R. Prasanna 's exceptional proficiency over the electric guitar overpowered his proclivity to present the serenity of classical Carnatic in its subtle form. In the modern parlance of phrase Prasanna simply rocked.
The concert was more velocity-driven and acceleration oriented in every possible manner. Speed seems to be the main focus of Prasanna's presentation than any other. It is true that Tyagaraja's Panacharatna kriti ‘Endaro Mahanubhavulu' in Sri Ragam raised many hopes about the ensuing concert as Prasanna effectively elicited many gamaka-oriented beauty of the composition. Alas, what followed was a boisterous instrumental extravaganza fully bolstered up by the rhythmic cheer leaders on mridangam (Prapancham Ravindran), ghatam (Vaikom Gopalakrishnan) and ganjira (Bangalore N. Amrit).
‘Parvati Pati' of Muthuswami Dikshitar in Hamasadhwani, ‘Parvati Nannu' in Kalkada by Syama Sastri, Hamsavinodini raga essay with ‘Charanam Bhava' by Narayana Tirtha, a totally baffling and abstract presentation of Prasanna's own concoction with a mind boggling medley of more than 33 ragas (he himself declared that!), ‘Marivere Dikkevvaru' in Lathangi of Patnam Subramanya Iyer and Tyagaraja's ‘Chakkani Raja' in Kharaharapriya with raga alapana were the items that came one after the other.
Almost every kriti barring one was affixed with incredibly lengthy swarakalpana to the loud overtures of the pakka vadyam. Normally, sruti bedam will be made just to give a glimpse of the raga that too in vocal to show their vocal versatility, bringing sruti bedam in instrument hardly carry any novelty and Prasanna indulged overtly in it by touching Sankarabharanam and Kalyani to the extent that the main Kharaharapriya seemed almost incidental.
It is superfluous to say that the supporting artists on the rhythmic side were having a ball. Fast rolling kritis with deluge of swarakalpanas at the slightest provocation extending beyond delectable levels sounded more exasperating than enlightening in the programme named ‘Oscar in Chennai.'
Inimitable style
The final day concert of Sudha Ragunathan was a colourful and vibrant one in her inimitable style. Sudha's strong points are her wide repertoire and extraordinary arithmetic acumen in swarakalpana. These two never fail in her concert even if it does not live up to the mark of her best one.
In this concert of ‘Serene and Sparkling Musical Tribute' Sudha amply justified both the adjectives. She had chosen a couple of strongly serene compositions and included many sparkling numbers in between.
The extra care she added to the stretched out kaarvais of Varali added serenity to the Syama Sastri's oeuvre ‘Karuna Joodavamma' while the varying patterns of well-knit swaras on the niraval line ‘Nee Padambujamu' came out quite radiantly. Later, the swara segments in the Vasudevachar's Nattakurunji kriti ‘Na Chei Vidavagura' and the chittaswaras and the kalpanaswaras carried full verve. The raga exposition of Nattakuranji was impressively drawn out as a prelude to the kriti. Nonetheless, a supple touch of her powerful voice mainly at the upper register extensions would have added greater poise to the raga essay.
To mark the twentieth anniversary of Hamsadhwani, Sudha had chosen and dedicated the 20th melakarta raga Natabhairavi as the main treatise. Papanasam Sivan's ‘Sri Valli Devasenapathey' with an interestingly cast swara suffix with shadjam as the landing note was another deposition of Sudha's musical dexterity.
The accompanying artists extended spirited support to Sudha's stimulating presentations. However, Raghavendra Rao's violin sounded more frantic in the raga essays than relaxed. Neyveli Skanda Subramaniam on the mridangam was his usual brisk self but R. Raman on the morsing sounded a tad loud. Perhaps, blame it on balancing!
Thanjavur Sankara Iyer's varnam ‘Mal Maruga' in Hindolam, ‘Charanu Janaka Kanaga' in Bilahari by Purandaradasa, ‘Rama Ramana' in Vasantha Bhairavi of
Tyagaraja, MLV's favourite ‘Yadava Raya' in Ragamalika were other zesty inclusions in Sudha's concert that kept the large audience in rapt attention till the end.
