EXTRAORDINARY FLIGHTS OF MANODHARMA
The capacity crowd at the YGP Auditorium was captivated by Sanjay Subrahmanyan’s voice that traverses all three sthayis with ease, the inventiveness in raga elucidation and his expressiveness. . His Vasantha alapana was a testimony to his constant march towards excellence. On the violin, S. Varadarajan’s response was equally inspired. Little wonder, as he has been accompanying Sanjay for over two decades. His elucidation was tailored towards the vocal genre. Sanjay rendered Subbaraya Sastri’s Tamil masterpiece ‘Sri Kamakshi Katakshi’, to the utter delight of the discerning audience. His extraordinary manodharma came to the fore in the niraval and swaras at ‘Aadhaaram Enakku Ni’. His strong sense of laya helped him to portray them gloriously.
Nanjil Arul (mridangam) and Perukavu P.L. Sudhir (ghatam) added to the impact. Their first round in thani itself drewapplause, followed by a few more. Arul, especially, came with apt beats for niraval and kalpanaswaras.
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To me, the highlight of the concert was the Bageshri RTP. His extensive elucidation, at times poignant and sometimes exultant, revealed the raga’s essence, . The tanam provided the vocalist and the violinist another occasion to showcase their individuality. The pallavi in Khanda Jati Triputa, ‘Osai Oli Ellam Aanavanaam Iraivan’ had ragamalika swaras in Kadanakuthuhalam, Ranjani, Saveri and Kapi. There was a brief second thani at this stage.
He opened the concert with ‘Ongi Ulakalantha’ in Arabi with cascading kalpanaswaras. Since Sanjay enjoys taking up rare kritis in rare ragas his concerts are refreshing. He rendered ‘Khagavahana Kapatavaiya’, a composition of Pallavi Doraiswami Iyer in Dhenuka and offered swaraprasthara too, after an inspired alapana. Similarly, he presented GNB’s ‘Ninnuvina Verevaru’ in Malavi (Rupakam) .
Being a Sunday, Sanjay presented the appropriate Navagraha kriti of Muthuswami Dikshithar, Suryamurthe. His rendering, with considerable depth , of the Huseni piece, ‘Eppadi Manam Thuninthatho’ of Arunachala Kavi depicted the pathos which the composition intends to convey.
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Swati Tirunal’s Mohanam piece, ‘Bansi vale’ exhibited Sanjay’s ability in rendering khayals. This was followed by Gopalakrishna Bharati’s ‘Ithuvo Thillai Chidambara Kshetram’ in Sindhu Bhairavi. He also offered Mayuram Vedanayagam Pillai’s Mandu piece, ‘Paname, Unnaal Enna Guname’ – which has a seeming relation to the current situation!
The rasikas, who gave him a standing ovation, would have liked the concert to go on.