Kedaragowla varnam set to Ata Tala marked the beginning of Sanjay Subrahmanyan's concert, followed by ‘Samageethapriyan’ in Gowla. The elaboration of Ritigowla had some flourishes; Varadarajan’s essay on the violin was standard fare. The chosen song was ‘Ragaratnamalikache’ with niraval at ‘Bhagavato;’ the swarams fell in place and the audience lapped it up, the rise in the decibel level notwithstanding.
‘Ennadu Jootuno’ in Kalavati which came after was pleasant. Amazing breath control was found in the alapana of Shankarabharanam. The essay brought out the majesty of the raga with all its contours.
Varadarajan revealed intelligence and azhuttam in his handling of the alapana. ‘Buddhiradu’ was rendered its beauty intact along with the kalpanaswaram. The Hindola raga elaboration was done with involvement and expansiveness and Varadarajan impressed again with imaginative sancharas.
An inspired rendering of the Taanam followed; the Pallavi ‘Anandanatanaprakasam Chitsabesam Asrayami’ was set to Adi Tala with eduppu after four counts and had a ragamalika of Anandabhairavi, Hamsanandi and Kedaram though the swarams were sung only in Hindolam. It was obvious that the percussion accompanists, Neyveli Venkatesh on the mridangam and Karthick on the ghatam, were enjoying their roles from the beginning and their Tani too displayed it.
Venkatesh made comforting tones by playing on the left side (idamthalai) and the nadai changes in the kuraippu was scintillating. A Tamil viruttam ‘Parinil uyarnda nilam’ was sung in a beautiful Ragamalika of Kambodhi, Dhanyasi, Sahana and Patdeep. A nationalistic song, ‘En Thai’ followed. Bharati’s ‘Kaninilam Vendum’ in ragamalika marked the finale.
