Abhishek Raghuram's heavy repertoire enthralled his audience in Chalakudy. The audience that sat through a protracted meeting, preceding the recital, heaved a sigh of relief as Abhishek broke into the Begada Adi tala varnam of Vina Kooppayyar, ‘Inthachalamu.'
This was followed by a Navagraha composition of Dikshitar, which gave a new dimension to the recital. ‘Sooryamoorthe' in Sourashtram is the first among this series that invokes the blessings of the Sun.
By selecting ‘Sooryamoorthe' Abhishek gave the audience a rare opportunity to listen to the dhruva (chaturasra) tala. The rendition was alluring.
Swati Tirunal's ‘Samodam chintayaami' in Udayaravichandrika followed with an eloquent alapana. Edappalli Ajith's avartanam of the same was well done. The misra chapu composition was ornamented with innumerable sangatis of the opening line, ‘Samodam chintayami sarasiruhanabham.' The composition also served to highlight the clarity of diction of the vocalist. Niraval of ‘Syanandura nagaree sobhayamana geham' was noteworthy.
Then, the audience had the privilege of listening to a popular Tyagaraja composition in Darbar that was popular in concerts in the past. It was ‘Mundhuvenuka niruprakkala thodai' in Adi.
Right choice
A brisk Kiranavali, the Tyagaraja composition ‘Kaliyunde kadagalguru' in Adi, was a right choice before the main raga for the evening, Sankarabharanam with ragam, thanam and pallavi. The raga part provided a graphic account of Sankarabharanam beginning with movements in the mantra sthayi.
The perfect sruti alignment of the notes added to the grace of the rendition. Prolonged stay in the thara sthayi later was equally enjoyable.
During the pallavi, traces of the ragas Varali, Sahana, Anandabhairavi, Sindhubhairavi and Todi were discernible.
Tani by Chertala Dinesh (mridangam) and Manjur Unnikrishnan (ghatam) was good.
Owing to the poor balancing of the microphones, voice was drowned amidst the high decibel notes of the instruments.
Abhishek wound up with a couple of short kritis in Ahiri and ragamalika.
The concert was organised in connection with the annual celebrations of the Chalakudy Sangeetha Sabha.
