Where's the magic?

Priya sisters Shanmugapriya and Haripriya's rendition failed to rise above monotony.

Priya sisters Shanmugapriya and Haripriya. Photo:V. Sreenivasa Murthy

The duo is a crowd-puller going by the capacity audience at Ravindra Bharati. But Priya Sisters' recital on the second day of the Annamacharya Fest organised by Sica and TTD was insipid from the word go. Though some of the keertanas they chose were good in content, the rendition was monotonous as there was hardly any variation in the manner of rendition, though each keertana was set to a particular raga.

We kept waiting for something spectacular to happen to lift us from the state of stupor into which most of us had fallen, with a toe-tapping number or a popular song, but no such surprise came to our rescue. Beginning with a sloka in Bowli, they launched into Harikrishna meluko aadi purusha … which absolutely suited the occasion marking the beginning of the fest.

We expected them to induce the raga with their brand of melody but then they plodded on to the next in Gambheera nata.

Tiro tiro javaraala … was a rippling piece with chittaswaram which seemed to be its redeeming feature, especially the stress on all notes, in ajanta swara style.

All the ragas chosen and rendered were popular ones like Poorvi Kalyani (

Nallani meni nagavu joopula …), Anandabhairavi ( Aadi Vishnuveethade…), Vasantha ( Vaadala vaadala venta …), Saramathi ( Mariyendu gathi …), Mukhari ( Chaalu chaalu …), Hindolam ( Narayana nee …), Arabhi ( daachuko nee paadhalaku …), Revathi, Madhyamavathi and so on, not to talk of the centrepiece sans taniavarthanam in Bhairavi ( Ghummani yedi sruti …). The alapana in Vasantha opened up the melodic vistas of this raga but nothing of this seemed to peter down to the song proper; nor was there the emotive element.

A sort of blend and flow within the repertoire was missing despite an endearing rendition in one keertana ( Daachuko nee ) or a trikala swarakalpana as in the Bhairavi. The rules of the game were well laid out — the soul was totally out of sync with the duo.

By and large it was only one of the sisters attempting to be heard with clarity while the other glossed through the entire concert. To the most casual listener, it was obvious that the duo did not put their heart into the recital and to all practical purposes it was a mechanical rendition that disappointed their fans who reciprocated through equally formal applause. Krishnaswami on the violin and Neyveli Skandasubramaniam on the mridangam mirrored the vocalists' enthusiasm. Manipakkam on the ghatam showcased his talent within the scope affordable.