He had reserved the best for the last. O.S. Arun responded to mid-concert demands for the abhang piece, ‘Ha Raghava’, by telling the audience that he had reserved it for the finale at his Bhajan Sandhya. When that moment came, the hall reverberated with the chants of ‘Vittala, Vittala’.
‘Ha Raghava’ (Mohanam) of the Marathi saint Samartha Ramadas was the concert’s highpoint. From the word go, with ‘Amma Ananda Dayini’, a Gambhira Nattai varnam, penned by Balamuralikrishna, the devotional concert was delightful. It was a clever mix of chants, in which the audience was asked to join, and some devotional classics. For instance, the chanting of ‘Narayana Narayana Jai Jai’, with the audience clapping and singing along, was followed by Bhadrachala Ramadas’ popular Ananda Bhairavi composition, ‘Rama Bhadra Ra Ra’. Oothukadu Venkatasubbaiyyar’s Nilambari piece, ‘Eppaditaan En Ullam’segued into a ‘Kesava Madhava’ bhajan in Sahana. Then there were some elements that bore the O. S. Arun stamp — ‘Koovi Azhaithaal’ in Valaji and ‘Vishamakara Kannan’, and Ambujam Krishna’s ‘Swagatham Krishna’ in Mohanam.
Soon after the concert began, a member of the audience suggested that he should sing Tamil songs. The vocalist asked, ‘did I not just sing? Then pointing towards the noted Tamil writer, Balakumaran, who was seated in the front row, he said, ‘Why wouldn’t I’. Arun then reasoned, music transcends language.
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He sung an excellent Tamil bhajan, ‘Senthil Nagaraadhipanai Sindai Seivai’, in Durbar. Then a Nilambari piece in Tamil. Many others followed, after the ‘demand’. It is disturbing that in a milieu that for over a century has been comfortable with Tyagaraja’s and Syama Sastri’s Telugu, Dikshitar’s and Jayadev’s Sanskrit, Purandara Dasa’s Kannada, Swati Tirunal’s Hindi and Marathi abhangs , there should be stress on any particular language. Arun was accompanied by veterans M. R. Gopinath on the violin, J .Vaidhyanathan on the mridangam and Karthick on the ghatam.
M. Ramesh