’, but I’ve seen many Andhra based artist do it as ‘prakkAla’. She sang neraval at ‘tanuvuche vandana’ and ‘manasuna dalaci’ alternately. So much of importance was given to the lyrical meaning and the way each words are pronounced in the early phases of the neraval, emphasizing on the meaning (which she later confirmed in a short remark). I heard her deliberating on ‘vandanamu manasuna’ a couple of times to some great effect. The second phase of the neraval was more traditional and structurally appealing. It was an outstanding niraval to sum it up. Kalpana swaras followed the same ‘two place’ approach , both at tanuvuche and manasuna. Very intelligently executed by both the vocalist as well as the violin accompaniment. The split swara continued to the till the end. Brilliant.

There was no tani avartanam and that meant she is going to sing a pallavi, which is what she announced. She sang another gem of kokilaravam kriti. The only composition which is not by Thyagaraja. I’ve heard this kriti from TNS and his disciples a number of times, but this sounded a bit different and in a more pleasing tempo. Probably, this might have minimal ‘kOkilapriya’ influence or vice versa.

Bilahari was the pallavi. Alapana was decent, nothing spectacular from either of them. Tanam was much better , the middle parts were very very good. Pallavi was set to Adi tala, no great shakes there either. I have a personal theory here on my preference. If the RTP is in any of the ‘non regular’ raga, I prefer the pallavi setting to be normal in tisra triputa or chaturashra triputa. However, if it is in any of the leading (! ) raga, I prefer some speciality in the pallavi setting. A bit of tala complexity, that showcase the skill/vidvat of the singer. Pallavi line was also just ok, she sang dhAma a few times ( or so I was hearing) and as dAma later part of the pallavi. There was ragamalika swaras but again noting great to talk about. Sudheendra and Gururaj played out a good tani avartanam. Sudheendra, especially was very good through out the evening though the overall amplification was slightly at a higher side ( not his alone ! )

Post main was again had some impressive selection. Most of them were new to me. The chenchurutti / jinjhoti kriti of Thyagaraja and a rare gem of ahiri divyanama kirtanam. Both were very very impressive. She concluded singing the mangalam in its entirety. I’ve not seen / heard any other artist apart from a few recordings of MDR, singing the mangalam in its completeness. Admirably, no one got up to leave until she completed all the charanams of the mangalam.

In all, a fabulous concert almost entirely of Thyagaraja kritis with some great selection of ragas and compositions.

 

Pantula Rama @ Gayana Samaja 27th Jan 2013

Vocal : Pantula Rama

Violin : M S N Murthy

Mrudangam : B R Srinivas

Ghatam : Raghavendra Prakash

List:

01  sarasijanAbha ( varNam) – kAmbOji – Swathi Thirunal

02  vallabha nAyakasya – bEgaDa -Dikshitar ( O,S)

03  ennaDu jUtunO – kalAvathi – Thyagaraja ( A,S )

04  nIkELa daya rADu – kadanakuthUhalam – Mysore Vasudevacharya ( A – short)

05  rangapura vihAra – brindAvana sAranga – Dikshitar ( A,N,S )

neraval & swara @ ‘ pAdapankajajita rAma raghurAma’

06  varAlaNDu kummani – gurjari – Thyagaraja

07  taLLi ninnu nera – kalyANi – Shyama Sastri ( A,tanam, N,S,T )

neraval & swara @ ‘ shyAma krishNa paripAlini shUlini’

08  bArayya ranga bArayya krishNa – kApi – Purandara Dasa ( A-short)

09 tambUri mIti tava – sindhubhairavi – Purandara Dasa ( A )

10  Ehi murArE kunja vihArE –  pahADi ?? – Jayadeva

11  dariSanamayunu – nAthanamakriya – Bhadrachala Ramadas

12  ni nama rUpa (mangaLam) – saurAshtram – Thyagaraja

What a pleasant concert it was. Beautifully orchestrated and delivered with pristine quality. Fair mix of raga and talas and nice way to finish. Smt Pantula Rama, whom I am attending a live concert for the first time, was very very impressive.

Is it the superb ‘kalavathi’ kriti with brilliant alapana and kalpana swara, or the melodious brindavana saranga that she sang, or the classy kalyani alapana, added with tanam that was the highlight of the evening, I cant be sure. Each was a treat by itself, not withstanding my (non)preference for Kalyani.

She started her concert on time, in front of a sparse crowd at the huge Gayana Samaja hall. Though few more people came in during the initial kritis, by and large the auditorium had many empty seats. These did not dither her from delivering a top class concert. The real turning point was the kalavathi alapana. We were discussing the other day about kalavathi and Naresh did mention that we should request Pantula Rama for this. Well, there was no need, as she sang a brilliant alapana, followed by another brilliance from the violin. Though it had us scratch our head for a while, we eventually narrowed down to ennadu jutuno and kalavathi. The kriti , I thought was sang a bit slow from the usual, and I liked it this way. Kalpana swara was equally good.

The short kadanakuthuhalam alap was very nice, and I liked the way MSN Murthy played the raga. A detailed brindavana saranga came soon, very well developed alapana by both vocal and violin artists. She explained the specialty of Dikshitar’s Brindavana saranga before the moving rangapura vihara. The neraval and swara was equally good.

Main, Kalyani alapana was done in two phases, as usually done in a pallavi. I thought it was done splendidly, the initial phrases and the second part of the alapana, was very good. Tanam was sung further giving hope for a pallavi, but she chose to sing Shyama Sastri’s Talli ninnu nera, instead. True to the main kriti of the concert, it had a detailed neraval and longish kalpana swaras. The percussion team, played to the spirit of the evening, was sublime in their support. The taniavartanam, continued in the same line without the usual high energy beating of the poor instrument. It was decent, but did not create any enthusiastic response.

Post main had a couple of nice little alapana, one for kapi and a sindhubhairavi, before the respective devarnamas. She also sang a kriti of Bhadrachala Ramadas, tuned by MSN Murthy before concluding the concert. Interestingly, she sang the entire charanam of the ‘nI nAma rUpamulaku’ , which I guess nobody venture to do, in their hurry to close the concert. That was nice and good to listen to the kriti in its fullness. Beautiful concert by the vidushi, on a Sunday evening.