Doing everything right does not always make for a great concert. A lineage to be proud of, a good set of accompaniments, a sabha that provides a homely ambience… all of these, without doubt, are enablers but not guarantors. Well, the concert under review was that of Nanditha Ravi. Making a brisk start with ‘ Pagavari ’, a lesser-heard varnam in Hamsadhwani, she moved on to another rare kriti of Annaswami Sastry, ‘ Sri kanchi nayike ’ in Asaveri, giving it a brief string of swara s.
The first alapana for the evening was Sahana, whose identity was evident in the very opening phrase. However, despite containing pleasing phrases, poise and pauses, the alapana appeared somewhat mechanical.
The kriti , ‘ Ee vasudha ’ was crisp and had a moderate embellishment of swara s. Next, Nanditha elaborated on Bhairavi ahead of the kriti ‘ Chintayama ’, doing a competent job despite a small tonal lapse in the higher octave. Usha Rajagopalan provided excellent support on the violin, with good repartees for Nanditha’s swara s and a neat alapana of Sahana. Her Bhairavi alapana , however, seemed a little stretched and one thought it could have been shorter.
Nanditha chose to sing neraval in the opening lines of the charanam but was not comfortable with the densely packed lyric of ‘ Mangalakara mandahasa vadanam ’. It is tricky to sing neraval in such a context without resorting to minor displacement or odukkal of the sahitya ; Nanditha could not make much of an impact here though she scored well in the swara s. After a ‘pacemaker’ in Sindhuramakriya, she chose Varali ( Eti janmamidi ) as the main raga for the evening.
By this time, she looked settled, sang with assurance and scored well in the alapana , kriti and swara s which also included a few rhythmic patterns that were sung confidently and aesthetically. B. Sivaraman played a very brief tani but his supportive accompaniment through the concert established himself as a good team-player.
Along expected lines, the focus of the post- tani session was on padam s and javali s. The Khamas javali served as a warm-up piece while Ghanam Krishna Iyer’s padam ( Tiruvotriyur Tyagarajan ) enlightened the listeners on the glory of this form of compositions; only, poor Sivaraman seemed a bit clueless in this song. The programme concluded with another javali in Poorvikalyani ( Nee matale mayanura ).
Nanditha has many strengths but she has to work on improving her confidence on stage so that her spontaneity comes on view.
Technically, her neraval was one aspect in which there was scope for improvement. The torch-bearer of a glorious tradition must go farther!
(T.T. Narendran teaches at the Department of Management Studies, IIT-Madras; is a vainika and a connoisseur of music)
