It was quality fare by the sisters – Bhairavi and Malavi at Kartik Fine Arts. Though their voices did not cooperate very much, they managed to give their best. The song selection, which included compositions of various composers, was not only good but it suited their voice quality that day. Their neat rendition of songs sans frill, had clarity.
Narayana Tirtha’s Tarangam, ‘Jaya Jaya Ramaanaatha’ in Nattai with kalpanaswaram, was rendered well. They began the concert with ‘Sami Ninne Kori,’ varnam in Sri ragam. Khamas raga alapana by Bhairavi was a beautiful chowka kala effort. ‘Vaishnavatatvam Jayatu Bhuvane,’ a composition of Krishna Premi Swamigal was a surprise selection. Malavi’s rendition of Mukhari in an unhurried pace was good. The violinist, S.P. Ananta Padmanabhan’s raga expositions were good and the top sancharas left out by the vocalists in both alapanas were covered well. Brigas fall precisely in his bowing. Tyagaraja’s ‘Kshinamai Tiruga’ required more involvement and it was followed with swaram at ‘Edijesina.’ Their aggressive style of swaraprastaram did not suit the mood of the song. The stamp of the raga was missing in ‘Uyndadu Uyndaden Maname,’ the Oothukadu sahityam in Deva Manohari.
Varali raga alapana, by the duo, was beautiful with long karvais and jantai prayogams. Both of them have the talent to capture the precise notes. A neat rendition of Dikshitar’s ‘Mamava Meenakshi’ was followed by niraval and swaram at ‘Syame Sankari,’ which were loaded with raga bhava. The thani by Kumbakonam Swaminathan on the mridangam and S. Sunil Kumar on the ganjira was good.
The concert concluded with ‘Nambikkettavar Evarayya’ in Hindolam preceded by a virutham, and ‘Bhaja Bhaja Manasa’ in Sindhu Bhairavi.
Kamala Deepthi has a facile, pleasing voice with clarity that traverses from lower to higher octaves easily. She commenced her concert, with Saveri varnam, ‘Sarasuda,’ with several rounds of kalpanaswaram. The rendition of Dikshitar’s ‘Tyagarajo Virajathe’ was preceded by a bright Atana raga alapana. She expresses the essence of any raga in the first few phrases of her alapana, be it Atana or Sunaadavinodini or Thodi, with her ‘hitting the nail on its head’ approach, and then, effortlessly explores the entire gamut, with perfect control over her voice. This affair can be a little more leisurely instead of resorting to an overdose of breath-taking brigas and vocal aerobics. Anything, including ‘Amrutham,’ that is disproportionate is not enjoyable, and, here, definitely repetition tends to creep in and one also has to be careful about over exercising the vocal chords.
An expansive alapana of Sunaadavinodini was followed by a well rendered ‘Devaadi Deva Sri Vasudeva.’ Again the kalpanaswaram at ‘Sri Janaki’ had a lot of repetition. The control she has over her voice in the alapana segment is absent here. The violinist, G Suresh Kumar’s accompaniment was not very helpful and there is nothing to speak about his raga essays. The main piece ‘Kaddanu Vaariki’ in Thodi with Griha bhedam to Mohanam in the raga essay was preceded by the Sahana kriti ‘Chittam Irangadadenayya.’ The niraval and kalpanaswaram at ‘Addampu Chekkillace’ was a hasty affair and the concert concluded with a Dasar nama, ‘Bega Baro.’ With more maturity and conscious planning, she can definitely reach greater heights.
The mridangam player Kartik Ganeshram gave able support and his thani was good.
