B. Arundhathi's concerts include a technical exploration in music that covers various traits of a raga, syncopation in swaras and expression of sahityam.
This year's Swati Tirunal Jayanthi celebrations held in the capital city featured a concert by Arundhathi which had a package of Swati kritis. The vocalist opened the concert with an Ata tala varnam ‘Chalamela' in Sankarabharanam and followed it with ‘Pahi Shaure' in Natta, which had a typical chittaswaram pattern. She then rendered ‘Samodam Chintayami' in Shudhadhanyasi (Misra Chapu).
The poor sound system affected the listening experience for the audience. This could have been a reason for the singer's occasional loss of alignment with sruthi. Also, the absence of an acoustic tampura created a void in the overall sounding. A pleasing but brief rendition of ‘Shri Kumara' in Atana had all the salient features of the raga in it.
Poorvi Kalyani raga, enriched by a spectrum of usages and sangatis in the raga elaboration, was tagged to ‘Deva Deva Jagadeeshwara.' The charanam, which bestows a unique identity to the composition ‘Bhoogeendra Sayinam' (Kundalavarali, Khanda Chapu), was captivatingly rendered. Saveri raga, chosen as the main piece, was well-described by a wide raga essay and the kriti ‘Anjaneya Raghurama,' brimming with devotion. It was set to two-kala, Adi with a niravel at ‘Raghurama' and swaras at ‘Anjaneya.'
Manjula Rajesh on the violin gave a picturesque portrayal of the raga with some impressive usages during her delineation. Mavelikkara R. Rajesh on the mridangam and Alleppey Gopinath on the ghatam gave good support to the vocalist.
The post-taniavarthanam songs were the melodious ‘Chaliye' in Brindavana Saranga, the delicate ‘Aliveni' in Kurunji and the fluent thillana ‘Geethathu' in Dhanasree. The event was organised by the Swathi Tirunal Sangeetha Sabha.
