Kalyanapuram S Aravind @ Vashi Fine Arts, Mumbai, 23/3

[karnatakVirumbi]

Attended an out of the world concert yesterday at Vashi Fine Arts Mumbai.

It was Kalyanapuram S Aravind, a young talent from Chennai. I have heard about him a couple of times through my friends, but the first time listening to him LIVE.

The Concert began with a vrutham in the ragam, Kalyani on Lord Hayagreeva - "Gnanananda Mayam Devam" followed by the Kalyani Adi thala varnam. He sang the charanam in Vilamba Kalam & repeated each of the chittai Swaras twice in melkalam, which was quite impressive. Few rounds of brisk Kalpana Swarams were sung, which gave a very vibrant atmosphere at the concert hall. Then he outlined Ananda Bhairavi for a couple of minutes and proceeded to Kamalamba Samrakshatu Maam of Muthuswami Dhikshithar. It was rendered in an athivilamba Kaala Pramaanam to suit the nature of the composition. Then came in a beautifully structured, Shanmukhapriya Raga Alapana. It was out of the world. He did Shruti Bedham in Nishadham to exhibit shades of Naatai Kurunji and smoothly joined the flow of shanmukhapriya at Shadjam again. Taara Panchamam, Dhaivatam and Nishadam were easily reachable by this promising artist. One small advise I wanted to give him was to take good care of his voice so that, it doesn't get strained easily by attempting all such circusy phrases.
To the surprise of the audience, the krithi that was rendered was a composition of Patnam Subramaniya Iyer, "Marivere Dikkevarayya". Beautifully he unwrapped the krithi and ended up at the charanam where few rounds of effervescent Neraval was done. I have heard his gurus sing. They sing neraval in a way that, it should be sung. Aravind also didnt disappoint me. He did justice to the neraval part (only melkalam was sung) & proceed with the swarams. He was flowing very freely in rendering swarams with poruthams at 3/4 edam. After a short korappu and a brilliant korvai, he completed the krithi. Sri Ramah Saraswati in Naasikabhushani was the next item in store for the audience of Vashi. Very leisurely and bhava laden rendition was exhibited by Aravind. The main piece he took for the day was Ratna Kanchuka Dharini of Harikesanallur Muthaiah Bhagavathar in Kambhoji. Over all piece was rendered in a very leisurely pace without affecting the mood of the krithi. The Neraval, swaram part involved a lot of mathematical efforts that he had invested on during his practise time may be.

Sriram on Mridangam & Hari Subramaniam on the Ghatam were just aptly in line with the thalam and tried to improvise to their capability.

An unexpected treat for the audience was, Brindavana Saranga Ragam, Tanam, Pallavi. An Extensive 15 min raga of Brindavana Saranga, followed by 10 min of Thanam in 3 different kaalams (starting from madhyama kalam to athi melkaalam) followed by the Pallavi "Brindavana Sarangan, Bhooloka Vaikuntan Srirangan" in kanda triputa commencing at 10 thalli from samam. The Highlights of the Pallavi were its Ragamalika Swarams and Trikala Vinayasam. Beautiful chains of swarams in Revathi, vaasanthi, Bilahari and Kapi were enjoyed by the audience. Trikalam was done which included Vilamba Thisram also. To pull it off on stage requires immense planning and practise. What I admired about him was, he slipped out of the Thisram in the first attempt and didn't hesitate to re attempt it and get it right. This proved to the audience his confidence and the practise that he had put in to render the pallavi with accuracy.

Next, as a preconcluding piece, he rendered a Kabir bhajan in Raga Ragheshri. It was really fantastic and soul touching. It was so beautifully presented suiting the hindustani as well as classical traditions. Nevertheless worth mentioning was Shivkumar's violin support which added more value.

Once again, I feel that voice being the asset to vocalists, it would be highly appreciated if utmost care can be given to the voice to avoid breaks and cracks while singing a lot of complicated prayogams in the raga.

A normal sunday evening was translated to a beautiful musical evening for me.

Vanajakshi - Kalyani, Adi, Varnam (S)

Kamalamba Samrakshatu - Ananda Bhairavi, Misra Chapu, Muthuswami Dikshithar (R - Outline)

Marivere Dikkevarayya - Shanmukhapriya, Desadi, Patnam Subramaniya Iyer (R,N,S)

Sri Ramah Saraswati Sevitham - Nasikabhushani, Adi, Muthuswami Dhikshitar

Ratna Kanchuka Dharini - Kambhoji, Misra Chapu, Harikesanallur Muthiah Bhagavatar (R,N,S,T)

Ragam Tanam Pallavi - Brindavana Saranga, Kanda Jathi Triputa,
Brindavana Sarangan, Bhooloka Vaikuntan Sri Rangan

Vrutham - Begada, Shuba Pantuvarali, Rageshri, Kabir Bhajan

Mangalam - Saurashtram


Accompanists were
Shivkumar Anantharaman - Violin
Sriram Gopalakrishnan - Mridangam
Hari Subramanian - Kanjira

[rajeshnat]

Sriram on Mridangam & Hari Subramaniam on the Ghatam were just aptly in line with the thalam and tried to improvise to their capability.

karnatakVirumbi,
Just to disambiguate myself with the name sriram , i googled to find an artist by name sriram subbaraman from mumbai , is he the same artist.

Very recently many of us came to know that kalyanapuram aravind comes in the lineage of s kasturirangan - TNS . The list is very much a typical TNS concert list . I adore many of these numbers that too the pallavi from tns school in brindavana saranga. Keep them coming.

[PUNARVASU]

I think his name is Sriram Gopalakrishnan.

[VRV]

Rajesh,

Sriram Subbaraman is almost my age and comes from the Palghat Raghu lineage. His initial training in mridangam if I am not mistaken was with Trichy S Raghava Iyer. A brilliant mridangist and a gentleman to the core. I think he is now in Dubai or Muscat and decided to pursue music as a hobby.

Vinod Venkataraman