A rewarding fare
Sadly, none of the achievements of the Delhi awardees was read out at the ceremony.
Photo: M. Karunakaran
Bombay Jaishri Ramnath
It's an annual festival that enlivens Delhi's Carnatic music and dance scene. One of the highlights of the Thyagaraja Music and Dance Festival organised by Sree Shanmukhananda Sangeetha Sabha was the colourful concert of Bombay Jaishri Ramnath.
Her opening song, Dikshitar's "Sri Varalakshmi" in Shri raga was marked with crisp and melodious swaraprastaras. This was followed by Swati Tirunal's "Deva Deva Jagadeeswara" in the raga Poorvikalyani. She followed it up with a scintillating alap of Malayamarutam, prefixed to "Hanumane Swamikkindha" of Arunachala Kavi, adding a lively swaraprastara.
While presenting Dikshitar's slow tempo "Amba Nilayatakshi", in the raga Neelambari, Jaishri brought the raga bhava as well as the sahitya bhava to the fore. She also excelled while presenting the main item, Tyagaraja's "Katthanuvariki" in the raga Todi, which was marked by a comprehensive delineation of the raga, niraval and swaraprastaras rich in creativity. Similarly, in the ragam-taanam-pallavi session, she revelled in manodharma while singing the pallavi "Sri Lalithemampahi Sri the pathithapavani papa samanee" in the raga Natakuranji, set to Mishra Jati Triputa tala with ragamalika swaraprastara in Sunadavinodini, Vaasanti and Ranjani.
In another concert, T.M. Krishna captivated listeners' hearts with a good variety of items. He began with an Adi tala varnam in the raga Sahana, which had considerable depth. His rendering of Dikshitar's "Ananda Natana" in raga Kedaram, with the niraval of the phrase "Sangeeta vadya vinoda tandava jala" and swaraprastara was heart-warming. In Shyama Sastri's "O Jagadamba" in Ananda Bhairavi, Krishna portrayed the raga as well as the sahitya bhava very well. In the alap, the emotions associated with the raga flowed in abundance. Tyagaraja's "Nadopasana" in Begada was handled similarly, the niraval of the phrase "Tanthri laya swara ragavilolu", undergoing fine treatment.
Even in the not-so-elaborate ragam-taanam-pallavi, Krishna excelled. He presented the pallavi "Brahmmai vaham kila sa guru kripa" in the raga Varali, set to Chaturasra Jati Rupaka tala. He followed it with rich ragamalika swaraprastara in Kamboji, Sama and Kapi.
B.U. Ganesh Prasad on the violin, Manoj Siva on the mridangam and Trivandrum Rajagopal on the kanjira ably supported the soloists in both the concerts. Ganesh Prasad, apart from rising to expectations, made good use of the opportunity to display his talents - whether it was delineating a raga, handling niraval, swaraprastara or rendering the taanam or pallavi. In particular, his alapana of Todi, Ananda Bhairavi and Begada and his swaraprastaras in Sunadavinodini, Vaasanti and Kapi displayed a fine imagination. Manoj Siva and Rajagopal provided understanding support, though they were a little subdued while providing support to Jaishri due to the poor microphone system.
The list of awards of the Sabha this year includes a newly instituted Delhi Yuva Kalakar award, which was given away to O.S. Sudha, K.N. Padmanabhan and G. Raghuraman. Sadly, while a big list of achievements and contributions of each of the other awardees was read out at the presentation ceremony, none of the achievements or contributions of these Delhi awardees was read out. Even the citation was not read out in their case.
VENKATESAN SRIKANTH
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