These child prodigies have come a long way, making the strings of their violins lend beautifully to experiments and different forms of musical expression.
Their concert titled ‘Raga Pravaham’ (deluge of ragas) at Kartik Fine Arts at best can be termed as their own creation. The whole exercise was about showcasing their ability in handling varied ragas and tunes with consummate ease and traversing different scales and pitches. Even as they performed Carnatic ragas, they introduced Hindustani and Western flavours. Their camaraderie with the percussion artistes during the exchange of swaras was another enjoyable factor. The concert brought to the mind the popular axiom, ‘Music has to be experienced, not evaluated.’ So it would have been to the uninitiated, but those well versed with the Carnatic idiom, it was raucous and a bit random. The brothers played ragas Abhogi, Adithya (their own creation), Kalyani, Kiravani, Hindolam, Nilamabari, Atana, Saveri, Ranjani, Bilahari, Arabhi, Ritigowla, Valaji, Revati and more…in between if we heard something like ‘Evari boda’, ‘Amba vani’ or ‘Samagana lolane,’ then they were incidental.
Expertise is one thing; exhibition is another. The brothers have reached a stage of demonstrating their potential rather than following the time-tested Carnatic structure. Well, if it makes the audience happy, the purpose is achieved. Patri Sathish Kumar on mridangam and Tiruchi S Krishnaswamy on ghatam were in perfect sync with the over-exuberance of the brothers.
