Sukanya Ramgopal's Stree thaal tharang - Abu Dhabi

[HarishankarK]

Sukanya Ramgopal and her team gave a good concert here in Abu Dhabi today (03-Apr-2014).
The performing teams details are as below -
Sukanya Ramgopal - Ghatam, Ghata Tarang and Konnakkol
Sumana Chandrasekar - Vocal
Soumya Ramacandran - Violin
Ranjani Venkatesh - Mridnagam
Bagyalaxmi Krsna - Morsing

Yoga Vandana - Veena was mentioned in invite (but she was absent)

This concert was certainly different and hats off to the entire lady artistes who were all good.
Just like Jal Tarangam with all those bowls, Ghatam Tarangam has 6-7 ghatams using which Sukanyaji brings out the ragas and melody.

Song list

Valachi - Navaragamalika varnam - sung by vocal artiste

Some Nattai composition played on violin artiste alone - later vocal artiste joined during swaraprastharas - composer announced as Mayuram viswanata sasthri. Usually violin returns for vocal but in this concert it was vice versa. To me it made no difference except that this was less appealing mainly because vocal artiste was not that good.

Tala vadyam - Kuntala varalai raga piece - this composition was called Aaanandam. This was the first song in which Sukanya ji played all the Ghatams i.e. the Ghata Tarang. This for me was the best piece in the concert and very impressive. I was amazed at the way the Naadam came from the Ghata tarang and also how clearly the raga appeared. Sukanyaji callled it their Signature piece.

Next today being Dikshitar day the vocalist sang Annapoorne in Sama raga. It was a very average performance like the ladies who come home during Navarathri and try to sing kirtanas or kritis. Maybe the vocal artiste's voice was in a bad shape or she was having bad day but i found her too average to be in a concert in stage.

The name of the organising committee is Pradosham Ragamalika - Sukanya ji attributed this to Shiva and they presented a tala vadyam piece in raga Revati on the lines of Shambho Siva Shambho but it was not Bho Shambo song. Here again Vocal presented a brief raga of Revati (which was good to hear because no one ever sings alapana of Revati raga) and violin also returned. Then Sukanyaji in her ghata tarang and all other played Revati ragam together.

Next was another Tala vadyam number in ragam Varamu called 'Waves'. The vocal artiste presented an accurate but text book version of Varamu. Varamu swaras were overstretched and the vocal artiste was singing same phrases again and again and became boring. Violin was too good. It was nice but there was not much bhaavam. Violin returned the raga. Then similar to Kuntala varali they all played Varamu together Sukanyaji played Varamu in her Ghata Tarang.

Next was main item - Ragam taalam pallavi in Shudhdha Saveri. vocal artiste presented raga, violin returned. Vocal artiste did tanam, violin did tanam and Sukanyaji tried to do a tanam in her Ghata tarang- good attempt but it was just like the other pieces she played in Ghata tarang - IMHO it was not like a tanam at all.
The pallavi line was on Rama - something like Raghukula tilaka.... so on. vocal artiste sang 1 round and violin played 1 round and sukanya ji played 1 round in ghata tarang. They did this for sometime for different versions of the pallavi line and soon moved to swaras. I don;t think there was any customary neraval. The swara segment was
was just like other ragas, raga came out clearly from the ghata tarang but nothing more. They played the swaras for a long time in various speeds and various lengths and finally the tedious thing got over. And tani started.
Tani was really good. this was the second aspect that was really good in the concert after the signature piece - first one big avarathanam in ghatam by Sukanyaji then mridangam and then morsing. All three were very good and their efforts were well received by audience. In between Sukanyaji left some aksharas in the count and pointed to the audience to clap and join in. Audience did it and i joined too and found it enjoyable and easy to keep track of tala. Three rounds of big avarthanam and return went. Morsing was too good here making very funny sounds etc. Then Sukanyaji started konnakkol and i was amazed at her speed and laya fidelity, stamina and breath control. It took everyone's breath away actually. Too good !! This was repeated by mridnagam and morsing.
Then few more short rounds of konnakkol and returns from the other two and tani got over. It was a great effort by all three artistes during the tani. Sukanya ji's role was three fold in the tani 1. Normal ghatam playing 2. Ghata tarang tani and 3. konnakkol. She excelled marvellously in all three but after a time it seemed to become excessive.

The a/c was full in the auditorium and i was feeling cold right from the beginning so i had to exit after the tani. Already 2hrs 15 mins were over and at the beginning the organiser announced that it will be for more than 3 hours. So maybe i missed 1 hour.

Some points:
1. After a time this concert began to tire and bore me and also many people in audience left
2. Except for Sukanyaji and the violin artiste all the others were just mediocre performers and the vocalist was average and just there for formality. I thought she was just there to bring the raga out intially and to let the audience know the words. And in between she was employed to sing 1 or 2 solo numbers so that Sukanyji could get a break.
3. playing 1 ghatam itself must really tire one out - Sukanya ji plays 7 ghatams in one go - really great !!
4. Whenever ghata tarang was played only scalar ragas were chosen - like Varamu, Shudha Saveri, Kuntala varali etc., etc., - what about ragas like Ananda bhairavi or begada or yad. kamboji or Yaman kalyani - can these be played in Ghata tarang - i came out wondering about this?
5. There is another instrument called Jala Tarang which is similar to Ghata tarang but in that whole kirtanas are played and alapana and swaras etc are played. But not even 1 geetam was played on the Ghata tarang; forget krithis or Kirtanas. I thought why it is not possible to play krithis in Ghata tarang. If some krithis would have been palyed it would have been familiar and more interesting.
6. In my opinion this Ghata tarang concert should be of 2 hours max and they should present just 1 or 2 ragas in detail. Otherwise it is reptettive and boring. This concert was boring.
7. There was not much Bhakthi rasa in this programme. That would have come if krithis or even geethams had been presented.
8. Better presentation skills required for Sukanyaji and also more information to be given to audience. This is a totally new instrument but she did not give any intro to audience about this at all and how she got this idea - even if she told briefly it would have been nice to know. In between during Varamu song, i think, Sukanyaji brought a new insturment called Mediterranean Mascarita (i didn't quite register the name cleary) and played some jatis on it for some time. This was a board on which there were some wooden lids which Sukanyaji beat to generate music. This was totally new to audience but no intro was given again. One member in the audience questioned her about it. Then Sukanyaji asked the vocal artiste to explain and she told briefly about this one.
9. oVERALL TOO much taalam and very less bhaavam. Balancing needs to be done. then this concert will be more successful,

[rajeshnat]

Harishankark
Tx for your review , I was curious to hear ghata tarang - it is a set of ghatams . There is a bunch of youtube uploads given by the artist in http://www.youtube.com/user/sukkanya57