Kasturi Rangan has a voice that boasts depth, felicity, richness, range and that traditional lilt. His recent performance at the Kapali Temple Festival was impressive.
Young that he is, he has a tendency to demonstrate bravura exuberance at every given opportunity not just in alapana singing but also between words. This often results in a disturbed song structure.
It looks like he’s punishing his responsive voice for this exhibitionistic objective. Kasturi Rangan was accompanied by V.V. Ravi on the violin, Trichur Narendran on the mridangam and B.S. Purushothaman on the ganjira.
The vocalist conveyed depth and presented brilliant past-paced alapanas, while revealing a deep insight into the raga’s shades.
ManodharmaThis was evident in his Sankarabharanam delineation. It was a combination of fertile manodharma and felicitous expository technique.
The kutcheri was set on course with Purvikalyani raga and kirtana ‘Ananada Natanam Aaduvar,’ with the tala solkattu highlighted. Kasturi Rangan did full justice in showcasing the majesty of the Sankarabharanam kriti ‘Akshaya Linga Vibho.’ He also sang the Kharaharapriya kriti ‘Vidamu Seya’ but at such a pace that it almost lost its identity. It’s not speed alone that makes music interesting.
Violinist Ravi’s sedate solo version brought out the other side of raga alapana method. His experience showed. Similar was the contribution of Trichur Narendran. His support was relevant and his tani with Purushothaman was erudite, especially in the korvai patterns.
