The city of chennai seems to be marooned with carnatic music in december and as a rasika I did what everyone does, hopping sabhas. Thanks to my professional career, never had the time to visit forums and write reviews. However with a sabbatical, I wanted to get into my first love of writing.
So this is my first review and please pardon if there are any errors in reporting
, after all I am a just a rasika who enjoys good music I have been attending Shubhashree Thanikachalam’s MMU for many years now and this year again so far most of the concerts have been reviewed here in rasikas.
Usually I pick and choose concert in MMU, Of course didn’t miss Ramakrishnan Murthy, Shri Sanjay Subrahmanyam and Smt Sowmya here and all of them were really good. Sowmya’s Ramayana showcased some of the rare krithis of Saint Thyagaraja.
Now coming to yesterday’s concert of Smt Sudha Ragunathan, she was in full flow right from the word go. When I ready the theme, I wasn’t sure how she would relate the inner beauty or showcase the word beauty as it suggests. But rasikas were in for aural treat at the Youth Hostel.
Smt Sudha Ragunathan - Vocal
Shri Embar Kannan - Violin
Shri N Ramakrishnan - Mridangam
Shri Raman - Morsin
Here goes the songlist and why she chose the krithi
Divya Swaroopam - Of course it had to be Lord Ganesha
Sri Vignarajam Bhaje - Gambeera Nattai - Adi - Oothakadu. She preluded the kriti with a viruttam. Unfortunately I didn’t take detailed notes and just used the notepad on my phone to take note of krithis she sang. (Swaram)
2. Dhivyamoorthy
Mohana Kumara Muthu Kumara - Neethimathi - Roopakam - Koteeswara Iyer
She explained, the purpose of taking this up was to describe about a god who was full of beauty and technically in tamil we can say azhagu mannan
. So it had be to Murugan. The perfect choice of krithi I should say as the composer describes the lord as someone who has a smiling face and is charming, in the charanam. 3. Dhivyambharam
Neela malar kola - Vasantha - Adi - Oothukadi
One who steals our heart with his behavior and other traits. Obviously it had to be Lord Krishna.
4. Dhivyakaarunyam - Compassion as shown by a mother (my interpretation) and it was Ambal or Devi
Virutham forllowed by Sharadhe Karunanidhe - Hameerkalyani - Misrachapu - Sringeri Bharathi Theertha Swami
5. Dhivyakshetram - Chidambaram -
I see there is no dearth of divyakshetram in our country and she aptly chose the abode of Lord Nataraja. She chose Papansivam sivan's Kana Vendamo.
Virutham followed by Kana Vendamo - Sriranjani - Rupakam -Papanasam Sivan
6. Divya Prabandham / Divya namam
No explaination required and it was pretty straight forward.
Azhwar Paasuram Aadineen vaadi varundhinen as a prelude to the majestic Krithi Narayana dhivya Naamam - Mohanam - Adi- Papanasam Sivan
7. Dhivyanama keerthanai (Thyagaraja)
Karuna jalade - Nadanamakriya
8. Dhivyamalya
Meaning garland of the god. And who else can it be other than Aandal who wore the Dhivyamalai of Lord Vishnu
Minnal kodiyo - Ragamalika - Adi - Ambujam Krishna.
Due to paucity of time she couldn’t cover few other Dhivyams that she had planned. I wish she had done that too. They were Dhivyanatanam, Dhivyabharatham etc.
She started with gambheera nattai in a relatively slower kalapramanam than she usually does and it was a welcome change. Once the pallavi finished she was doing couple of rounds of kalpana swaram. This was a little off routine. Usually we see the artist sing the whole krithi and then take up the manodharma aspect. Well, of course she did sing it post the kalpana swarams. She then followed it by Mohanakumar set in vivadhi raga Neethimathi. By now the concert had picked up and she was in complete form. Some of the vivadi pidis was indeed beautiful.
The third kirhi on lord krishna was a popular Oothukadu song and it was rendered well. Hameerkalyani viruttham was heart wrenching and the krithi on goddess sharadamba of Sringeri was rendered so beautifully. I am falling short of words to describe the emotive rendition and many including me were moved. I have heard this krithi rendered by many and it was tuned by violin maestro Shr RK Shriramkumar. But yesterday it created such an effect that I could visualize the beauty of the godess in sringeri. I request the artist to take up more beautiful krithis composed by the Sringeri Acharya because. For those who have sanskrit knowledge will concur that the scholarly phrases used in this song is worth mentioning
I haven’t heard her sing Kana Vendamo before. Her azhutham and patanthara shudham is known to all. Inime antha Sri Ranjani la onnume illa was my reaction after she finished the viruttam and took the first phrase Kanavendamo. We as rasika had indeed done punyam to witness and listen to the concert yesterday.
Mohanam and MLV are synonymous. How many times have i listened to her sing the majestic Nannu Paalimpa. Sudha was no different. She did gruha bedham and showcased Hindolam for couple of minutes. This was the main for the day and man she did bring out the essence of mohanam. Mohanam to me is ragam that looks simple but is definitely tricky in the sense one can easily jump to hari kamboji by catching the Ni while stressing the Da. Her ragam delianation was neat and some of the sangathis in the mel shadjam was superb .The krithi rendition was good and kudos to taking up this majestic not so heard krithi of Papanasam Sivan.
Following the question answer session, she sang Karuna Jalade and the Ambujam Krishna Ragamalika.
As the wind got chillier I stepped out, I knew the Hameerkalyani and the mohanam won’t get erased from my mind for sometime. And Smt Sudha was in her own beautiful world and she took us along too.
Embar Kannan on the violin was good as usual. Being an ace accopanist, his raga delianation of Mohanam was nice and crisp. He shadowed the main artist, and that is why he is one of my favorite violinist.
N Ramakrishnan on the Mridangam and Raman on the morsing were good too. I am not too much into layam so can’t really comment on their tani.
Looking forward to more concerts this season
.