Young Ananya Ashok has migrated from the United States to pursue a career in Carnatic music. She gave a spirited performance, in spite of her voice, affected by the weather, played truant now and then. Ananya’s mandara and madhya sthayi were perfect. She managed very well in the tara sthayi as well. She planned her alapana in and around the lower and middle octaves for Dhanyasi.
Maturity in approach helped Ananya in treating the raga with merit, resulting in rakthi phrases emanating throughout. Aditi (violin) complimented the singer’s efforts with soothing replies. Sivan’s ‘Balakrishna Padamalar’ provided ample scope for young Sumesh Narayanan to display his rhythmic skills in his arudis and nadais.
Another striking factor was Ananya’s perfect sruthi alignment. Ananya has a tendency to give a nasal tremolo while executing elongated phrases which resembles another popular singer’s style. In her best interest, Ananya should consciously avoid such forays. Instead, she should develop a style that is her own. While ‘Ranganayakam’ (Nayaki) was executed with bhakti content, ‘Nenarunchinaanu’ (Malavi) set the mood for the rasika for Kalyani. The lingering sweetness of Kalyani surfaced with phrases built in and around panchamam and daivatam. It was further aided by good support from the violinist Aditi. Here, having made sure that her voice sounded fine, Ananya touched high notes in the tara sthayi with ease. Tyagaraja’s ‘Nidhi Chala Sukhama’ led to the tani where Sumesh Narayanan proved his mettle.
