Ajay Parasuraman
I know I promised that the next post would be on Ragas but there was a concert review in the pipeline as well. So, this comes before that. 🙂
Due to travel issues and budget constraints, I was forced to stay out of T.M Krishna and Sangeetha Sivakumar‘s concert at Narada Gana Sabha. While strolling aimlessly, I chanced upon one other concert which was supposed to be happening at one of the closest venues from my home – one of Sudha Raghunathan(more likely to be identified with this song), which was held as a part of the 75th Avatara Mahotsavam of Sri Sri Jayendra Saraswathi Swamigal at Krishna Gana Sabha on 19th July 2010. The audience — with grey-haired men and women all around, I was probably the only one who brought down the average age of people present there, which was about 55 — were made to wait for about half-an-hour from the scheduled start during which the chief guest, Sri Sri Jayendra Swamigal, made his way through to the stage amidst loud chants of ‘Jaya Jaya Shankara, Hara Hara Shankara’ and variations of the same.
The mini-concert (as it wasn’t an actual full-fledged concert as such) started off with a piece popularized by M.S Subbulakshmi in her times — a shloka on Dakshinamoorthy. Then, she sang the very popular Muthuswamy Dikshithar kriti Vatapi in the Raga Hamsadhwani. The song as you know is in praise of Lord Ganesha and usually, it sets the pace for the rest of the concert to follow. Blame it on the audio system or the constantly murmuring crowd, the performance didn’t live up to expectations. Sudha lacked her usual ferocity as she delivered the sangatis with effort. Her usually vibrant voice refused to abide by her wishes. I frankly felt like the adjudicator at one of the High School Carnatic competitions.
Then she started off singing the anupallavi of the Thyagaraja composition Mokshamu Galadha in the Raga Saramati — Now, I’m opposed to such antics as singing the composition from the last and moving on to the start of it. Picture a composition in praise of Rama that starts off with Hanuman landing in Lanka and ends with Rama’s Pattabhishekam. How would it be if one sung the Pattabhishekam first and then of Sita being held captive in Lanka. The entire intended meaning of a song is reversed. In any case, I’ll let that one go by for now.
The mini-concert took a ‘mini’ break for an hour or so, and we were treated to a very enlightening discourse by Kanchi Periyavaa himself! The concert resumed as soon as the related festivities were done with. The second-half, so to say, began with Mamavatu Sri Saraswati in the Raga Hindolam. Then, the evergreen song extremely popular at Navaratri concerts, Annapoorne Visalakshi in the Raga Sama was sung.
On the whole, we were treated to a lacklustre and mediocre performance from someone whose reputation ranks among the highest in their field. Sudha’s voice lacked the usual tenacity of sangati delivery and effortless brigas. The Chennai kutcheri crowd are among the most demanding and ardent rasikas there are. Did Sudha satisfy their palates? I don’t think so.
Due to travel issues and budget constraints, I was forced to stay out of T.M Krishna and Sangeetha Sivakumar’s concert at Narada Gana Sabha. While strolling aimlessly, I chanced upon one other concert which was supposed to be happening at one of the closest venues from my home.
