Rasika Ranjani Sabha, Chennai, celebrates a series of lectures and concerts as ‘Thamizh Isai Saral,’ continuously for three weekends at their newly constructed auditorium, covering a vast range of Tamil composers from the Second century to 20th century. An ambitious and commendable effort, indeed!
The concert under review is that of R. Suryaprakash, who presented the compositions of Sirkazhi Moovar, namely Arunchala Kavi, Muthuthandavar and Marimutha Pillai. It is not that their compositions do not find place in popular concerts. The idea was to highlight some of their lesser-known verses and songs. The talk by S. Rajeswari overshot the time and the concert of Suryaprakash, slated for 7 p.m., could start only by 7.30.
Pristine Thodi
Suryaprakash’s masterpiece item on that day was a pristine Thodi and Marimutha Pillai’s song, ‘Enneramum oru kalaithooki kondu.’ The raga alapana brought out the essence of Thodi with substantial musical diligence. The kriti was a vilambita kala one and therefore the artiste straightway went for swaraprastara on ‘Ponnadar potrum thollai.’ The quick swirls of swaras converged on shadjam to touch the finale.
Arunachala Kavi’s ‘Thunai vandarulvai Anumantha’ in Hamsadhwani was the start up with a few swara strands. Gnanasambandar’s poignant ‘Kaadhalagi kasindhu kanneer malgi’ was a prelude to Muthuthandavar’s kriti ‘Easene koti soorya’ in Pantuvarali. Suryaprakash embellished the line ‘Kanakasabhai’ with several rounds of swaras. The Arabhi raga alapana was followed by Marimutha Pillai’s ‘Orukkal sivachidambaram.’ Subdued raga vinyasa of Asaveri was aptly appended with ‘Saranam saranam Raghurama’ by Arunachala Kavi. Zesty ‘Sevikkavendum Ayya’ in Andolika of Muthuthandavar came as an energiser to the audience after those slow and unhurried offerings.
Suryaprakash is an organised vocalist with a clear voice sans any special glamour to enchant. Nevertheless, the candour and strict adherence to classicism are his fundamental and favourable points. B.U. Ganesh Prasad on the violin kept his cool and his responses in Andolika and Thodi were quite intelligent. Melakkaveri Balaji and A.S. Krishnan on mridangam and morsing respectively, added dignified rhythm with special punches at the right junctures to the concert.
