R.S.Ramakanth - Vocal Support
M.Chandhrasekaran - Violin
Umayalpuram K. Sivaraman - Mrudangam
B. S. Purushothaman - Khanjira
At the outset, I wish to thank R.K.Sriramkumar for the classique decoration that was on the stage as backdrop. The hall was equally full with rasikas and vidhwans.
Rks lit the light for the evening with the kAmbOji varNam of swAthi thirunAL, sarasija nAbha and made everybody feel as if it is an AlApana or a well-known krithi. UKS sir demonstrated the unique style for accompanying ata thALa varNam in a well-defined way.
There was nidhAnam in kAlapramANam and clear rendition in shrI mUlAdhAra chakra vinAyakA [shrI, Adhi 2kaLai, dIkshithar] with some interesting swara prasthAram as Ramakanth added some swaras of endharO mahAnu bhAvulu to it. UKS sir and MC played with perfect understanding and when sir faded the last three ‘thakadhina’s, in the ending, it sounded great.
jayamahishAsura mardhini of muthaiah bAgavathar in hamsadhwani stood different among the oft-sung populars and elevated the concert listening to a remarkable height. Ramakanth presented matching phrases for pallavi while doing the swaras. The prayOgam of Pa… nI… ga rI…. by chandhru sir was nice.
hariharaputhram in vasantha [dIkshithar] served as a piece of vigor. shrI kvn mama used to sing this a bit faster. UKS sir energetically embellished the song with some immortal and tailor made phrases, enveloped with the stamp of thanjavur shrI vaidhyanatha iyer, which reminded palghat shrI mani iyer’s accompaniment to ariyakkudi. The rasikas seem thrilled when he played an 80 aksharas kOrvai as an ending between the pallavi and anupallavi.
shrI rks soaked the rasikas with an AlApanA in sahana, like a soft gentle stroke with a peacock quill. He also kept the audience guessing by singing a phrase like “giripai nelakonna”in the beginning. pattaNam subhramaNya iyer’s ‘rAma ika nannu brOva….’ [rUpaka chApu] was rendered well with bhAvam. The avarOhaNa sangathi in “dhaya lEdhA”, implied charaNAgathi. Swaras followed. When shrI rks and ramakanth sang nI… dha pA… it conveyed various things as a sentence too.
thOdi was main. It said “ma[e]in hoom; mE thOdi hoom” in every sangathi. UKS sir and BSP played a sparkling thani. Moved by the presence of artistes like shrI psn, shrI trs, shrI t.v.vasan, n.ravikiran and other performers, sir presented a great display of thisram and kaNdam varieties and also played the kuraippu, mOrA and kOrvai in kaNda gathi. shrI rks accoladed sir for the reverberating thani and UKS sir and chandhru sir said, “one more 85 years you have to sing like this and we have to play for you”.
shrI rks concluded the concert with smarisuva janakella of puandharadhAsa in surutti, the slOkam “mangaLam kOsalEndhrAya” and ‘nI nAma’ in sourAshtram.
Dr. V. V. Srivatsa, maithreyi ramadurai [Music Academy] narasimman[asthika samajam, thiruvanmiyur] radhakrishnan[hamsadwani], boothalingam[ramana kendra], ramabadran [safe], jayalakshmi santhanam, k.s.kalidoss, ashok ramani, prema rangarajan, gayathri venkataraghavan, manoj siva, shree sundarakumar, delhi muthukumar, amrutha murali, vasudha ravi, swarna rethas, sandeep narayan, varalakshmi anandkumar, k.gayathri, barathi ramasubban, ishwarya ragavan were also seen enjoying the concert.
That was a great evening.