Bhavya Hari’s earnestness and repertoire carried the day in her concert for Naada Inbam. The mainstay was a Tiruvarur Ramaswamy Pillai kriti, ‘Jagadeeswari Krupaipuri.’ Her Mohanam raga combined creative phrases with the requisite amount of energy and impact. She had struggled to establish that impact in the previous segments. Niraval at ‘gathiyendru nambinorai’ made one wonder how that quality stayed hidden in the first hour.
Muthaiah Bhagavatar’s Suddha Dhanyasi varnam, ‘Sree Raja Mathangi’ took off like a rocket in two speeds, followed by ‘Ekadantam’ (Bilahari, Dikshitar). It seemed the two songs had their kalapramanams interchanged. ‘Entanerchina’ (Saveri, Patnam Subramanya Iyer) tested Bhavya’s grip on the concert. The raga alapana was placid and slow and the kriti rendition and swaras were too simple to matter.
GNB’s Kanada kriti, ‘Nee allaal’ was whisked out before Bhavya launched a promising Pantuvarali with good interpretations in the lower and middle sthayis. The absence of melsthayi forays snuffed out the crescendo opportunity. ‘Naradamuni vedalina’ of Saint Tyagaraja brought back the pep in the concert, largely due to its tisra nadai. Niraval at ‘Narayana namamulanu’ and the swara sequences were set at minimum standards.
Violin Gyandev brought lively raga bhavam in the alapana and laya sense in his swara responses. A pleasing Kapi viruttam appended by a Tiruppugazh in Malayamarutham, ‘Iru vinayil mathi mayangi’ provided a good closure to a concert that was less remarkable than it looked on paper. Moving beyond the cliché in niraval and swarams and more impactful first segment would easily lift Bhavya’s outings to a new level.
The performance of violinist Gyandev and mridangist Gomathi Sankar provided good augmentation to the overall concert results. Gomathi Sankar’s thani was crafted well.
