Modelled on the famous music festival at the Navaratri Mandapam in Thiruvananthapuram, the concerts were composed and codified by Poornathrayee Jayaprakash.
The music festival organised by Poornatrayee Foundation at Thripunthura was different as it not only paid tribute to music, but to womanhood also, which is all about honouring 'Shakthi' and extolling womanhood. All 12 concerts in connection with the festival were sung by women vocalists.
Eleven ragas
Modelled on the famous music festival at the Navaratri Mandapam in Thiruvananthapuram, the concerts were composed and codified by Poornathrayee Jayaprakash, a modern-day vagaykkara. Jayaprakash included 11 ragas that included the traditional Navaratri ragas such as Sankarabharanam, Kalyani, Saveri, Thodi, Bhairavi, Panthuvarali, Shuddha Saveri, Nattakurinji, Arabhi and Poorvikalyani. 'Poornathrayeesa Panchapadi,' a series of kirtanas composed by Jayaprakash, was also included in the festival. This was rendered by Vishalam Venkatachalam. Every day, before the concert began, the main raga of the day was played on the veena.
The festival began with a breezy concert by Bangalore M.S. Sheela. She gave a precise exposition of Sankarabharanam with an elaborate alaap and niraval. The Jayaprakash kriti 'Shailaputhri mamayi thainethri' portrayed the goddess Parvati or Hemavati, who is venerated on the first day of the Navaratri. Sheela was accompanied by T. Sampath (violin) and R. Vaidyanathan (mridangam).
B. Arundathi presented Saveri, the raga chosen for the second day. Arundathi sang 'Smaramyaham sree brahmacharim' with V. Sindhu (violin), Sushil Kumar (mridangam) and T. R. Parameswaran (ghatam) backing the singer well.
Preethi Suresh started off her concert with 'Viriboni' a varnam and moved on to a composition by Jayaprakash, 'Sankeerthayami sathatham,' in Kalyani, the main raga of the day.
Edappally Ajith enhanced the feel of the raga on the violin. A brief but effective taniavarthanam by G. Krishankumar (mridangam), Y. N. Shantaram (ganjira) and P. L. Sudheer (ghatam) capped a fine performance.
There is something magical about Thodi. And Mathangi Satyamoorthy in her powerful voice and flowing singing style sketched all the shades of the raga and the kriti 'Archayami sadhatham bhaktya.' She was accompanied by M. N. Moorthy (violin), Parassala Ravi (mridangam) and Alleppey Gopinath (ghatam).
Malini Hariharan presented Bhairavi with ragam-thanam on the next day. 'Sree skandamatham vaideham' extols the benevolent mother of Skanda or Lord Muruga. She was accompanied by her disciple Sharmila Sivakumar. Eramalloor Bijoy (violin), K. Radhakrishnan (mridangam) and A. S. Kumar (ghatam) provided the back-up.
'Thavaka padasevanam sananidhim' was the Navaratri kriti in Panthuvaralli that was rendered by Girija Varma. K. Viswanathan (violin), Chandrakumar (mridangam) and Tripunithura Kannan (ghatam) accompanied.
Madurai Balamani Eswar sang a few kritis by Jayaprakash other than the main one 'Dasoham sree sambhavim.' .
Chembai Rajendran (violin), Melattur Balasubramaniam (mridangam) and Vinod Mallya (ganjira) accompanied.
Flawless exposition
Durgashtami had Nattakurinji as the main raga. N. J. Nandini showed tremendous promise by coming up with a near flawless exposition of the raga. The kriti was 'Mahagowri Maheswari.' She was accompanied by Thirunelloor Ajith (violin), Kangazha Vasudevan (mridangam) and Eroor Ayyappan (morsing).
Ambalapuzha Thulasi rendered Arabhi raga and the composition 'Atmanivedanam sada kalayeham.' She went on to sing one more Jayaprakash kriti 'Kalayamahe Poornathrayeesam' in Kanaada raga. Viju S. Anand (violin), Kottayam Manojkumar (mridangam) and Tripunithura N. Gopalakrishnan (ganjira) gave admirable support.
On Vijayadashami, Baby Sreeram etched Poorvikalyani in all its splendour. V. V. Suresh (violin), K. Parameswaran (mridangam) and Vaikom Gopalakrishnan (ghatam) provided the back-up.
The music festival concluded with a Hindustani concert by Reshma R. Bhatt, accompanied by Udupi Shankar Shenoy (harmonium) and Bangalore Udayraj Kapoor (tabla).
In a talk on 'Vageykkara Vaibhavam' on the concluding day, K.J. Yesudas recounted his early days. He also talked about the genius of the great composers and interacted with the audience.
