Review by a Dallas rasika
April 5, 2014 at 8:30pm
DFW area's own carnatic music child prodigy, Pranav Kikkeri, enthralled the audience at the Frisco Karya Siddhi Hanuman Temple today. His father Narasimha Kikkeri accompanied him on the violin and Poovalur Sriji provided mridangam accompaniment
As compared to his arangetram that he successfully completed last year, Pranav raised the degree of difficulty by tackling pieces with greater complexity and for the most part not as routinely heard.
The program got off to a solid classical start with a varnam in Natai, Sarasija nabha. After a flash of Shanmukha priya (or Chamaram to be more precise), that clearly hit the key notes, Pranav sang Siddhi Vinayakam. The way he rendered the words "Pasangusa dharam" in the charanam clearly bore the stamp of the patantharam of his guru Chitravina Ravikiran. The kalpanaswaras were very well rendered and showed amazing vidwat. There was one spot where his thoughts got slightly ahead of him but he recovered nicely.
He then delivered a crisp alapana for Vasantha, which again showed all the characteristic phrases of the raga right off the bat. The song presented is rare. In fact, I tried googling it to find the composer with no luck. The composition is Pavana Kumara Sudhakara lochane. Very apt for the location of the concert. Judging by the lack of a clear composer mudra and complex word arrangement, my guess for the composer was be Oothukkadu Vekata kavi which I confirmed later. Pranav once again hit a home run with the kalpanaswarams
Next, it was time for Bilahari. I found both Pranav's alapana that was phrase based and his father's scholarly systematic treatment of the raga highly enjoyable. Kriti presented wasNarasimha nannu brovave. I kept chuckling to myself, especially during the kalapnaswarams, as he looked to his dad afer each "Narasimha" . Not often that a kid gets to keep calling his dad by name
.Pranav chose to tackle Bhavapriya next which is a tough ragam. His alapana was remarkable for one so young. However in this instance I really liked his father's interpretation on the violin. This is a raga that the violin really captures the bhava. The song presented was Srikantha Niyeda as I as expected. He amazed the audience yet again with the kalpanaswarams.
Kharaharapriya was the main ragam and I marveled at how he launched into it once again telegraphing the essence right from the start. Narasimha's interpretation on the violin was also very nice. The kriti chosen was Rama Neeyeda. It is a tough piece and Pranav rendered it with great skill. By this time in the concert, no one expected the kalpanaswarams to be anything but wonderful, which they were. Sriji rendered an excellent tani following the kriti.
Pranav then presented the javali Entati kuluke in Kalyani. He did the pathantharam of his guru full justice. The concluding pieces included a tillana, which by the mudra Ravi Sashi I presume was composed by his guru Ravikiran and a Purandaradas Devaranama Kaliyugadali Harinama in Senchuruti. After the concert, I checked and the tillana was as I guessed in Bindumalini by Ravikiran
It was a pleasure for me to see Pranav's mother Vasundhara, beaming with a mother's pride, as her son got another wonderful concert under his belt
To sum up, Pranav is able to render crisp raga alapanas and kalpana swarms which are musical with the right balance of mathematical korvais to wrap them up, which is greatly to this rasika's liking. He demonstrated the ability to tackle tough compositions and he sings with confidence, interacting with his co-artistes through out.
I pray that with the continued guidance of his guru and his talented parents and the blessings of the almighty and elders, that this young man matures into a great perfoming artist and enthrall audiences for years to come.
