It was a concert with few goodies to take away for Aruna Ranganathan. A restricted voice range, blurred ending notes and pedestrian singing in the first half nearly ruined her concert before she pulled it back with a neat raga alapana of Madhyamavati (‘Nadupai Palikeru’ of Tyagaraja). Aruna’s early clutch of ragas and songs failed to settle her erratic pulse.
‘Ninnu joochi’ (Sowrashtram), Salakabhairavi raga alapana – a bit sketchy - followed by the Dikshitar kriti ‘Tyagarajena,’ ‘Seethamma mayamma’ (Vasantha) in a slow tempo and ‘Vinanasa koniyanannu’ (Pratapavarali) did not provide any tail wind support even with the rarity of some of the songs. ‘Kaddanu Variki’ (Tyagaraja) in Thodi revived the promise somewhat for the second time, especially in the raga alapana. The niraval and swarams at ‘Neethurani Ragarinchi’ were unspectacular as well.
Aruna can thank the violinist, Melakkaveri Thyagarajan for bolstering the outing with good musical sense. Mridangist Sankaran could not impress either while Anirudh Athreya on the ganjira had few opportunities.
