With her smooth voice and reposeful presentation, Mala Ramadorai transported the small group of listeners to the quiet and serene realms of Hindustani classical music at Bharat Kalachar . She partitioned her concert duration in such a manner, that the first half was saturated mainly with the classical sojourns of Hindustani music and the second half went in favour of small and catchy pieces.
Ahir Bhairav with its strong but sensitively elegant and long phrases started creating a web of sweet quietude around. Mala progressed with many ponderous moves, silken glides with her voice fully in control, feeling and fetching the emotional tones of the raga. The lower and middle segments led the singer to render the vilambit laya ek taal bada khayal ‘Nis Din Sukh Pave,’ with a few swaras in between that touched the peaks of higher notes and settled on the durit kaal chota khayal in teen taal ‘Beg Bahut Dinan Beethe.’ Ahir Bhairav carried a striking semblance to Carnatic raga Chakaravaham but with a few delectable and solemn deviations.
The piece in Raag Hindol (carrying the tinge and traces of Hamsanandi) had a khayal in Rupak taal depicting the celebration of Holi. Mala rendered this colourful piece with many resonant lengthy phrases and surfeit of scintillating akaras.
The next raag Deskhar in the Carnatic Mohanam’s shade presented many hues of the romantic raga more significantly in the upper regions. The fast moving lyrical refrain (Chota Khayal in teen taal) ‘Jane Jane De Balma’ was aligned towards the end.
The second segment offered sequence of varying items like one more on the merriment of Holi with a folk lilt and a Kajiri depicting Krishna Virah where Krishna is pining for Radha like ‘Radhe Ke Bin Laage Mora Jiya’ another folk tune akin to raag Peelu.
A Khamaj bhajan on Krishna and a Tumri ‘Man Bhare Thore’ , were also inclusions in Ramadorai’s gently framed concert. Mala’s regular associates Ravindra Katodi (Harmonium) and Udayaraj Karpur (tabla) were deliberately passive partners during the long and poignant parts and cheerfully active in the exhilarating sessions.
