Blessed with a clear voice, Amrutha Sankaranarayanan began her concert with Koteeswara Iyer's ‘Varana Mukhava' in Hamsadhwani brightly.
With brisk swara phrases falling in jantai pattern, unique to her father T.V. Sankaranarayanan's style, she anchored herself confidently on the dais.
After a short sketch of Kanada, Amrutha took up GNB's ‘Neeyallal Ini' in Kanada. Though she can easily traverse the upper octaves, the absence of voice modulation in the tara sthayis makes her singing a tad too loud.
Well matched
The elaborate essay of Poorvikalyani was a good prelude for her the choice of Syama Sastri's ‘Enneramum Un Naamam' for that day's all-Tamil compositions concert. The kalpanaswaras for this kriti matched the phrases and pattern of the alapana.
Her presentation of Arunachala Kavi's ‘Ramanukku Mannan' in Hindolam was a quick madhyama kala rendition. Nellai Balaji on the mridangam added colour to the niraval and the innovative rhythmic patterns she adopted in the lines of ‘Pattam Katta Etravandi'.
The main item for the day was Mohanam and ‘Kapali' again from the famed Madurai Mani Iyer school. Technically, her Mohanam was unadulterated and had the essence of the raga.
But a little sophistication and feminine touch to the raga could have made her rendition more pleasant. Violinist R. Sathish Kumar presented a good raga alapana.
The sarva laghu pattern in kalpanaswaras needs continuous flow of notes in different octaves.
Amrutha tried her best to follow her father's swara patterns and succeeded in her attempt barring a few interruptions. A viruttam preceded the Brindavana Saranga composition ‘Kaliyuga Varadan.'
Amrutha's selection of songs by various composers is praiseworthy. Another rarely heard composition ‘Thillai Ambalathanai' by Gopalakrishna Bharati in praise of Lord Govindaraja in Chidambaram also figured. She concluded with the Thirupalliyezhuchi verse ‘Potri Aruluga'.
