The 67th Sri Ramanavami celebration at Lalitha Niwas, Coimbatore, began with the installation of Sri Sitarama's picture followed by Veda parayanam on Ugadhi day.
The lively Ramayana upanyasam by Sengalipuram Brahmashree Damodara Dikshithar was full of philosophic insights. Bhajans were held in the evening on all the nine days. Some of the eminent and up-and-coming artists presented vocal and instrumental music.
Enjoyable Thodi
T.V. Ramprasadh's vocal concert can easily be described as flawless. The Bhairavi varnam, ‘Viriboni' seemed to offer an assurance for a concert with substance and the artist fulfilled the promise when he concluded it. His alapana of Charukesi (‘Krupaya Paalaya Shoure' by Swati Tirunal) was enchanting while his depiction of Thodi (‘Aaragimpave' by Saint Tyagaraja) was meditative. As the ragas unfolded, the audience shared his enjoyment in equal measure. The niraval for ‘Saaramaina Divyaannamu' and the swarakalpanas that followed were elaborate and enjoyable. K.V. Prasad on the mridangam was excellent and Udupi Sukumar, did equally well on the ganjira. Mullaivasal Chandramouli's violin was melody incarnate.
‘Bhjore Bhaiya, Ram Govinda Hari' with its intensely devout lyrics made one sway in sheer enjoyment. S. Aravind Bhargav , disciple of U. Shrinivas, played mandolin to the accompaniment of R. Sathish Kumar (violin), Valangaiman Thiyagarajan (mridangam) and Papanasam Sethuraman (ganjira).
Anand began with the varnam ‘Vanajakshi' in Kalyani followed by ‘Tatvamaria Tarama' in Ritigowla with sprightly swaraprastharas and ‘Raghuvamsa Sudhambhudhi Chandra.' ‘Ra Ra Raajeevalochana Rama' by Mysore Vasudevachar was presented with a detailed alapana and ragamalika swaras.
Aravind mesmerised the rasikas with spurts of genius. Doubtless, he has abundant talent. However, he needs to curb himself a bit and gain absolute control over the tala. The violinist, followed him smoothly.
The mridangam player proved worthy of the renown he has earned and the ganjira artist gave his heart and soul to his performance.
Papanasam Ashok Ramani, Neyveli Santhanagopalan, Balasubramania Sharma and Akshay Padmanabhan were the other artists whose vocal concerts were featured on the other days of the fest. The Ramanavami celebrations came to an end with Anjaneya utsavam.
