From the take off till the landing, it was evident that Amruta has completely imbibed and assimilated her father's style of singing. The concert started with the Dikshitar kriti, ‘Maha Ganapatim' in Nattai, with a brief raga alapana and swaram. This was followed by Ramaswami Sivan's ‘Paahimam Sri Rajarajeswari' in Janaranjani. Amruta next presented raga Hindolam in a nutshell with beautiful akara passages. The fast-paced phrases were negotiated very well. The violinist, B. Ananthakrishnan, portrayed the ragam well in his own style. The kriti chosen was Indra Natesan's ‘Abhaya Varade Sarade,' and the kalpanaswara patterns that followed adhered to her bani. Next came GNB's composition ‘Samaana Rahite' in Saaranga Tarangini preceded by an elaborate raga exposition which somehow the violinist could not capture.
The main piece of the evening was Tyagaraja's ‘Tanayuni Brova.' Her exposition of Bhairavi was fast paced with an overdose of vakra prayogas which did not quite bring out the grandeur of the raga. A relaxed delineation would have created a better impact. Niraval and swaram followed in the same style. Better grooming and voice modulation will help her reach greater heights.
She signed off with a viruttam in Hamsanandi followed by Papanasam Sivan's ‘Srinivasa Tiruvenkatamudayan' and Annamayya kriti ‘Nee Naamame Maaku' in Madhyamavati.
Mridangam player Sankaranarayanan provided adequate support throughout the concert. The tani avartanam was nice and tidy with a fitting conclusion.
MANASI PRASAD began her concert with the Navaragamalika varnam ‘Valachi Vacchi' and the rendering was too elementary.
The next item was ‘Aadikkondar' in Mayamalavagowlai with kalpanaswaram in ‘Aada Navamani Maalai.' From the beginning it was evident that her voice was not cooperating and her sruti also took a beating several times.
Dikshitar's ‘Sri Ramachandro' in Sri Ranjani followed next for which she sang niraval and swaram; care should have been taken to avoid slackening of talam. C.N. Srinivasamurthy on the violin was quite inadequate.
After ‘Entanerchina' in Suddha Dhanyasi, she embarked on Shanmukhapriya, as the main raga of the evening.
At this stage, her voice warmed up and she built up the raga step by step at an unhurried pace. The raga exposition by the violinist was also good. The Pallavi ‘Devi Sridevi Vagdevi Sadapahi' preceded by tanam was set to Kanta Jati triputa talam. Ragamalika swarams followed in Ranjani and Hindolam.
It was not very impressive. Her post-pallavi item included a Mysore Vasudevachar kriti ‘Gokula Nilaya Kripalaya Paalaya' preceded by a virutham that was rendered very poorly. She concluded her concert with Balamuralikrishna's Kuntalavarali thillana.
Arjun Ganesh on the mridangam and H. Sivaramakrishnan on the ghatam enjoyed each other's playing from the beginning and presented a good thani too.
