Cuddalore S.J. Jananiy’s recital on Sunday afternoon for Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, marked a confident start to her concert schedule for the upcoming music season.
The artiste exhibited her vocal range in ample measure during her performance.
Jananiy, a disciple of Mangalampalli Balamuralikrishna for a decade, and now training under the nagaswaram vidwan Injikudi Ganesan, decorated Tyagaraja’s ‘Manavyalakincha,’ in ragam Nalinakanthi with plenty of improvisation at the finish.
In Hamirkalyani, Dikshitar’s ‘Parimala Ranganatham Bhajeham,’ then followed in a slower tempo. To me, it remains a wonder what criteria, if any, artistes deploy to determine the selection of kritis to perform in a given concert. As regards the Tyagaraja song ‘Sobhillu saptaswara,’ the question that comes to mind is M. Balamuralikrishna never sang the chittaiswaram.
The kriti in ragam Thodi stole the afternoon’s show quite easily. Papanasam Sivan’s ‘Karthikeya, Kangeya, Gowri Thanaya,’ with its beautiful lyrics was given the masterful treatment of a main piece. The alliteration to the charanam ‘Mal Maruga, Shanmuga, Muruga Guha,’ was indeed an apt place for niraval. The display of many variations in the swaraprasthara was duly replicated by A.V. Manikandan on the mridangam and Sunil Kumar on the ganjira. For his part, Vijay Ganesh on the violin gave a delectable essay of the scale. Jananiy concluded her concert with the ‘Gatibhedapriya Ragamalika,’ thillana of M. Balamuralikrishna. A colleague recalled a conversation Mr. Vaidyanathan, formerly with Simpsons, was privy to decades ago, about this composition. On hearing itin the precincts of the Kapaleeswara Temple, T.N. Rajarathnam Pillai, renowned for his command over ragam Thodi, commended Papanasam Sivan .
