Ramnath Venkat Bhagawath is a promising talent. After ‘Eranapai’ the Thodi varnam, the essay of Nagaswaravali was quite impressive. Kalpanaswarams were taken up at the pallavi of ‘Garudagamana’. The alapana of Pantuvarali was not the standard fare, but the swarasthanas were handled well. It was embellished with commendable ‘akara’ singing. Hardly anyone sings ‘Sri Sundararajam’ and it was a refreshing change. Niraval and swaras were taken up for the madhyamakala lines ‘Somasuryanetram…’ and were as good as the interpretation of the raga. There was nothing much to write home about the efforts of Poornapragnya on the violin. Mysore Vadiraj provided mridangam support and played a decent Thani. The finale was ‘Theruvadeppo’ in Kamas.
Sahana Samraj hails from the Sembanarkoil Nagaswara family and the influence is quite noticeable in her raga elaborations. She began her recital right away with the alapana of Nasamani, which was quite impressive. The chosen song was Dikshitar’s ‘Sri Rama Saraswathi,’ along with kalpanaswaras. ‘Samikku Sari Evvare’ in Kedragowla was neatly presented. The essay of Pantuvarali had the usual prayogams, followed by ‘Ramanatham Bhajeham’ with swaras for the madhyama kala passage ‘Hasthamalaka..’.
Before the main item came a super fast ‘Seethamma’ in Vasantha. It is true that this raga is suitable for racy numbers, but that should not be at the expense of the meaning and emotional content of the kriti.
The alapana of Kiravani sung in a slow tempo was quite pleasing. Too much stress on brigas led to apaswaram now and then, but otherwise the rendering of ‘Kaligiyundegada’ was decent with niraval and swaras at ‘Baguga Sri Raghu..’.
C.N. Srinivasan (violin) was reasonably good and the mridangam and morsing support were by Parthasarathy and Kudanthai Balaji Saravanan respectively.
