The concert duration was nearly 4 hours (including a 30-mins interactive Q&A session). Pakkavadhyam support was provided by B. Ananthakrishnan on violin, and Sriram Natarajan on mridangam (Sriram also occasionally employed a few other percussion instruments including kanjira and bongos, for special effects).
Vid Charulatha showcased her talents as a Carnatic musician by singing iconic kritis with manodharma elements, while also sharing her wealth of knowledge on Carnatic music’s influence on other genres.
Songs/Items list below. As the reader will see, while most items had a kriti-focus, some had a raga-focus.
1. sri neelotpala nAyikE – reetigowLai – MD ; raga sketch; N & S at pallavi line
2. rAmanAtham bhajEham – pantuvarALi – MD ; S @ anupallavi line.
3. brOchEvA – kamAs / misra kamAs
4. Multiple songs in chakravAham
5. upachAramu – bhairavi – T ; Elaborate R; N, S @ kapata nAtaka soothradhAri ; thani
6. RTP in simhendra madhyamam ; Adi 2-kalai ; Lalgudi Jayaraman ; “vA guhA murugA shaNmugA”
7. A brief foray into dwajAvanti, etc.
8. OmkAra nAdAnusandhAnam (film song by audience request) – shankarAbharaNam ;
9. Interactive Q&A session
10. Multiple songs in sivaranjani / misra sivaranjani
11. MangaLam
Charulatha gave a good start with reetigowLai, first explaining the raga structure including specific jAru and kampitha gamakas. After a brief AlApanA, she took MD’s ‘sri neelotpala nAyikE’ and did niraval and swarams at the pallavi line. She rounded up ritigowLai with a few cinema songs including ‘chinnak kannan azhaikkirAn’ sung by Dr. Balamuralikrishna. (side note: later during the Q&A session there was a brief discussion on reetigowLai vs nAree reetigowLai and MD’s asampoorNa mELa nomenclature).
Next was pantuvarALi. Here also, she explained the raga lakshnam before taking up MD’s iconic ‘rAmanAtham bhajEham’. Vioin B Ananthakrishnan presented a good return to her AlApanA including hints of a famous film song that may come up later! Charulatha did kalpanaswarm on the anupallavi line. She traversed easily between lower and higher octaves and showed a touch of Hindustani in a few places. She rounded up pantuvarALi with a few film songs including ‘Ezhu swarangaLukkuL etthani rAgam’. (ஏழு ஸ்வரங்களுக்குள் எத்தனை ராகம்) which the violinist had hinted upon earlier
A brief explanation of kamAs and misra kamAs was followed by thiagaraja’s ‘brOchEvA evarurA’. She highlighted the sringAra and motherly-love rasas, and sang the tamizh film song ‘uyir neeyE’ (உயிர் நீயே) as an advance tribute to Mothers’ Day. She also briefly demonstrated papanAsam sivan’s ‘iDadu padam thookki Adum’ (இடது பதம் தூக்கி ஆடும்) as another example of a chaste kamAs kriti.
After a brief foray into chakravAham (the HM equivalent being Ahir Bhairav as she pointed out), Charulatha went to the main.
Charulatha chose bhairavi for the main, and explained (and demonstrated) the structure & grammar of Bhairav and its allied ragas – mukhAri, huseni, and mAnji. An elaborate AlApanA and a fitting reply on the violin was followed Thyagaraja’s weighty kriti – ‘upachAramu’. She nicely maintained the unhurried kalapramanam that goes with the pleading mood of Thyagaraja. Elaborate niraval and swarams were done at the caraNam line – ‘kapaTa nATaka sUtra dhArivai’. Ananthakrishnan’s returns were apt and enjoyable. Sriram finished with a nice thani.
The next was an RTP in simhendra madhyamam. The pallavi line was “vA guhA murugA shaNmugA || unaDu pAdamE thuNai” composed by Sri Lalgudi Jayaraman. Just as in the previous bhairavi main, she explained the allied ragas of simhendra madhyamam – keeravANi & shaNmugapriyA. A pleasing alapana and a smooth thanam were followed by the pallavi where she did neraval, trikalam, etc. Then followed an enjoyable medley of swara-prasaras in hindOLam, hamsanAdam, kAnadA with good embellishment from Ananthakrishnan. Sriram round this piece up with a min-thani. One of the film songs she quoted and briefly sang at the end (after the RTP) was MLV-fame ‘yellaam inbamayam’ (எல்லாம் இன்பமயம்).
Based on audience requests, she had a variety show-and-tell – a brief touch on dwijAvanti, film song ‘OmkAra nAdAnusandhAnam’ from the movie ShankarAbharaNam, etc.
There was a moderated and well participated Q&A session. A key aspect in the session was her singing a snippet of an Italian AriyA with a Carnatic touch!
The final item before mangaLam was sivaranjani / misra-sivaranjani. Charulatha touched on multiple songs in Carnatic, tamizh films, hindi films, etc. An interesting tidbit she shared was that the yester-year AIR and DD start-up violin tune is in sivaranjani / misra-sivaranjani and is the creation of an English musician / government official!
In all, it was a different experience to each one in the audience; those rooted in CM got a taste of its sibling genres; and those rooted in cinema music got an appreciation of the origins of many cinema songs. Charulatha sung or touched on 50-60 cross-genre songs, showing her scholarship and repertoire.
As I walked away, I was reflecting on Rudyard Kipling’s ballad where he starts with “Oh, East is East, and West is West, and never the twain shall meet” and then aptly follows with “But there is neither East nor West, Border, nor Breed, nor Birth, When two strong men stand face to face, though they come from the ends of the earth!”
. As you rightly say, such bridges are needed, especially for the next generations.