A literary –musical program organized by Abhiruchi, a literary and cultural association of Vijayawada at Gokaraju Laila Gangaraju Kala Vedika in the premises of Government College of Music on the occasion of Tallapaka Annamacharya Vardhanthi. The music was preceded by a colourful function in which a book containing 506 kirtanas of Annamacharya brought out by Venkat Garikapati was released.
The book was meticulously compiled and the kirtanas were listed in alphabetical order and the names of the composers of tunes for every kirtana were also listed.
The names of some of the composers listed include Nedunuri Krishnamurthy, Mallik, Balakrishna Prasad, Balamurali, Rallapalli Anantakrishna Sarma and a few others.
This information is a valuable addition that the book has given.
This book by Venkat Garikapati, a regional manager of State Bank of India, is in its fifth edition, which proves the popularity of the book.
The book was rightly dedicated to Balantrapu Rajanikanta Rao, a living legend and recent recipient of the prestigious Telugu Velugu award from the Government of Andhra Pradesh. In the last 20 years, Venkat Garikapati has made a deep study of Annamacharya’s life and works and delivered a lnumber of discourses on the subject, across the country.
The function was presided over by P. Krishnaji, president of Abhiruchi. Other distinguished guests included M. Krishnakumari, Station Director, Vijayawada Akashvani, M. C. Das, Honorary president of Abhiruchi, Maganti Subramanyam, chairman of Mithra Group of companies and Chinnam Ramakrishna, secretary of Abhiruchi.
The function was followed by an impressive but brief vocal duet concert rendered by vidwan Popuri Gowrinadh and his wife Gayatri Gowrinadh.
The entire programme was efficiently compered by Madugula Ramakrishna, senior announcer in Akashvani, Vijayawada.