A rush of music
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Shubhashri Ramachandran’s performance was fluent and imaginative, Meera Sahasrabuddhe sang with involvement
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CHISELLED NOTES Meera Sahasrabuddhe
Shubhashri Ramachandran presented a vocal recital at Veene Sheshanna Bhavana in Mysore recently. The young artiste’s voice is remarkable in its consistency and suppleness, and can effortlessly encompass the required sthayis for its expressions. Now, one can infer the general outcome: melody.
H.N. Smitha’s competent violin support and Radhesh’s composed percussions enhanced the overall impact.
It was evident that she was quite fluent and imaginative as far as the alapanas were concerned; elaborations with fine graces characterizing her singing.
Consider for example, Kharaharapriya (“Shrinivasa thava charanam”) or Todi (“Tanikai valar sharavanabhava”- Papanasam Sivan) or even Abheri (“Bhajare maanasa” -Mysore Vasudevacharya) — all the features of the ragas emerging with purity and clarity.
Nevertheless, the young singer could have, with due diligence and attention, imparted professional touches to the narrative aspects of the lyrics. She sang compositions almost in continuous stretches as if she was musically reading and rushing through them. Its immediate sequel: an average listener was unable to differentiate between different components — pallavi, anupallavi and a charana.
While the alapanas deserved wholehearted admiration, the swaraprastaras could not reach perceptible heights. Though the framing of the passages depicted scholarship and fluency, the manner of reciting them seemed more mechanical than spontaneous.
Shubashri Ramachandran
After a good pleasing expatiation, in Thodi before “Tanikai velar”, she disappointed the hall by cutting short the neraval (“Thullivilaiyadavarum”) and the kalpanaswarass; indeed, the approach was not enough to satiate even an accommodative sabha listener.
Other interesting inclusions: “Maathe malayadhvaja” (Khamach-Muthayya Bhagavathar), “Varavallabha ramana” (Hamsadhwani-GNB), “Chetashri balakrishna” (Dhvijavanti-Dikshithar), and “Krishna ni begane” (Purandaradasa).
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Meera Sahasrabudhe sang at the same venue accompanied by Madhusudan Bhat (harmonium) and Bhimashankar Bidanur (tabala).
The dedicated artiste sings with great involvement and emotion, fortified with consistency. Her well-chiselled voice is always in readiness to comply with the requirements of taans, heavy gamaks, meends or sargams. Stability and sharpness in vocal capabilities characterised her first cheez in Purya Dhanashri. She developed both the sthayi and the antara melodiously, and with remarkable composure.
Be it the mandra or the taara saptak, the chalans distinctly bore the stamps of both the mood and the structure of Purya Dhanashri. However, in the taara saptak the voice tended to be stentorian, which she could have avoided with milder emotive expressions.
With the lyrical sections ended melody and softness. With the sargams, gradually vigorous movements, more than was necessary, started making inroads into the badhat. The taans, abruptly taking galloping speeds and intensity, disturbed the pleasing ambience. She could have progressively introduced such embellishments in different stages, with due consideration to their proportions and intensity. Two chotakhyals (Yaman), tarana (Bihag), “Saguna sampan” (abhang), “Devakikanda mukunda” (Purandaradasa), “Mori lagi” (Mira Bhajan) and a daadra (Bhairavi) constituted the rest of the concert. Both the melody accompanist and the rhythm accompanist’s work drew appreciative attentions for their restraint and balance.
V. NAGARAJ
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