Music in the family

The young couple belonging to a family of musicians, impressed the audience with their neat rendition.

Kriti

Here is the story of a family of musicians who shifted from Bangalore to Hyderabad, recently and pegged its flag, adding to the city’s cultural milieu. Meenakshi Ravi is a musician and music-therapist and her husband N.G. Ravi is a well-known mridangam artiste of the south. This couple originally hail from Telugu land but moved to Bengaluru some time back.Meenakshi established music-therapy unit here in Hyderabad too, to take care of patients of different ailments — psychological and differently-abled people.

Meenakshi’s son Madhu Kashyap and daughter-in-law Kriti are accomplished young musicians. The talent of this pair came to the fore in concerts they presented at Ravindra Bharati’s conference hall, last week. They were accompanied by their senior N.G. Ravi on mridangam, Achyuta Rao on violin and Guru Prasanna on kanjira. The hall was filled by music lovers and musicians. Guests of honour, ‘Hyderabad Sisters’ Lalitha and Haripriya and veena virtuosos Shyamasundaram and his wife Jayalakshmi - later praised these young musicians for the way they dealt with difficult ragas and their pleasing rendition styles.

Each of them chose just four compositions of vaggeyakaras and rendered them with extensive raga essays and swarakalpana adding neraval for a number. Her vocal output was sweet, assertive and melodious. Her rendition was so clear that one could decipher each word of the vaggeyakaras Syama Sastry and Thygaraja she presented on the occasion. The way she modulated her renditions mirrored her innate talent that can take her to new heights.

Kriti opened with Syama Sastry’s number

Nannu Brovu Lalitha in raga Lalitha set in Mishra Chapu talam. Kriti sang it beautifully elevating all its beautiful phrases. This being Madhyamakala kirtana, its rendition was so clear in her sahitya expression. The swarakalpana too with part presented in ascending and descending pattern was breath taking at the line Ninnuvina.. . The second number Kriti presented was Thyagaraja’s Sogasuga Mridanga Talamu in Sriranjini set in Rupaka talam. She presented impressively raga, Kriti and swara with right intensity adding to general lustre of her rendition style. The final number was Patnam’s Marivere Dikkevvaru in Latangi set in Khanda Chapu talam, a madhyamakala kriti like the other two she sang earlier. The swarakalpana was again carried the melodic lilt.

Later Madhu took stage. He too hails from musical background but commenced his innings learning mridangam from his father N.G. Ravi. But under the care of his mother Meenakshi, he grew to become a Carnatic vocalist too. His first number was Pahimam Sri Rajarajeshwari ’ of Ramaswami Sivan in Janaranjani with raga and short swarakalpana. He then rendered Thyagaraja’s composition Sogasujuda Tarama in Kannadagowla with leisurely alapana. The swarakalpana too was endearing. He then rendered Raghuvara Nannu of Thyagaraja in Kamavardhani with extensive ragalapana scanning from base to higher octave and descending to anumandra. The kirtana rendition was expressive that included neraval followed by breezy swaras. The tani avartanam by Ravi and Guru Prasanna was brief but good, Ravi displaying his mastery.