Review of the concert on 7-12-2007
shakthipravaaham or raagapravaaham!
Vijay TV is organizing a series of concerts at the Image hall Santhome, Chennai and on the first day on 7th it was that of Nithyasree followed by that of TNS.the concert lasted for one and a half hours, from 8pm to 9.30 pm. Concert of Gayathri Girish was scheduled after that of TNS. The concerts will be telecast from 17th onwards.
The concerts were thematic and Nithyasree sang on Venakatesa and the theme for TNS was shakthipravaaham. It was actually a ragapravaaham.
TNS started with porrvikalyani and one might have expected Meenakshi memudham. But it was the composition of Bharathiyar ‘shakthi shakthi shakthi enru sollu ‘ set in poorvikalyani. Next was the santhanamanjari krthi of dikshithar ‘Santhanamanjari shankari pahimaam.’
Next was a superb hindolam and the krthi ‘maamavathu sri sarasvathi,’ followed by tharunam eedhamma in goulibandhu of Syamasasthri.
TNS rendered an excellent raga alapana in sama and the krthi was not ‘annapoorne,’ but a composition of TNS ‘ thaaye thanayan sei pizai poruppaaye, ‘ It was beautiful and bhavapoorva.
The shakthi pravaaha thus being turned into ragapravaaha, Varali flooded the auditorium sweeping the rasikas off their feet. The exquisite Varali was followed by ‘ninnaicchialavarangal ketpen ‘ of Bharathiyar set in Varali as a viruttham which was soul-stirring and the song ‘yadhumaagi ninrai kali’ in varali. The svaraprasthra was something fantastic. I hope they will telecast it without deleting on the TV.
The rga pravaha continued in a torrential flow with the sloka ‘amba mohini devata thribhuvani,’ a favourite of TNS rasikas as he sings the lines in the ragas corresponding to the words, mohanam for ‘amabamohini,’ ananadabhairavi for ‘anandha sandhayini,’ vaani in keervaani etc. When he started to sing the line ‘kalyani kamaneeya kalpalathika,’ it was in yaman kalyani which was something out of this world, which made one exclaim that it was not only sjhakthipravaha but a ragapravaha as well. TNS sang the next line ‘udurajabimbavadana’ in punnagavarali ending the sloka in suruti. Then it was ‘vandarkuzaliye,’ a composition of TNS’s mother which he sang as a viruttham in sindhubhairavi ending the concert with ‘mavoor valam peruga’ in sindhubharavi, a composition of Muthiah Bhagavathar. That is the end of the ragapravaha in which the rasikas were immersed for one and ahalf hours.