Sriranjani Santhanagopalan earned many new fans and retained her earlier ones through her vocal concert in Coimbatore under the auspices of Rajalakshmi Fine Arts. The depth and maturity with which she handled the ragas and the spontaneity with which the swaras poured out belied her age, but bore evidence to the judicious blend of heredity and hard work. She happens to be the daughter and disciple of Neyveli Santhanagopalan. Her other assets are: a rich and well-trained voice, an immaculate diction and a confident and friendly demeanour.
She made a promising start with the shloka, ‘Apaara Karunaa Sindhum’ in Sahana and rendered the varnam, ‘Karunimpa Idhi Manchi Tarunamu Sami’ by Tiruvotriyur Thyagayyar.
Rare kritis
Her repertoire included rare kritis such as ‘Daya Joochutakidhi’ in Ganavaridhi by Tyagaraja, ‘Kothandaraaman Anisham Bhajami’ in Kokilaravam by Muthuswamy Dikshitar and ‘Ivan Yaaro Ariyen Sakhiye’ in Khambodi by Kavi Kunjara Bharathi.
Whether she rendered the commonly heard Kiravani (‘Vaananai Madhi Soodiya Maindhanai’, the Thevaram by Appar) or the lesser known Kokilaaravam, she exhibited the same ease. Briga-laden alapana and the intricately combined swara patterns appeared effortlessly. What a lot of effort would have gone into making it seem so easy. The javali in Khamas, ‘Sundari En Soppanathil’, and ‘Thedi Unnai Charan Adaindhen’ were appealing.
She could however, have avoided the slackness that set in now and then.
R. Raghul on the violin followed the vocalist faithfully and delighted the audience with his excellent raga delineations and swara repartees. The sparklers from Guru Raghavendra’s mridangam added to the sowkhya bhava that was predominant in the concert.
