Her voice is a blessing for Dikshita Venkatraman. It can take her places, provided she uses it judiciously. In her afternoon concert, after the Kedaragowla varnam, came ‘Sri Mahaganapathe’ in Abhogi for which she took up lively swarams at ‘Thamarasadalanetra.’
A few quick phrases of Pantuvarali formed a breezy entry for ‘Sundarataradeham’ of Tyagaraja. Niraval and swaram were taken up for ‘Ragadisamharam.’ Dikshita’s facility in singing kalpanaswaram was evident in this item as well as in the main raga Khambodi. A short impressive sketch of Mela raga Soolini preceded ‘Paramugam Eno’ of Koteeswara Iyer.
Dikshitar’s Kannadabangala kriti ‘Renukadevi’ came next and then a racy ‘Sivakamasundari’ in Jaganmohini. Khambodi was essayed at length its classical charm intact, but forays into lower octaves would have made it more balanced. In fact the whole concert would have been more balanced if she had sung one more raga alapana, other than Khambodi, perhaps Pantuvarali. The kriti in Khambodi was ‘Ratnakanchukadarini’ with niraval and swaram for the pallavi line itself.
The violin accompaniment of K.J. Dileep was not quite up to the mark, K.H. Vineet on the mridangam was reasonably good. He could have toned down a little during the thani. The final items were the Ragamalika song ‘Kannan Enradume’, ‘Kshanamaduna’ an Ashtapadi in Valaji and the Desh raga tillana.
