Carnatic - Kathakalipadam jugalbandi, Seva Sadan,Malleswaram

[braindrain]

Carnatic:

Vocal : Sankaran Namboodiri

Violin : Mathur Srinidhi

Mrudangam : M T Rajakesari

Kathakalipadam

Vocal : Kottakkal Madhu & Kalamandalam Babu Namboodiri

Chenda : Kalamandalam Krishnadas

Maddalam : Kalamandalam Raj Narayanan

Edakka : Kalamandalam Aneesh

Organised by : IPCA ( International Center for Performing Arts) , Yelahanka, Bangalore

List:

( for identifying, those in italics are kathakalipadam)

01. vAtApi gaNapatim – hamsadhwani – Dikshitar ( O,S )

harihara vidhinuta – hamsadhwani – Thodayam

02. SLOkam ( pItAmbaram karavirAjitam) – Sri ( by both Madhu & Sankaran Namboodiri)

endarO mahAnubhAvulu – Sri – Thyagaraja

ajitA harE jaya – SrI – Kuchelavruttam ( started at vijaya sArathE)

03. pantuvarALi Alapana by Sankaran Namboodiri

Siva Siva Siva yenarAdA – pantuvarALi – Thyagarja

SLOkam ( chintayam iti) – pantuvarALi ( by Madhu)

avaLEtoru kAmini – pantuvarALi – Nalacharitham 3rd Day

04. Arabhi Alapana by Madhu & Sankaran Namboodiri

shArada rajani varunnu tEril – Arabhi – Arjuna Vishadavruttam

pAhi parvata nandini – Arabhi – Swathi Thirunal ( S )

05. sAmaja vara gamana – hindOLam – Thyagaraja ( S )

entiha man mAnasE – hindOLam – Karnashapatham

06. yOchanA kamalA lOchanA – darbAr – Thyagaraja ( S )

pUmAtinotha chArutanO – darbAr – Nalacharitam 1st Day

07. AbhEri alapana by Sankaran Namboodiri & Madhu

anganE njAn angu pOvatenganE – AbhEri – Nalacharitam 2nd Day

nagumOmu – AbhEri – Thyagaraja ( S )

tani Avartanam ( mrudangam , maddaLam, eDakka & chenDa)

08. bhAgyAda lakshmi bAramma – madhyamAvati – Purandara Dasa

padma vallabha pAlaya bhagavan – madhyamAvati – ?

The influence of carnatic music on the Kathakali padam ( a big and not so good influence these days) and vice versa ( especially on the Kerala based musicians) are not new to those who follow both the streams of classical music. Many Kerala based carnatic musicians are heavily influenced by the ‘sopanam’ style of Kathakali padams (few of them include these padams in their repertoire). Some of the aspects right stress and pronunciation, the appropriate ‘pada chedam’, the emotive content over structural brilliance, the ‘open throated’ singing style, the steady facial and physical body control they exhibit even at the higher octaves etc are adaptable to carnatic singers. We see some of these as Keerthi once pointed out in the singing of MDR, KVN and few other Kerala born musicians. Similarly, Kathakali music has a long lasting connect to carnatic music. Some of the extinct ragas continue to thrive in Kathakali music such as kAnakurinji , sAmanthamalahari and pADi ( very distinct from the carnatic pADi).

Kathakalipada cutcheri as a form has evolved over the last two decades. Kalamandalam Sankaran Embranthiri, Venmany Hardas, Hyderali trio supposed to have given this a fresh life and made this into mainstream. There are more takers for this form now, with the new release of financial freedom experienced generally in this part of the world. The concept of jugalbandi is thus a natural progression. Inspired by each other, both the musical fraternity are now joining together experimenting with this system. The kathakali pada cutcheri itself is in the nascent state, and hence a jugalbandi is still in its premature stage. There are a few working-together and presenting a joint concert that is already performed in Kerala, but this must be for the first time, that such an event is being arranged in Bangalore.

One need to appreciate the organisers for bring this into Bangalore, and the artists themselves. The event in totality was very good and had no on stage confusion. The plan was clearly established ( on paper which both participant was constantly referring to) and executed until time as a villain played spoil sport. Both Sankaran Namboodiri and the Madhu-Babu pair, sang their part well. The handing over, the interchanges while singing the same part ( alapana, slokam and the final madhyamavati piece) were beautifully handled. The selection too was decent ( they might have had a few more in stock, but had to cut short) with popular numbers from carnatic as well as Kathakali music.

