Singapore Indian Fine Arts Society

Annual festival of Classical Music and Dance 2004

A round-up by Balasubramanian Sankar

The second edition of the SIFAS festival of Indian Music and Dance, for many of us, ruled our lives over the weekend. What a weekend it was! A Maestro strung his magic, a petite dancer strode the stage like a colossus and the charming sisters got us breathing music instead of air, for full three hours.

They all came and conquered our minds and souls – Veni, Vici ! Indian culture, steeped in high emotive quotient, presented itself on the Singaporean horizons through the personalities of Pandit Shiv Kumar Sharma, Alarmel Valli and Ranjani & Gayatri. The contrasts of these personalities do not seem to alter the ultimate effect – a vibrant artistic appeal and a healthy fodder for the mind and soul.

If Pandit Sharma mesmerized the 800 strong audience with his inimitable caressing play but often tricky maneouvres on the Santoor, Valli was the ultimate danseuse doubling the charm and beauty this ancient art form has. Both displayed their comfort performing to international and youthful audience in their lucid and sometimes poetic explanations to their programme – a clear sign that Indian art is reaching out.

Shiv Kumar Sharma and his son Rahul Sharma packed melody, speed, softness and varying rhythmic patterns in their 90 minute concert at the Victoria Concert Hall. Kalavathi and the lilting Pahadi (with ragmalika designs) were the carpets woven by these two exponents from Kashmir. The musical sounds of Santoor resemble flowing water and indeed it flowed from the Himalayas that night. Ustad Sabir Khan on the tabla did not want to miss out on the day’s glory and played some memorable phrases, including an exciting one-hand-play, one-hand-bol display. Pandit Sharma and his son were the emperors that evening, appearance included. I believe Santoor was once played as a bits and pieces instrument, more for variety in interludes – nobody who is fortunate to listen to Pandit Sharma play the Santoor would believe this ranking Santoor once had.

Alarmel Valli is a dance institution. During a life largely dedicated to the cause of Bharatanatyam, Valli has scaled many peaks – recent top awards like Padma Bhushan and Chevalier are mere ratifications of her stature in the field. Thematic numbers like the Sakthi vandanam (salutation to the goddess of strength), Jeevanam Jeevamrutham (likening the life to the journey of water) and the Sangam poetry (reminiscent of our days in school when learning Tamil poetry called for a special passion, especially the likes of Pura Nanooru or 400 verses and Aka Nanooru) are further proof of the intellectual and thoughtful approach Valli takes. Grace was writ large not just in her movements on stage but her conduct off stage as well. Artistes like her, are perfect ambassadors of Indian culture. It used to be said that dancers, like Singapore Airlines airhostesses, must leave the profession after the age of 25, as a punishment for their waning charm. Valli at nearly twice that age (my guess), quite easily challenges this dictum. The Saturday night show at the University Cultural Centre, graced by the Minister, who has the enviable job of enjoying culture while at work, attracted a large crowd.

Ranjani and Gayatri are the perfect contrasts to Pandit Sharma and his son. The talented sisters know only one thing – to sing to theirs and everyone’s heart’s content. Simple, modest to a fault, the sisters concentrated on just delivering what the audience came for – enjoyable carnatic music. A few more concerts like this and if we are lucky to continue to draw people from their drawing rooms to auditoriums, live music will be back in favour – something I would anyday argue for. Ranjani and Gayatri unleashed an electrifying debut concert to the Singaporean audience, with a three hour classic. The Music was intelligent, scholarly and pristine. Shades of grey with light music or mere devotional music were clearly avoided.

At ease with brigas and mathematics (a 31 beat Pallavi sailed smoothly) as with experiential singing, the sisters observed most of the cardinal rules – a powerful programme, with conventional ragam suit (Manjari was the sole exception), weighty raga alapanas (Kamboji, Sriranjani and Simhendra Mandhyamam), good mix of speeds (the concert in general, was in high gear, but cleverly interspersed with speed breakers like the Varali – Mamava meenakshi in double-Vilamba (!) kalam and the raga essays, rendered with a lot of Bhava ), an intelligent Pallavi, supreme diction and respect for the lyric, no dearth of beautiful phrases, thrilling kalpana swaras (just a bit short of being considered overboard), obeisance to Lords Rama and Muruga with their special days around this time (Ramnavami and Uttram star of the Phalgun month) – overall, a level headed approach to singing sitting lightly on the thin shoulders of these very young vocalists.

Gayatri’s powerful high octave voice complimented Ranjani’s innovations and expert gamakas well. In the past, Carnatic Music’s orthodoxy prevented open show of adulations on stage, but the new generation of artistes have brought a welcome change with the generous smiles and cheers – the joy is infectious and passes on to the audience. The Abhang is semi classical in nature but has enormous potential to endear the artistes to the audience and the sisters made full use of its’ potent.

Vittal is a perfect foil to good classical music and played his supportive role with perfection – excelling in the Kamboji alapana and swarams for ‘Aduthu Vanda’ in the poignant kriti, ‘Thiruvadi Charanam’, a favourite of almost all the masters.  Vittal’s delicate and a bit understated play is a welcome relief to the often dominating, obtrusive play of some of the violinists.

The percussion duo of Arun and Karthik blended very well with the ensemble and reinforced their rising status among accompanists. They obeyed the decibel range and the rise and fall as dictated by the vocalists – one often comes across unmatched volumes of percussionists with the main performer, a frustrating experience and thankfully, it was not the case on the Sunday night.

