Ashwini Sathish sang under the auspices of Shri Krishna Gana Sabha, Mysore. The young artiste's voice instantly attracts the listeners' attention with its melodic timbre and sharpness, muffling marginally in the lower octaves. Though she maintains perfect alignment with the shruthi for most of the time, one could sense minute discrepancies during brisk articulations; on the other hand, the nilugades remain unalloyed by such vacillations. The voice betrays a tinge of nasal tone, although not to the extent of causing much uneasiness.
The general progression was bold, imperial, pleasing and lively, as was particularly evident from her first presentation, a varna in Kalyani, “Vanajakshi” (Ramnad Shrinivasa Iyengar), which sent forth every signal of confidence and competence on her part. One factor that was common to all the presentations was faultless diction. In the alapana sections the dearth of a systematic approach was conspicuous. For example, the alapana in Shankarabharana in which she developed raga-tana-pallavi. She could have devoted more space for the developments in vilambakala, considering she chose to present it in detail.
Further, the bhirkas in fast speeds lost clarity and balance. The pallavi section, “Paripahimam” exhibited her mettle in manoeuvring through intricate patterns, but this to a certain extent laid emphasis on mathematical intricacies. Irrevocably, one can opine that the artiste has fine taste and firm inclination to chisel her style. The accompanying artistes, Veena Suresh (violin), G.S. Ramanujan (mridanga) and V.S. Ramesh (ghata) fully reflected their artistic and professional excellence.