On the side of improvement, one would have liked to see a more balancing of the singing. Sankaran Namboodiri, on his part was singing kalpana swaram for every kriti ( there is no equivalent in kathakali) and was indeed taken a larger pie of the proceeding with more agitated gestures. Kathakali singers on their part was calm and composed and had their share of elaboration through their version of ‘neraval’ like pada-sahitya sangatis.

Percussion artist supported their own group adequately. One could see the changing expression on the faces of the carnatic accompaniment. Rajakesari expression shown curiosity to start with changing into admiration and couldn’t resist himself by joining the ‘louder’ kathakali percussion team. Srinidhi, too seems to be in a similar state of mind. The percussion quadruple did play a shortish tani avartanam, with the mrudangam leading the fair and the rest playing out the ‘korvai’ part along with him.

[rshankar]

Sounds like a very wonderful concert. I hope that there was a big turnout.
Was this recorded? It would be very instructional if the same rAgas sound different in the two streams.

[rajeshnat]

Jayan
My curiosity to hear this atleast once is just going up and up, Tx to your 2 reviews and also of one by keerthi in the past. Many rasikas when they try to listen carnatic music get bit lost during violin return . I guess these kind of concerts where the carnatic musicians donot take up alapana and not having violin return while giving it to kathakalipadam team more time, may satisfy many .

Just curious - does all kathakalipadam songs generally sung only in vilambit mode
or
Just like a fast , slow and medium tempo songs in a typical cm concert - do they have the same structure in the kathakalipadam songs.

[keerthi]

Let me start by saying that the effort is very commendable and the attendance was very heartening. That being said…

I went to the concert with some misgivings about the possibility of the current cutchery-standard Carnatic fare and the prevalent Kathakali padam genre coming together in a concert. It is a pairing with great potential and needs some discussion, some preparation and planning, and needs the artistes to develop a meaningful synergy for the music to make sense. If not, how can the watered down tamarind rasam Carnatic water mix with the honey-coconut oil-viscous Kathakali music, even if it has been replaced by a thinner vegetable oil version of itself? Will the current of the Kaveri in the monsoon disturb the Alleppey backwaters, or will they merge in harmony?

1.SN sang vAtApi gaNapatim well, with excellent pronunciation, parade-catvAri-vAgAtmakam instead of the usual parAdicatvA- rivA-gAtmakam, and singing vAraNAsyam each time instead of stopping at vAraNaaa.

Madhu and Babu sang a suite of stuti padams in Hamsadhwani on GaNapati, Siva?, KrSNa and mUkAmbika each. Nothing noteworthy.

2. The Madhu-Babu pair began an Alap cloaked in a slOka ‘pItAmbaram karavirAjita..’ and did an excellent job of developing srIrAgam. Sankaran N took it up with a padacchEda, at ‘sarasijam karUnA-samudram’ and sang very clichéd nr-rm-mn-nrrgr phrases, and there was more flamboyance than raga bhAva in all his alApanas. There were three instances of the p,,dnpm phrase in the Alapa, which too was a bit tiresome. SN however executed one intelligent passage in the AlApana, which mirrored the karuNa-varana aruNa-sahaja-kEtana passage from the kathakali padam. It was done in a subtle way, and I appreciate that sort of thing.

endarO mahAnubhAvulu, sung from anupallavi, with caranams sans swara passages, was ok, but I would have suggested a nAma-kusumamula, or a karuNajUdu or even a mUlAdhara-cakra as a right song to match the padam 'ajita hare'. This padam is one of the most evocative sketches of sriragam I have heard, and I’m terribly, irreversibly prejudiced in its favour!

SN, who in most part paid attention to pronunciation, in the last sangati sent endaro mahAnubhAvu to the loo, splitting the word infelicitously.

Babu-Madhu sang ‘Ajita hare’ well, but I have heard better versions,both from others, as well as from Madhu himself 8 years ago.

3. PantuvarAli – SN’s Alapa and krti presentation were pedestrian, and there was a surfeit of swarams, including one Avartanam of the uruTTu swarams [s,,rs n,,sn d,,nd p,,dp- n,,sn d,,nd p,,dp m,,pm etc] that Sankarana’s paramaguru Chembai Vaidyanatha Bhagavatar was famous for. The violinist, Matthur Srinidhi, whose paramaguru was Chowdiah, responded with elan; gave back in equal measure, and some.

While the padam Madhu-Babu sang was nice, I longed for KAdravEya –kula-tilaka, which has an incandescent slow treatment of pantuvarAli, that is uncommon, and is seen in rare gems like the padam ‘nittirayil soppanattil’ or the masterpiece SrisundararAjam of diksitar.

