The young vocalist’s concert at The Music Academy was, from start to end, good. While the ‘sub-main’ Pantuvarali and the central piece, Thodi, were enjoyable and had flashes of brilliance, it was in the Brindavana Saranga RTP that Sriram, also a well-known playback singer, established that he had earned the prime concert slot.
The opener was a varnam in Begada ‘Intha Chalamu’, followed by Tyagaraja’s ‘Meru Samana’ (Mayamalavagowla) and Dikshitar’s ‘Srivaralakshmi’ (Sri) —none of which was remarkable. Then came a long Pantuvarali alapana. Sriram deserves credit (which he ought to share with his guru Neyveli Santhanagopalan) for the karvai-based style alapana.
One would like to see more of this style today as ragas are built with the aid of runaway brigas, like a race horse galloping to the finish point.
The alapana stood out in his deep voice, but Tyagaraja’s ‘Raghuvara Nannu’ that followed could have been rendered at a faster tempo. Still it made for a nice listening. Then came the swaras, and it was apparent that Sriram belongs to a school that sets great store by rhythmic complexity and not aesthestic appeal. That the style was not much appreciated was evident by the muted applause.
Then came Thodi featuring a graham-bhedam into Mohanakalyani, and the alapana was followed by Dikshitar’s ‘Srikrishnam Bhaja Manasa’, with niraval at ‘Pankhajasanadi’.
Upto this point, the concert was just about good. It peaked at the Brindavana Saranga alapana and tanam. Delhi Sundararajan provided enthusiastic support on the violin. In the pallavi, ‘Rangam Srirangam Ranganathar Urangum Arangam’, and, while there were no major tala exercises, the kalpana swaras paved the way for several ragas — Saveri, Bagesri, Ahiri and Behag. Sriram ended the concert with Sadasiva Brahmendrar’s Ahir Bhairav masterpiece, ‘Pibare Rama Rasam’.
Vidwan Umayalpuram Sivaraman lived up to his reputation and played an effervescent thani, with sonorous chapus and gummikis.
Giridhar Udupa on the ghatam, played well but preferred, rightly, to let the mridangam maestro take centre stage.
M. R.
