Secunderbadil Thiruvaiyaru& Sri.Malladi Suribabu’s kucheri

[sivakami]

12th Annual Festival of Sri Chandrasekharendra Edu. Society & Sadguru Thyagaraja Aradhana

19.02.2012
Secunderbadil Thiruvaiyaru & Sri. Malladi Suribabu’s kucheri

On the concluding day of the 5-day festival of the Sri Chandrasekharendra Edu. Society (SCSES) at Keyes High School, Sec-bad, there was a Pancharatna seva in the morning, followed by a vocal concert by Sri. Malladi Suribabu garu in the evening. Like the organizers announced later, the morning event was truly a “Secunderbadil Thiruvaiyaru” scenario. The proceedings were lead by Sri. Malladi Suribabu garu and other senior faculty members of the local music colleges. With several vocalists and other instrumentalists (vidushis and vidwans from the state present there), the pancharatna kritis were rendered after the invocation kriti ‘Sri Ganapathini’ in sowrastram and ‘chethulara' in Bhairavi (on flute by Sri Nagaraju & others). Suribabu also explained the essence of the kritis prior to the rendition each time, also singing melodiously a relevant padhyam/slokam in that same ghana ragam. It is always a great pleasure to listen to his slokam/padhyam renditions be it in Sanskrit or the Sundara telu(n)gu. One gets transformed to a different plane altogether. While some were frowning about this intermittent items, saying “why cant we just sing the 5-ratna kritis like they do in thiruvaiyaru and finish it off (perhaps they were thinking the sumptuous lunch that was ready to be served!)…”, many others were enjoying the explanations. One change that was incorporated (Sri Suribabu garu announced “as per suggestions of the scholars such as N.Ch. Krishnamacharyulu”), in the Arabhi kriti, was to sing the pallavi line “sadinchene “ after every charanam, like it is done for other pancharatna kritis, where the pallavi line is rendered after each charanam. ‘Samayanikki thagu mattaladene’ was sung as the last charanam. Accompanied by 7 violins (incl. the octagenerian Kuppswamy mama), atleast 7 mridangams (a young lady was also there), veena, flutes, ghatam, kanjira, with vocalists right from 8-90 years of age, and several hundred music lovers in the audience, the 2-hr pancharatna seva turned out to be grand affair(hence the title for this thread!). The organizers emphasized that everyone present there must partake with the prasadam, which was actually a very good elaborate meal. There was also a short duration event of Sampradaya kritis sung by MA(music) students of the Potti Sriramulu Telugu University to conclude the morning session.

In the evening we had a vocal recital by Sri. Malladi SuriBabu, with his disciple Ravikanth for vocal support, was accompanied by Sri. B. S. Narayanan on the violin, Sri.MLN Raju on mridangam and Sri. Janardhan on ghatam.

Song List:
Vidulaku mrokkeda – Mayamalava gowla
Ika kavalasinademi – Balahamsa
Sambho Mahadeva – Pantuvarali (R: 8 min, N& S)
Naadadina maata - Janaranjani
Anyayamu seyakkura – kapi
Lokaavana chathura – begada (R, S)
Tani – 15 min.
Govinda sundara mohana – Dwijavanti – Bh. Ramadasu
Maya mohamu – Jog – Annamayya
Charanangada Rakshana – Yamuna kalyani – Bh. Ramadasu (maybe newly tuned by Sri. Suribabu)
Pavamana & mangala slokam.

Once the kucheri started with the apt and vivacious ‘Vidulakku’, I got the de javu feeling, as I had just then seen in our forum, that someone had posted the song list of Malladi Bros’ kucheri that had taken place a couple of days back at Vanimahal. I was very glad that this concert also was similarly going to turn out to be a tribute to Sri.Thyagaraja, possibly with the same items rendered by his sons, perhaps for the pleasure of the Hyd-rasikas. Next came the Balahamsa kriti, after a brief alapana, which someone said was a Voleti special. After that as next day was sivarathri, Sambho mahadeva followed as a very detailed piece. It was interesting to note that he asked his disciple to participate right from the alapana (3min out of the 8 min.), till the end. Ravikanth did a good job, proving his guru-bhakthi. Janaranjani kriti naadadina maata was delightful to listen, particularly when one was able to understand the lyrics so clearly. Even during his kucheri, Sri Suribabu was narrating some anecdotes or sharing his thoughts emotionally about Sri Thyagaraja or our ParamacharyaL (as the program was taking place under the auspices of Sri Chandrasekharendra Edu. Society). I had already guessed that next would be ‘anyayamu seyakura’, which became true.

The main he announced was going to be the Begada kriti, which was again another excellent item rendered in a grand manner. Here again Ravikanth tried and kept-up with his guruji’s tempo. MLN Raju’s mridangam thro’out was not his usual style, which was somewhat puzzling. Later we learn that he was running high fever, despite which he tried to play. Janardhan’s ghatam was enjoyable. Sri. B S Narayanan, the ever smiling, humble disciple of Prof TNK, provided excellent violin support all through the kucheri. I consider Sri BSN as Simplicity personified. His bowing brings out those notes so sweetly just like his smiles. Post main thukkadas included the wonderful Bh. Ramadasu kriti in dwijavanti (suribabu garu gives this ragam a very special touch!!)- a rasika’s delight, the annamayya kriti and lastly another Bh. Ramadasu kriti. By this time, it was time-up for the mangalam, as the last train from Secunderabad was to depart shortly. This kucheri also marked the end of 2-3-week kucheri season for the rasikas of the twin cities, who have already started to guess who would be invited for the forthcoming Nov. series….

[rajeshnat]

Crama someone had posted the song list of Malladi Bros’ kucheri that had taken place a couple of days back at Vanimahal. I was very glad that this concert also was similarly going to turn out to be a tribute to Sri.Thyagaraja, possibly with the same items rendered by his sons, perhaps for the pleasure of the Hyd-rasikas.

The song list till BEgaDa is the same, the pantuvarAli krithi is the only difference . CRama you said instead of Naaradamuni , you prefer a bigger kriti like Sambho Mahadeva and you indeed got even that from malladi suribAbu gAru.Like father Like Sons. Shri SuribAbu has a very deep voice.