Rajalakshmi Fine Arts, Coimbatore
Kikani School Auditorium
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Vid T M Krishna
Vid Akkarai Subbalakshmi
Vid Arun Prakash
Vid Anirudh Athreya
Even in my wildest dream never even thought of attending this.Was hospitalized for 36 hours in last 3 days and I wasnt
sure when will be out of it. Life always balance things out neatly how much ever we crib
Truly top class concert this was. The crowd was intact till 2+ hours. There was less walk out during the last
part of the concert too.
When I heard him last, it wast exactly same time at Kanchi mutt Bangalore where he did back to back karahapriya.
The stage setup typical TMK style and full house half an hour before the concert itself. He stopped middle of the
slokam and asked Akkarai 'vAsikkariya" (will you play) and then continued. khambhoji was melodic bringing his
lower octaves into play during lovely neraval. He did atAna alapana in brief and started the krithi. Stopped and asked
'munnadiye paadittaala yaaravadhu, naan arrambichutene paadidaren" (has anyone sung this earlier, I have started this
will continue). The swara portion was beautiful in duel with Akkarai.
He told Akkarai 'nee yedhavadhu vaasi' (you play anything you like), she played a crisp begada alapana. I thought he will
start another krithi or varnam. Surprising he started tAnam. After his turn Akkarai continued playing begada alapana and
TMK was returning with tAnam. What a stupendous 15 minutes it was from both of them. The swara ragamalika duel was again
absorbing. After dhanyasi he asked Akkarai 'idhoda mudichudalaama' (can we finish off with this?).
He asked 'ippo tAni vaasikkalaama" (can tAni be played now) as it was just 8 PM only. Once Anirudh finished his tAni he
said 'avarum (arun prakash) appuram vaasippar' (He, Arun Prakash, also will play later)
He checked the time and asked 'how long can I sing? believe they said how muchever time you like. He started the swara jathi
and just stopped and said, 'idhu naazhiyaagaum adhukkudhaan ketten' (this will take time hence checked). 25 minutes of pure
bliss, swarajathi. Arun Prakash played tAni for this.
He started Bhaja Govindam, just stopped and said 'ragam paadidaren" (let me do the raga alapana) and what followed was
mesmerizing alapanas between him and Akkarai.Janaranjani, sAranGa were particularly ethched out well by Akkarai.
After Vaishnava Janatho, someone said Bharathi remembrance day and asked for a specific song I beleive. He said 'andha
paatu enakku theriyaadhu sir' ( I dont know the song Sir) and sung Nenjukku Needhiyum.
Yes there was no Varnam
Akkarai, am at loss of words to write about her playing. She was weaving magic right from the first moment. What a superlative
performance. Be it khambhoji, begada, atAnA etc she emerged a clear winner every time.
TMK as usual was melodic best in lower octaves and effortless kalpana swaras. His tAnam was exemplary and swarajathi.
Anirudh and Arun Prakash played out a fantastic tAni. Especially Anirudh was too good.
List of Krithis :
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a. slokam shanthakAram bhujakasayanam
1. evari mAta - Khambhoji-T (N,S)
2. tiruvottiyur thyagarajan-atAnA-Padam Ganam Krishna Iyer (A,S)
short neraval at "partha kanal paartadhu pol'
3. RTP Begada - Pallavi - PradhAnamAnadhu manidha neyam, vAzhvinil anaivarukkum
swara ragalmalika in purvi kalyani, sArangA, Janaranjani, mukhAri, dhanyasi
4. tAni by khanjira
5. Amba kAmAkshi-bhairavi-SS (Swarajathi)
6. tAni by Mridangam
7. rAga Alapana in brindavana saranga,yamuna kalyani, behag, bagesri, kApi,
sindhu bhairavi, mohanam,senchuruti, nAdanAmakriya,pantuvarali followed by Bhaja Govindam
8. Vaishnava Janatho-SurAti (O)
9. Nenjukku Needhiyum-Sindhu Bhairavi-Subramanya Bharathi
10. nE neranammiti shukapAnI-syama sastri- raga??
11. mangalam kosalendraya
Tail piece : Tomorrow Ramakrishnan Murthy will be performing instead of Sudha Raghunathan who is indisposed with bad throat. Life smiles at me big