Laced with sparkling ragamalika

WITH AN easy-paced voice and a free flow of gamakams and brigas, Bombay Jayshree Ramnath handles any raga with absolute ease and rare confidence. So she did rendering an RTP in Vakulabharanam, a rare raga which is seldom taken up for alapana leave alone ragam- thanam-pallavi.

Tyagaraja's only kriti in this raga, `Eramuni Nammitino', was included by Nityashree Mahadevan in her Tyagaraja Jayanti programme early last month.

After a detailed alapana and thanam Jayashree herself announced the name of the raga which should have pleased discerning rasikas who crave for more rare ragas to be sung instead of repeating the popular ones.

The pallavi was in Adi tala in misranadai, with the pallavi line, ``Sitapate Dasarathe Dasarathanandana Dayanidhe''.

After a detailed exercise Jayashree laced it with a sparkling ragamalika in Hamsanandi, Valachi and Behag.

Jayshree took up the penultimate line for neraval and swaras in Tyagaraja's Khamboji kriti (after a comprehensive alapana) `O Rangasayi' and not at the usual first line of the charanam beginning with ``Bhooloka Vaikuntham...'' It was a neat effort.

Earlier her rendering of Dikshitar's `Marakatalingam' (Vasanta), `Mamavameenakshi' (Varali) and `Brihadeeswara' (Gana Sama Varali) were rendered with flawless diction.

To give a quick tempo on the eve of the RTP the singer chose Tyagaraja's `Neevada Vegana' (Saranga) with decorative swaras.

Sadasiva Brahmendra's `Sarvam Brahmamayam' (Darbari Kanada) - sung most reposefully - Arunachalakavirayar's ``Kanden Kanden Sitaye'' (Bageswari), a viruttam (Sindhubhairavi) prefacing Thanjavur Sankara Aiyar's inspirational `Manadirkugandadhu' and a breezy Desh tillana brought the curtain down.

Pakkala Ramdas gave superb support on the violin. The tani avartanam figuring P. Satish Kumar (mridangam) and Thiruvananthapuram Rajagopal (Khanjira) was exciting enough.

Evocative alapana

Patnam Subramania Aiyar's charming kriti `Nijadasa Varada' in Kalyani was sung in style by Dr. Shankar Srinivas. In his evocative alapana he covered all the gamuts of the raga and displayed widwat in the neraval and swara singing. He had drawn an attractive programme dishing out varied fare. Whether in Sriranjani (`Sogasuga') or Sahana (`Eevasuda') - Tyagaraja's pair - the singer showed a lot of imagination in the alapanas. Neraval and swaras at three points in the pallavi of Sogasuga deserve special mention.

Equally praiseworthy was the lilting swaras he rendered for Papanasam Sivan's `Paradevate' (Manirang). The tukkada phase included the Nachiar Tirumozhi, ``Karpooram Narumo'', Swati Tirunal's `Vihara Manasa' (Kapi), `Madhava Mamava Deva' (Neelambari - Narayana Thirthar) and Rajaji's devotional ragamalika `Kuraionrumillai'.

Dikshitar's kritis `Siddhi Vinayakam' (Shanmugapriya) - with quickfire swaras - `Santana Ramaswaminam' (Hindola Vasanta) were rendered in the correct patanthara.

V.K. Sudarshan (violin) played a moving alapana in Sahana besides coming out well in swaras duels. Balashankar's mridangam support was commendable.

- K.S.

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