When an artiste’s calling card is integrity, unmarred by applause-seeking ploys, you know he marches to a different beat from the one that governs the contemporary kutcheri circuit. For veteran vocalist Thamarakkad Govindan Namboothiri, guru and retired principal of the RLV College of Music, Tirupunithura, his chosen set of priorities did not suddenly dawn with the onset of age; rather, it was a clear choice right at the start of his career.
In his vocal concert featuring rare compositions of Swati Tirunal for the endowment series hosted by the Music Academy at the Kasturi Srinivasan Hall, Chennai, Namboothiri prefaced his performance with a brief introduction to the royal vaggeyakkara. Though the Maharajah’s span of life was only 33 years, his prolific compositional skills generated over 400 oeuvres that included varnams, pada varnams, kritis, padams, javalis, thillanas and bhajans in Sanskrit, Hindi, Malayalam,Telugu and Kannada, in both Carnatic and Hindustani ragas.
Clear enunciation
Teeing off with the Ata tala varnam ‘Vanajaksha’ (Saveri), Namboothiri breathed earnestness into phrases, winding up with a flourish at the raga’s signature permutation ‘grsd, rsd, sd grndmgrsd’’embedded in the concluding chittaiswara. The clean, simple lines of the Malayamarutham sketch carried a minimalist appeal. The kriti ‘Padmanabha Palithebha’ rendered with exemplary focus on clarity of enunciation, was enlivened by madhyama kala sahitya. In actual practice, seamless sarvalaghu kalpanaswara is never as simple as it is made to sound. Here, the seamlessness of the swara patterns also echoed the spirit of the composition.
In studied contrast, the approach to the Arabhi exposition preceding ‘Narasimha Mamava Bhagavan,’ projected verve, highlighting vadi-samvadi combinations and jantaswara passages.
Unhurried sancharas poised on the vilamba-madhyamakala cusp traced the subtleties of raga Varali, at a kalapramana not generally heard in today’s concert scenario – slow, pendulous, yet sans exaggeration.
The swinging gait of ‘Mamava Padmanabha’ allowed for gradual immersion by both musician and listener. While the niraval was negotiated with the adroitness of a seasoned traveller who anticipates surprises around the bend, the swarakalpana was a value addition that spotlighted the mandra sthayi in a memorable segment. Concise melkala swara rounds were pulled off with a wonderful ease that contributed to their fluidity.
A vibrant filler
A standalone ‘Vande Sada Padmanabham’ (Navarasa Kannada) was a vibrant filler. The choice of Atana as the main piece put rasikas on notice that Namboothiri’s vidwat was not to be gauged lightly. Pithy, sculpted prayogas announced that the artiste meant business. While characteristic shades emerged, emphasising the raga’s inherent forcefulness and imperative tone, it was the deftly interwoven interludes of emotive insight that made it an Atana to write home about. In a winning combination of scholarliness and unerring instinct that wedded breadth to depth, satiny jarus alternated with commanding statements, the sheer naturalness of which testified to the artiste feeling at home in this challenging essay. ‘Srikumara Nagaralaye’ in praise of goddess Katyayani, supported keezhkala swaras aglow with evenly oscillated gamakas, while the busy mosaic of the melkala sarvalaghu flowed smooth and unfettered. The utsavaprabandham ‘Pankaja Nabhotsava’ in Malayalam, projected the charm of Mohanam, followed by the bhajan ‘Gopala Bhaktim’ twined with the languid grace of Bhagesri.
Namboothiri infused his interpretations with a rare honesty; a transparency even, that was the direct outcome of his decision to remain uninfluenced by surface glitter. Expectedly, the emphasis was on sahitya bhava.
Dwelling on the madhyama and nishada at apt junctures in Varali, the violinist, (Shertalai Sivakumar) made an appreciable effort to sync with the vocalist’s wavelength. Thanjavur R. Kumar’s (mridangam) complemented the vocalist’s highlighting of sahitya and his creative imagery.
