The annual music concert of Ambujam Krishna compositions, organised by the composer’s family, came with a difference this year. It was a Sangita Upanyasam (musical discourse) on Krishna Lila by Visaka Hari.
With a glowing backdrop of the Lord of Guruvayur in shades of amber, she centred her presentation around three compositions on the deity, ‘Guruvayurappane’ in Ritigowlai (music: T.N. Seshagopalan), ‘Om Namo Narayana’ in Karnaranjani (Charumathi Ramachandran) and ‘Ezhil Thirumeni’ in Brindavani (Ananthalakshmi Sadagopan). Starting from the birth of Krishna to the culmination in Rukmini Kalyanam, she chose episodes, not often dealt with in detail, such as the humbling of Brahma’s pride and the salvation of the wayward sons of Kubera turned into trees by Narada’s curse.
Slokams from Srimad Bhagavatam and other hymns sung with clarity of diction and stress on emotion laid the royal highway leading to the kritis, mostly sung in full, where the significant lines and phrases were given due emphasis through niraval. She chose more than a dozen songs in Tamil, Telugu and Hindi as illustration to her exposition.
The spoken word and the singing went hand-in-hand to convey more than a story. An informal conversational tone spiced with wit and humour enlivened the communication. The composer’s vision, the emotive and the philosophical content of the lyrics and the underlying bhakti element elevated the discourse from being mere entertainment.
Ananthakrishnan on the violin, Arjun Ganesh on the mridangam and Tiruchi Murali on the ghatam were on their toes, exhibiting team spirit.
A full-fledged concert musician that she is, Visaka has created a new genre which may be termed Sangita Upanyasa kutcheri. That the 1,000-strong audience sat glued to their seats till the end spoke volumes of her success.
From A Correspondent
