It was a missed opportunity of sorts. Bombay Lakshmi Rajagopalan, the Carnatic vocalist recently performed at the Delhi Tamil Sangam in their monthly concert programme. She had considerable time at her disposal. Somehow, the vocalist failed to make use of this to provide a satisfying concert experience. Instead of balancing her rendition equally between the kalpita music (music as learnt) and kalpana music (creative music), the talented musician’s rendition was loaded with kalpita music. In her about two-hour long concert, only one composition came in for detailed rendition. Some contained virutams prefixed to the compositions. Certainly Lakshmi could have structured her concert in a better manner.
Lakshmi started her recital with the popular atta tala varnam “Viriboni”. She sang this in two speeds and in a delightful manner. The invocation song on Lord Ganesha was Papanasam Sivan’s “Gajvadana karuna sadana” in Sriranjani. She sang this song in an impressive manner. For another Sivan’s song “Paratpara Parameswara” in Vachaspati raga, Lakshmi took up neraval of a phrase along with Kalpanaswaras, which were indicative of her creative talent.
Lakshmi took up two more Tamil compositions, “Kapaali” in Mohanam (Papanasam Sivan) and “Enna Perumtavam” in Sahana (Periyasami Tooran) and sang these in a delightful manner. The main item of Lakshmi’s recital was again a composition of Sivan, “Saravanabhava Guhane” in Madhyamavati. In a detailed alapana, she brought to fore the features of the raga in a delightful manner. The neraval of the phrase “Annaiyodu tandhai nee vaazhvinil anitum nee yendru nambinene” and the subsequent kalpanaswaras flowed with rich creativity.
Delhi-based young Raghavendra Prasaath on the violin provided excellent support. His take on Madhyamavati raga was delightful. Besides, the matured manner in which he played the neraval and kalpanaswaras at various places indicated that yet another home grown, well groomed and dependable violinist has arrived. The other Delhi-based artistes Shankar Raman on the mridangam and M. Sriram on the ghatam provided their percussion support.
G. Ravikaran’s recital
In another jointly organised two-day event “Sri Muthuswami Dikshitar Day” by the Shanmukhananda Sangeetha Sabha and Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts, the Chennai-based vocalist G. Ravikiran performed both in a music concert as well as on a workshop on Dikshitar Krithis on two different days. One entered the hall a little late on the first day of the event. With so much information that this talented vocalist was churning out by in between the songs, one was at a loss to understand whether one was attending the music concert or the workshop, till such time when a music lover reminded the artiste that it was a music concert that he had looked forward to on that day. One also felt that by lecturing so much during his concert Ravikiran had denied himself the opportunity to take up more compositions of Muthuswami Dikshidar. Ravikiran sang “Kshetra Sree” in Dwijawanti to a riveting rhythm and took up “Sree Nadadi” in Mayamalavagowla and “Sadhasiva Upasmaye” in Shankarabharanam for detailed renditions and in a very impressive manner. Delhi R. Sridhar on the violin and Kumbakonam N. Padmanabhan provided excellent support.