The performances over the first four days reinforced many things – there is a hungry audience which can be substantial in size for traditional Music and Dance, there are quite a few good local talents, but lacking the exposure to raise their competitiveness, that an organization with the right purpose and commitment can bring these two sides together.

Sangeet Samrat Ravikiran and Pandit Vishwa Mohan Bhatt

The tale of a Samrat and a Pandit in the court and 900 odd happy subjects resembles a story from yore – perhaps 5th century AD in India. In a musical sense, we were taken to this unreal world by the duo of Vishwa Mohan Bhatt and Ravi kiran on the Good Friday evening. Their legendary prowess need not be written about – however, the manner in which they chose this first and special occasion to provide an enriched treat was a blessing for the Singaporean audience. Kiravani, in their skilful hands, added pride both to the native house (Carnatic) and to the adopted one (Hindustani). Their sequential play was as enchanting as the simultaneous play and one could easily idealise this as the grammar of a ‘Jugal bandhi’, achieving a stellar combined effect, without taking individual showmanship to its limits. That Ravikiran is a prodigy is one of the public secrets, but his crowing achievement is taking a ‘old fashioned’ instrument but with an aesthetic melody, to a large audience, including the international community. His youthful looks belie his scholarship, not just in his playing, but also his private discussions on Music topics. Carnatic Music is fortunate to have stars like him in this generation to give it a new impetus among the youth audience.

Vishwa Mohan Bhatt has an equal pedigree when it comes to innovation – producing Hindustani Music with the sound of , maybe , a sitar, from a plucked instrument, is not an innovation many would dare to attempt – Panditji stands out not just in this respect, but his mastery of the instrument. Both provided a chaste Indian Music fare, although because of the nature of the concert, and the powerful percussion ensemble, predominance for rhythmic forays cannot be escaped – the audience couldn’t ask for more. In between, there were divine phrases in the “Muruga Muruga” kriti in Saveri, Vishwa Mohan’s Maru Behag, and the ragamalika interludes of Hamsanandhi, Dwijawanti. Both the maestros played with a lot of ‘bhava’ which is more commonly heard in continuous instruments like Violin.

Arun Prakash, Karthik and Ramkumar Misra where waiting for this perfect batting pitch and had no difficulty in scoring their chanceless hundreds, with the aid of friendly bowling (a strong acoustic system). Kartik’s konnakol endeared him to the audience, many of whom must have experienced it for the first time. The percussionists did not just play an audience- friendly uniform beat, but showed their classical skills intermixing some clever beat variations with three, five and seven beat phrases amidst the standard 8 / 16 beat cycle.

Hyderabad Brothers

In an era where Carnatic Music is produced on an industrial scale the brothers have kept their exposure to the classical model of rarity. It is therefore, difficult, if not impossible to accept their music at the first occasion. The format is the same as in contemporary platform music, but the content is vastly different. Seshachary and Raghavachary follow the traditions to the ultimate meaning – simple (daily) dress, natural poise on stage, preference to subdued microphone amplification, conventional programming with evergreen ragas and kritis, ‘sahityanubhava’ (lyrical experience), little showmanship, plenty of bhava, vibrant interaction and fervour with co-artistes on stage and even a little contempt for anything that interferes with the mission of the evening,

One is tempted to comment on Seshachary’s gesticulations on stage and call it showmanship, but these are spontaneous expressions of the true enjoyment of the intellectual and the artistic moments. The fact that the accompanists kept a constant vigil and did not resort to mechanical play is proof of the originality of music produced on Sunday. We are now increasingly used to ‘practised music’ and it was a refreshingly different concert.

Seshachary produced a brilliant Arabhi which set the stage that day. In test matches, whoever gets the upperhand in the first session on the first day, goes on to win the game, by and large. This is Hyderabad brothers’ formula. They won the hearts with the first 45 minutes. Concert programmes have been so modernized now that it was strange to hear ‘Vatapi Ganapathim’ for the first time in the festival, in the concluding concert ! A melodious swara sequence sweetend the moods. Evarani in Devamrutha varshini, the next song, is a divinely contoured kriti popularized by the legendary SG Kittappa in 2 + scale.

Nadhasudharasa (Arabhi) had everything that makes up class – bhava in the alapana, right tempo, excellent laya in the kalpana swara and a very capable partnership from the violin. The masterly lyrics of Saint Tyagaraja were recited perfectly (…. Saptaswaras are the bells in the bow, the raga is the Kothanda bow, the gati, Sangathi and lyrics are the three virtues – sing this ‘Nada sudha rasa’ with devotion). Seshachary contrasted the alapana with maestro Maharajapuram Viswanatha Iyer by a melodious version sans brigas – with a wide range voice that caressed with clarity, the lower ‘ma’ and even ‘ri’.

The Arabhi piece stayed in the mind better and longer, even overshadowing the long rendition of Kalyani (endhukoni manasu) and the Pallavi in Gowri Manohari. Vittal produced a chaste Kalyani with fine touches in the madhyastayi around ‘ga ma pa’. The percussionists Arun Prakash and Karthik, showed their adaptability to different conditions from the one that prevailed on the previous two occasions – this was a different wicket not conducive to stroke play; they played a watchful first half but used the slog overs well.

The brothers came to form once again in the short numbers towards the end with an artistic Poorvi kalyani, Kamas, Yamuna Kalyani etc. It was a vintage concert and showed a contrasting and equally impressive style with modern day high voltage singing – a good lesson for aspiring performers on traditional fare.

SIFAS’s homage to the Trinity with the traditional Pancharatna rendition is a poignant and emotional moment for die-hard carnatic music fans – I am not sure though, if this tradition can successfully pass to the next generations !

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