Imagination is always the fabric of social life and the dynamic of history. The influence of real needs and compulsions, of real interests and materials, is indirect because the crowd is never conscious of it.
Simone Weil
The empty pandal said it all – it was certainly not a star musician from Tamil Nadu. Else, wouldn’t the audience be overflowing well before scheduled time? The concert started a good half an hour late, not because of the musicians, but because the listeners sauntered in at convenience.
Hemmige S. Prashanth, a disciple of the doyen K.V. Narayana Swamy, and presently Padma Narayanaswamy, is easily among the most talented Carnatic vocalists of our times. His musical expression chaste, his diction virtuous, his voice mellifluous and gifted with a good range – Prashanth has a wide repertoire. Yet, why do local artistes always have to feel satisfied with limited recognition and poor audience turnout? These questions have been asked for nearly five decades – by connoisseurs and activists, and solution seems faraway. If there is one word that characterises this phenomenon, it is, as they say in Kannada – “abhimana shoonyate”.
These, symptoms of a larger problem, are not something that doesn’t bother the musician. But this extremely devout bunch of musicians were lost to the world once their music began – to them, music matters most. Each of them who performed that evening at the Karanji Anjaneya Swamy Temple as part of the Ramanavami celebrations, are trained by maestros who have not only passed on their music to them, but even values.
Prashanth began the concert with the evocative Hamsadhwani varna “Jalajashi Ninne”. The lyrics of this varnam is very poignant, lamenting the separation from one’s beloved. But in the Carnatic tradition (with the only exception of MD Ramanathan) it is always sing briskly. However, more often than not the beauty of the raga and the nature of the composition gains importance over the lyrical intent.
Conforming to Ariyakudi Ramanuja Iyengar kutcheri pattern, Prashanth continued with “Ramabhakti Samrajyam” a short, madhyamakala kriti in Shuddha Bangala. Vasanta, is a beautiful raga with an asymmetrical scale and is a composer’s favourite. The vocalist’s prowess was evident in the manner in which he packed his ideas into a crisp alapane following it with Dikshitar’s kriti “Ramachandram Bhavayami”. His raga exposition for “Koluvaiyunnadai” in Bhairavi was reminiscent of his guru KVN and Ariyakudi; characterised by an marked economy of expression it captured the aesthetic beauty of the raga. His lyrical articulation and melodic modulation made “Koluvaiyunnadai” a structure of fine expression of Bhairavi. From sarvalaghu patterns to more complex statements – the svaraprastara was a concise dictionary of Bhairavi.
The central piece was Mohana, Prashanth’s alapane probed into the depth of the raga, without painting just a surface picture of the raga. His reverence for the its emotional aspect came out brilliantly in his detailed exposition, punctuated with meaning enhancing pauses. A highly imaginative neraval and svaraprastara worked very closely with laya. His musical expression never lost its mellowness even when it was dealing with laya, and remained unaggressive. The keertane, in terms of its structure, moves from middle octave to the higher octaves and the vocalist voice held the upper notes beautifully without losing grace.
The two haridasa compositions “Alli Nodalu Rama” in Shivaranjani and “Bandadella Barali” in Kaapi were rendered mellifluously, without taking away the seriousness of the rest of the concert.
Mattur Srinidhi on the violin complemented the vocalist rather brilliantly. He played with restraint; his interpretation of Bhairavi was particularly noteworthy. B.R. Srinivas, trained by the maestro Trichur Narendran, is a vidwan in his own right. With a perfect sense of proportion, the power and clarity of his playing is eminent. Phaneendra Bhaskar on the ghatam was equally competent holding up to a veteran like Srinivas with confidence and beauty.
It is time that music sabhas dared to change the comfort of the local audience. Karnataka has so many competent musicians and it will only be too sad that if we are not willing to listen to them. It is gross irresponsibility of a discerning listener.
