Deepika’s voice has sugar and spice, both of which are served in her presentations. One admirable facet of Deepika’s singing is her eye on time. She never overstretched any item beyond its scope.
At Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan , initiating her concert with ‘Neeve Gati,’ Nalinakanti varnam of Lalgudi Jayaraman, she took up ‘Ra Ra Phanisayana’ of Tyagaraja in Harikhambodi to be followed by ‘Sriman Narayana’ (Bowli, Annamayya). She maintained the tempo with the expansion of Mohana Kalyani. The inherently vivacious ragam was indeed well handled by Deepika. The kriti was Ambujam Krishna’s ‘Adinayae Kanna’.
Thodi with Papanasam Sivan’s ‘Karthikeya Gangeya’ turned out to be the central piece. Deepika judiciously distributed the time for raga essay, kriti, niraval on “Mal Maruga Shanmuga’ and the swara strings. As mentioned earlier, Deepika has trained her vocal chords to negotiate, stand and proceed with a clear perception. Nonetheless, perhaps she could follow the heart in some places rather than going by the head. Yes, if Deepika could infuse a little more karvais and bestow a few more passionate touches to her raga elaborations, the result would be more rounded.
The swara suite with shadjam as the focal point in Thodi was diligently connected. ‘Muruganin Maru Peyar’ (Guru Surajananda) in Behag and Thiruppugazh were in the final segment.
D.J. Dileep on the violin to a great extent played his part with care. N.C. Bharadwaj and Nirgunam Shankar kept the proceedings lively with their sincere participation. Their thani avartanam was neat.
