Often music lovers get to hear compositions alone in this beautiful raga, Manirangu. Seldom do they get an opportunity to hear a fully explored alapana of this raga. And, if it further takes the form of a ragam-taanam and pallavi, the joy of music lovers doubles. This is what exactly happened during the recent Carnatic vocal concert of Malladi Sreeramprasad and Malladi Ravikumar, popularly known as the Malladi Brothers.
Generally, any raga could be taken up for the RTP session. The thoughtful choice of this raga paid rich dividends to the Vijayawada-based siblings, who seemed to revel themselves in this session. After presenting a scintillating alapana of the raga and the taanam in an equally melodious manner, they sang the pallavi “Mamava Pattabhirama Maruthi Sannutha Rama” set to Adi taal in khanda nadai. Their summing up of the session in ragamallika kalpanaswaras in a delightful manner was another feature that was enjoyable. Malladi Brothers’ concert was organised as part of Bharatiya Kala Utsav (4th edition). It was jointly organised by the Chennai’s Sri Parthasarathy Swami Sabha and Delhi’s Shanmukhananda Sangeetha Sabha. In their concert of close to three hours, the siblings treated the Capital’s music lovers to some fine music with their excellent diction and musical skills.
Earlier, the brothers started their concert with an Adi taal varnam in the raga Saveri in a delightful manner. They presented the slow paced composition of Muthuswami Dikshitar “Sri Muladharacara Vinayaka” in Sri Ragam to a riveting tempo. The siblings’ selection of Tyagaraja’s composition “Sripa Priya’ in the raga Attana provided an impetus to their recital.
The siblings then took up Subbaraya Sastri’s ‘Sankari Neve’ in the raga Begada for a detailed rendition. Ravikumar, the younger sibling sang a fine alapana of this raga and in the process brought its nuances to the fore. Both the slow and fast paced kalpanaswaras towards the end was another notable feature here and their depth in creative music too came to the fore.
The other song that the Malladi Brothers sang in a detailed manner was another Tyagaraja’s composition, which was “Emi Jesite Nemi” in the raga Todi. This time, it was the elder sibling Sreeramprasad who sang a detailed raga alapana in an unhurried manner, bringing out its features to the fore. The two together presented the neraval of a phrase from the pallavi portion of the composition and the kalpanaswaras, which brought out their depth in creative music.
Emotive contents
While presenting Neelakantan Sivan’s Tamil composition, “Kannarai Kanden Kadir Vadi Velevane” in the raga Mukhari, the siblings brought out the emotive contents of the lyrics to the fore. Yet another Tyagaraja’s composition “Kanugontini” in the raga Bilahari added liveliness and this was followed by creative kalpanaswaras.
Kumbakonam M.R. Gopinath on the violin, Parupalli S. Phalgun on the mridangam and Alathur S. Rajaganesh on the kanjira provided able assistance. Gopinath’s takes of the ragas Begada, Todi and Manirangu were delightful. The percussionist riveting support in the concert and their tani avartanam in Adi taal were enjoyable.
