Aishwarya Vidya Raghunath has many necessary traits like a pleasant voice, good programming instinct, fluent concert rhythm, mighty confidence and sustained energy that shored up her concert. Some elements though are work in progress.
A bright ‘Seethapathe namanasu’ (Kamas, Tyagaraja) provided an engaging early phase, with fast niraval and swarams at ‘Prema joochinapai’.
Following a succinct raga alapana of Varali, Aishwarya chose the classic kriti, ‘Karuna Joodavamma’ of Syama Sastri in Misra Chapu. The niraval at ‘Madhuravani Dharmasamvardini’ was placid but the handling of the kriti was matured. So was the Dikshitar piece, ‘Soundararajam’ in Brindavana Saranga.
Aishwarya packed in the vital bhavam and vilamba principles for a scholarly treatment. The mandatory speed variety was provided by ‘Kumaran thal’ in Yadukula Khambodi (Sivan).
Aishwarya’s Kharaharapriya was built on standard phrases and some twister brigas, but was bhavam-shy. Back to her kriti forte, her ‘Nadaci Nadaci’ had fine touches and enunciation. The swarams in Kharaharapriya were largely sarva laghu with minimum laya overlay. The Pallavi in Begada, ‘Damaruka hara gangadhara sankara’ had some complexity with the misra nadai kanta jathi Roopaka talam structure. Niraval, trikalam and swarams in three ragas – Begada, Hamirkalyani and Sankarabharanam brought out the best skills of Aishwarya and her ability to keep the concert vibrant throughout.
Violinist K.J. Dileep played a pleasing alapana of Kharaharapriya and exhibited laya control but stuck to routineness otherwise. Manjunath on the mridangam showed imagination in playing for the kritis though losing himself a bit in the trikala of the pallavi.
The tani avartanam — deft without loud thuds — with ghatam Trivandrum Rajesh was utilised to showcase their skills.
With attention to sruti alignment, facility beyond the 1 ½ octave range and encompassing intelligent layam where appropriate, Aishwarya could be on the next step of the ladder.
