Amruta Murali made a sedate start to her concert with a sloka in Sankarabharanam, followed by Tyagaraja’s ‘Swara Raga Sudharasayuta,’ an unusual start for others but her favourite opener! She included a less-heard charana and sang swaras for the pallavi line. She was caught between the compulsions of elaborate swaras that the song required and of the brevity that is generally expected of an opening song.
She sang Shanmukhapriya (‘Parama Purusha,’ Annamayya) with a good feel for the raga. She chose to sing niraval for the pallavi line, which seemed a bit crowded with words, restricting her scope for improvisation. Sahana (‘Raghupate’) suited her approach to raga alapana.
The opening phrase (dps) of the anupallavi sounded alien to Sahana; was it a case of art predating grammar? ‘Vara Narada’ served as a pace-maker before Amruta began her alapana of Khambodi (‘Kana Kann Kodi’). Her elaboration was aesthetically pleasing but her voice seems to lose power in the higher octave, marring the overall impact of the concert. Probably for want of time, she skipped the niraval for this song and went straight on to swaras, with the standard pattern of kuraippu and korvai followed by the tani avartanam.
Arjun Ganesh is a mridangam artist who is popular with several vocalists for his supportive accompaniment. He lived up to expectations, embellishing the proceedings with appropriate playing and a tani that sounded ‘optimal’ for the time-constraint!
Even a gentle tap from Guruprasad (ghatam) sounded pleasing in view of the alignment of the tanpura with the sruti of the ghatam. The mere contrast of sound every time he played for the violinist’s spell of niraval or swaras added beauty to the concert. He is one of the ghatam players who rises way above the “also ran” tag and contributes effectively to enhancing the overall impact of the concert.
NRI violinist Nishant Chandran retains his clarity in bowing and his sense of proportion. His overall approach to accompaniment shows a high sense of team-spirit; however, his alapanas were a queer mix of the profound and the profane. Is the reduced exposure to Carnatic music in an alien land to blame?
As for Amruta, she scores well on bhava and classicism but needs to work on imparting a little more power to her voice, especially in the higher octaves and on planning her concerts better.
