Through the ragam-tanam-pallavi artistes showcase their creative talents, including their mastery over rhythm. In the process, the depth of their knowledge comes to the fore. This is what exactly happened during the recent vocal recital of the Chennai-based youngster Sriranjani Santhanagopalan, daughter and disciple of the popular musician Neyveli R. Santhanagopalan.
Sriranjani sang on the last day of the three-day Bharatiaya Kala Utsav (4th edition) organised jointly by the Sri Parthasarathy Swami Sabha, Chennai and Delhi’s Shanmukhananda Sangeetha Sabha at the Capital. She was at her creative best in the ragam-tanam-pallavi session when she presented the pallavi “Purnachandra Nibhanana Paripuritha Mukha Ibhanana” in the raga Purnachandrika and set to Khanda jathi thriputa talam in tisra nadai. Earlier in this session, she presented a fine raga alapana of the raga Purnachanrika and the tanam in a melodious manner. The thoughtfully selected ragas for ragamalika swaraprastharas, namely Ravichandrika and Chandrajyothi, besides the Purnachandrika (all containing the word ‘chandra’) and the considerable ease with which she presented these both in forward and reverse direction was a delightful experience to the music lovers. Sriranjani also excelled in Muthuswami Dikshitar’s “Shri Matrubhutam’ in the raga Kannada (a janya raga of Shankarabharanam, the 29th mela) and Tyagaraja’s “Koluvaiunnade Kodandapani” in the raga Bhairavi in detailed formats. Her creative talents came to fore when she introduced the improvisation techniques like raga alapana (an elaborate one for the latter raga), neraval of the phrase “Manasu Ranjilla Sura Satulu” for the latter song and swaraprastharas (brief for the former song and detailed one for the latter).
Koteeswara Iyer’s composition “Mohanakara Muthukumara” in the raga Neetimati (the 60th mela and a vivadi raga) was yet another item that Sriranjani presented in a delectable way. The song was preceded by a scintillating raga alapana. In fact, the opening piece that Sriranjani’s sang in her recital, namely, Jayachamaraja Wodeyar’s “Shri Jalandhram” in the raga Gambeera Nattai, introducing swaraprastharas was indicative of the musical talents of the vocalist. It also gave an impression that her recital is going to be a rewarding experience and Sriranjani did live up to that expectation by judicious selection of items to the delight of the music lovers. Young and promising Apoorva Krishna from Bengaluru, who provided the violin support played delightful sketches of Neetimati, Bhairavi and swarasprastharas. Parupalli S. Phalgun’s riveting mridangam support, including the tani avartanam in Khanda jathi Triputa taal was also enjoyable.
At India International Centre, the seasoned Delhi-based Dr. K. Vageesh too delighted the music lovers by including a ragam-tanam-pallavi session in his recent vocal concert organised by Gurukulam Foundation. He sang the pallavi “Rama Sree Rama Sitarama Pahimam Gunadama” in the raga Bhairavi and set to Khanda jathi Triputa taal. Delhi R Sridhar (violin), Kumbakonam N. Padmanabhan (mridangam) and Elathur Harinarayanan provided good support.