4. Arabhi – again the constrast in the approach was brought out in the AlApana, wherein Shankaran sang some forgettable rm-md-dr rr-mm-dd-rr phrases, while Madhu plumbed the depths of the mandra going from sndp to dpmgr, to mgrs; caressing, and then grasping and then settling down on the mandra SaDja; all with an impassive face.

The Arabhi krti pAhi parvata-nandini was sung decently, and I think he pronounced pArvaNEndu correctly, but I kept hearing pAvanEndu; SN sang the anupallavi with correctly split words; stopping at vAhinI-taTa-nivAsini, and taking up kEsari only for kEsarivAhane. He sang an uncommon caranam, kanjadala-nbha-lOcanE instead of the more-heard cancalad-ali-lalitAlakE, using a note for reference.

The padam ‘shArada-rajani varunNu’ is from a recent aTTakathA, and is Madhu’s own tune, for all I know. It began with a pd-sd for sha-a-rada, whih is a good old phrase of arabhi found in great compositions, including dorasamayya’s varNam, but the rest of the song was marred by too many pmr and dpmr phrases which made the varnamettu a strange mix of suddha sAveri and Arabhi. But that may just be my carnAtic-rAga-treatment-indoctrinated mind talking.

Sankaran Nambudiri announced, “Now a ‘speed ’ kirtanam in Darbar", before he sang yOcana kamalalOcana. The comment was unnecessary since all the krtis, AlApanas and swara sequences he sang were ‘speed’. There was a glut of swarakalpana for all songs - interminable cakravyUhas of muttaipu and makuTaswarams for nearly everything – hindolam, pantuvarali, arabhi, abheri; his ability to sing long passages of sarvalaghu swarakalpana, in a near-breathless fashion was impressive but it was overkill.

The canter he chose for his krtis even forced the Kathakali singers to speed up their usually reposeful padams, making some of the wordier passages sound like a lot of noise. The kathakali singers sang with little gesticulation, and almost zero facial expressions, except one of attentiveness, or an occasional barely hidden smile; while the Carnatic singer made the most grotesque faces, and waved his hands all over. His eyes were ready to pop out, and I detected a bulging vein in his neck. The contrast made it comical, with a hint of bathos.

I would have liked a concert where the performers spent half a day in each other’s company [if not a week] trying out exercises where the overlap and divergences of the two systems could be shown in the best light, rather than a poorly patched together programme wherein two singers each sang a set of pieces in the same rAga. They could have tried a couple of other shared rAgas like kEdAragaula, dhanyasi, sAveri, dEvagAndhari or navroj, wherein there is much scope for rakti in both schemes, albeit in very different ways. More attention could have been paid to the role of the accompanists, and the mike settings for them.

Finally it is paramount that the singers have some shared aesthetic viewpoint - about vishrAnti or pronunciation or shruti or some such. If not, it will continue to be oil and water.

[rupavathi]

Wow, excellent writeup, keerthi. Very insightful and balanced, thanks. I see one major omission in this song pairing lineup... where is the grand Kambhoji? What is a kathakali padam selection without Harinakshi? [-x

[braindrain]

Wow, excellent writeup, keerthi. Very insightful and balanced, thanks. I see one major omission in this song pairing lineup... where is the grand Kambhoji? What is a kathakali padam selection without Harinakshi? [-x

Well, we ( myself and keerthi) did hear and witnessed hariNAkshi a month ago , at a place called kAralmaNNa, in a traditional set up of Kathakali performance ( full night feature, with Keechakavadham starting at around 2:00 am) . So, no great loss !! In fact, their last kathakali pada katcheri in Bangalore ( few months ago) did feature a longish kAmbOji, the 'UrjitASaya' padam from Nalacharitam 1st Day.

But seriously, their selection of the ragams probably aren't the best they could have done. Not only kambOji ( or kAmOdari to use the kathakali parlance), thODi, SankarAbharaNam or kalyANi did not find a place. They might have had a larger list, but improper planning and timing their respective pieces have hampered the evening. They had to rush through the end ( "I wil sing a fast kriti" from Sankaran Namboodiri, resulting from this confusion). More over, I would have preferred the ragas as mentioned by Keerthi , which will have higher emotional content and have treated little differently in both the forms of music.

[rupavathi]

Kurup aasaan singing Harinakshi
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Hhko2x_wSk

And the master Sankaran Embranthiri, in a Kathakalipadam kacheri... brilliant Kambhoji, starting at around 07:00 into the clip:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gkCZ0Fv5j7s

[espras]

A report on this programme in Deccan Herald of today.

http://www.deccanherald.com/content/385 ... seurs.html

[keerthi]

Another review. This one from the Hindu.

[rupavathi]

Why do all joint musical efforts have to be christened 'jugalbandi'? #:-s