The concert of G. Ravikiran took off vividly with ‘Bhavanutha’ in Mohanam along with swarakalpana. After a neat presentation of ‘Chalamelara’ in Margahindolam, his interpretation of Saveri was inspiring. His voice has a good range and his akara suddham is commendable. Rajeev did a good job too on the violin with depth. The chosen song was ‘Tulasi Jagatjanani,’ the niraval of ‘Paramavaikunta’ was quite appealing and for a change the swara segment was eschewed.
‘Devi Brovasamayamithe’ in Chintamani was sung at a leisurely pace translating the emotion of the lyrics well. A quick one came in the form of ‘Gopanandana’ in Bhooshavali. The main item was Surutti and the raga essay was quite imaginative by both Ravikiran and Rajeev. The swara portion for ‘Harivararoopudu..’ was better than the niraval. The percussion support was by Kallidaikurichi Sivakumar on the mridangam and K.V. Gopalakrishnan on the ganjira. The mridangam was plagued by sruti problem throughout and ganjira had to take over now and then.
It was a different kind of ‘Sadinchane,’ one of the Pancharatna kritis of Tyagaraja, set to Arabhi raga, that we heard from Pantula Rama . The swara-sahitya part came attached with the pallavi and not in the usual method with ‘Samayaaniki…’ There is a school of thought that this is the right way. After every swara passage she sang ‘sollus’ also in the same tune before moving on to the sahitya. Then came a decent essay of Abhogi followed by ‘Sabapathikku .’ There were quite a few errors in the lyrics, though the meaning did not suffer. While the beginning of Shanmukhapriya alapana was sprightly, it later settled into the much heard prayogas before the kriti ‘Maamava Karunaya.’ Following the niraval, the swara segment was quite lively, but a little too long. Immediately came the main item RTP in Malayamarutham. The Ragam and Tanam when sung in Vilambakala and at the lower octave were indeed soothing, but when she moved to faster pace and higher ranges, sruti often slipped. Though in earlier items MSN Murthy on the violin sounded a little uncertain, in this raga and the previous one his efforts came off very effectively indeed. Due to Hanumanth Jayanti the pallavi was set on the Lord to misra triputa tala, tisra gati. She did a short anulomam and pratilomam too. Both Rama and Murthy were good in the swara portions which included Hamsanadam, Lavangi and Kadanakuthuhalam. In the thani, by Thanjavur Murugabhoopathi on the mridangam and S.V. Ramani on the ghatam, the latter displayed great enthusiasm almost bordering on frenzy, but cheerfully so. At the end came a folksy ‘Pahimam Sri Rama’ in Yadukulakhambodi, the Behag raga javali ‘Saramaina’ and a tillana in Anandabhairavi.
