Had Palghat Raghu been alive today, he would have been immensely pleased to see his two grandsons vie with each other for honours at the Brahma Gana Sabha on Friday, December 9. It was a vocal concert by Abhishek Raghuram accompanied on the mridangam by his cousin Anantha R. Krishnan.
B.U. Ganesh Prasad (violin) and K.V. Goplakrishnan (kanjira) were the other members of the team.
Abhishek is a supremely talented youngster with several aspects going right for him, good sruti-aligned voice with an amazing range that traverses the three octaves in a flash, a good grip over laya, good imagination, intelligence and reasonable bhava. His penchant for speed and for complex arithmetical combinations of swaras is understandable for a youngster. The audience enjoyed these aspects and applauded him generously.
The concert began with a short, telling sketch of Bhairavi (ata tala varnam). A brief essay of Arabhi was followed by Tsala kalla ladu with neraval and swaras at the charanam line.
The fast-paced swaras added verve to the piece though the finish could have been executed with greater impact.
A slightly ambiguous opening of Dhanyasi (more reminiscent of Atana), quickly made up with some good phrases and Papanasam Sivan's Balakrishnan was sung at a relaxed pace with good bhava. The sangati flourishes were interesting for a while and then gave the feeling of overdose.
Up to this point, the concert went well with a very favourable impression created in the minds of the listeners.
Abhishek then embarked upon Poorvikalyani, which turned out to be his Achilles' heel! He presented it more as a scale than as a raga, for, barring a few aesthetic phrases, it was an anaemic display of virtuosity.
The uneasy elongated stops at the dhaivata served to take the alapana further away from the ragaswarupa. Abundant virtuosity was no substitute for an insight into the raga.
Narayana Tirtha's composition was rendered well with extensive neraval and swaras at the anupallavi line. Swara-singing is certainly his forte and he did well in this song too.
The swara finale was followed by an impressive taniavartanam. Anantha revelled and KVG went along.
Gambiranattai for the ragam-tanam-pallavi suited Abhishek's style of alapana though stretching it resulted in the repetition of phrases. Tanam, while sung competently, lacked continuity. The pallavi was simple, slick and well executed.
Ganesh Prasad provided competent support, KVG utilised the few opportunities that came his way but Anantha ‘collaborated,' rather than accompanied.
The gifted cousins made a great pair on stage with Anantha contributing substantially to the tempo and the overall success of the concert.
Abhishek may have made a conscious choice to keep his music a shade ‘light' in order to reach a wider audience.
No problem about that. Only, he could be a bit more discreet in his choice of ragas for elaboration.
(T.T. Narendran is a professor in the Department of Management Studies at IIT Madras. He is also a vainika and a keen follower of Carnatic music.)
