Chase made in haste

DUETS BY woman singers in particular always smack of slinging bouts and if they are prone to make the recital tempo-ridden, a rasika can hardly expect introspective music. They appear to chase each other in haste in sancharas in raga alapanas, sangatis in kirtanas and swara passages. That was the overall impression that Hyderabad Sisters Lalitha and Haripriya created in their Tyagaraja Day performance under the auspices of Saraswati Vaggeyakara Trust. Mounting sangatis after sangatis, some traditional, some innovative, as they did in rendering the Begada Krishna, ``Lokavana-Chatura'', looked laboured lacking in crispness. Too much of it robbed the overall mood of the composition, the sahitya suffering in the bargain.

Two ragas were delineated in detail - Kalyani and Bhairavi. In the former the artistes alternating the sancharas was more in the nature of ``sawal-jawab'' than as a sensitive expository exercise. The kirtana was ``Ninnana-Valasinademi'', a song not often heard, and in that respect was welcome. There were some rare moments of Kalyani aesthetics in the neraval line ``Kanna- thandri-nee-kanna''. The solo rendering of Bhairavi raga alapana by Lalitha was not impulsive, but fairly sedate. The song was ``Upacharamu'', the one in aditala.

The programme was launched on an extra-swift track with the items ``Maamara-Satatam'' (Jaganmohini) ``Neevaada-ni-gana'' (Saranga) and ``Teliyaleru-Rama Bhakti-margamu'' (Dhenuka).

The contribution of the violinist Meera Sivaramakrishnan was insipid, often dragging the impact of the recital. In contrast mridangist Madipakkam Suresh and ghatam artiste Madipakkam Murali were over-vigorous as if to needle the Hyderabad Sisters to not let go their springing performing technique.

- SVK

Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Section  : Entertainment
Previous : Drama utsav
Next     : Tribute to Syama Sastri