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[Editor's Note: The event
reports and concert reviews on this page were contributed by Sri.
Balasubramanian Shankar (S. Bala) of SIFAS. Any views and opinions
expressed are entirely his own]
Festival on a roll
When
the curtains went up at the Esplanade on the eve of Good Friday, it was
another moment of triumph for the lovers of Indian art. In many ways, the 2005
festival leapfrogged to a higher profile event, not the least of it is the
choice of the venue partners, the Esplanade, around which Singapore aspires to
build an Asian version of Broadway.
When you brand
an event as Indian and further as ‘Indian classical’, amongst an international
society, you enter a very narrow zone of reduced universality. The challenge
therefore, is to innovate within this zone and yet play by the rules of the
classical game. A first time feature in Singapore, the festival managed to
walk the tightrope dividing the classical line from the ‘mass’ical one. The
nation’s President signaled the art ambitions of this society, with his
thoughtful presence.
Jugalbandhi – Chitraveena Ravikiran and Ronu Majumdar (flute)
Esplanade Theatre, Singapore, March 25, 2005
Ravikiran sowed the seeds for a fan club last year with his Chitraveena combo
with slide Guitar. His second appearance on 25th March 2005, this
time with an even more novel flute combo, must surely have secured his place
in the art corridors. The flautist, Ronu Majumdar warmed up slowly but surely
to the occasion with his opening piece in Jhenjooti. This raga follows the
‘HariKamboji’ scale and yet the difference in the North and South Indian
styles is so much that the presentations cannot be considered even as
cousins. Ravikiran followed up with melodious presentations of traditional
Carnatic numbers in raga Sri (Sri Varalakshmi) and Hindolam (Samaja
vara Gamana). The overlap piece was played surprisingly in raga
Hamsadvani (the customary song, Vatapi Ganapathim), exported from the
South to the North Indian style.
The
presence of two master percussionists Guruvayoor Dorai (Mridangam) and Ustad
Sabir Khan (Tabla) meant that the last half an hour of the concert pushed the
audience to the edge of their seats. Extempore play, as is the case with most
of Indian Classical Music, does permit synchronization, as these two proved.
Though a purist may lament the limited supply of deep creative music in such
forms, concerts like this are good bridges between the initiated and the
uninitiated, with a long-term potential of drawing more audience to the Indian
styles of Music. The temptation to call this a Ravi-Ronu ‘Masti’ in the quest
for mass audience was not given in to and the classical boundaries were not
breached.
The
mix-and-match format I mentioned earlier brings a new salutary dimension to
the development of Singapore talent. Artistes need benchmarking opportunities
on stage and this is what this format achieves. Talents in Singapore have
always suffered from lack of performing opportunities in a formal,
professional setting and perhaps also from motivation to scale newer heights.
These handicaps should now be passé, as the festival has nearly a two-third
component, numerically, of local and regional talents.
Bowing with Guns - Mysore Nagaraj and Manjunath, Violin Duet, March 27, 2005
If
one expected an evening of serene bowing from the Mysore brothers, Nagaraj and
Manjunath, like I did, one would have been disappointed. The brothers are
masters of their instruments, have great control at high speeds, present a
studious approach to sangathis and a keen tala sense. The Sunday evening
concert, at times, was like a double barreled machine gun (with an additional
barrel once in a while from the Mridangist, Guruvayoor Dorai) and yet had its
fine moments in the Ritigowla song ‘Janani Ninnu vina’ of Subbraya
sastri and the masterpiece Sankarabharanam song, ‘Saroja Dala netri’ of
Dikshitar. Nagaraj’s Sankarabharanam alapana was built on the
ladder-crescendo formula and delineated the contours and possibilities
excellently. Mamavasadha in Kanada and Gnanamosagarada in Purvi
Kalyani (the raga was featured several times in the festival) had some
brilliant streaks, but suffered a bit from the frenzy. If a skill was to be
displayed (in this case, the ati durita kala play), it could have been used as
a rare ‘astra’. Skill is a virtue, overuse has the opposite effect – it kills
it, even literally! Gunijanathi nutha Guruguhodaye of Dikshitar in the
rare raga Gurjari was a good demonstration of how to tread carefully on vivadi
scales and yet present the essence in a continuous stream, with full raga
swaroopam (picture).
Guruvayoor Dorai brought his seasoned outlook in the Tani avarthanam and was
well complemented by the Morsing play of SIFAS teacher, T R Sundaresan. ‘Wagner's
music is better than it sounds’ is a
famous quote by Edgar Wilson Nye, who wrote Mark Twain’s autobiography. One
had similar feelings about this concert. It was entertaining without
being engaging.
Sanjay Subrahmanyan / B U
Ganesh Prasad / Poongulam Subramaniam,
Esplanade Concert Hall, April 1, 2005
Sanjay
Subrahmanyan’s music can be likened to a classic ‘Sivaji Ganesan’ film – high
on emotive and expressive content, creative with sound basics, attention to
details and even a marked semblance to the labour of execution. Sanjay
concentrates on bringing out the beauty of Carnatic Music through essentially
a base line game. The 80: 20 audience mix (20 % evolved listeners) means
that his style is a fantastic treat for the 20 % and is sometimes out of
bounds for most of the rest. Sanjay’s performance in the SIFAS festival 2005
at the Esplanade had a significant ‘character’ and the poetic aspects of a
typical ‘Sivaji’ film – the word film is synonymous with ‘unreal’ but in this
analogy, I compare the two only in terms of an artistic presentation.
There were three clear legs to his concert - a warm-up, a plot builder and a
climax. A less than perfect voice forces him into a long warm-up – he chose a
salad of the versatile Kottavasal Venkatrama Iyer varnam, ‘Valachi vachi’
, a brisk Yochana Kamala (Saint Tyagaraja, Durbar), a Dikshitar stamped
vilamba kala Thyagaraja Yoga bhaivam (Ananda Bhairavi) and Emanathi
(Saint Tyagaraja, Sahana). He gave a teaser show of his Bhava repertoire
in the Sahana raga alapana. Todi (Chesinadella, Saint Tyagaraja)
appeared early and as a transition to the second phase – Sanjay enjoyed this
with a soft style with controlled brigas to depict a different, less expansive
picture of this versatile raga. With this song, he plotted his innovative
‘manodharma’ phase, which culminated in an elaborate Kamboji Pallavi (Ananda
Natanam aadinar).
Sanjay is clearly setting new standards for ‘Thanam’ rendition with emphasis
on Bhava in a semi-rhythmic format, almost a continuum from the alapana and
bringing back memories of the stalwarts. He was also bitten by the current
bug - long convoluted swara phrases in the higher speed, to be meant as a show
of laya mastery – very often it moves the body to the edge of the seat and not
really the soul!
There were some moving end-pieces with a viruttam (Bagesri, Kapi, Sama) and
some interesting lyrics in the Saveri Padam. Sanjay met the expectations of
his die-hard fans (as Sivaji always did in the 60 s) and orchestrated well
with Ganesh Prasad and Poongulam Subramanian.
Sudha Raghunathan, B U Ganesh
Prasad, Poongulam Subramanian, Esplanade
Concert Hall, 2nd April 2005
For
a while now, I have been curious to understand the iconic exploits of Sudha
Raghunathan in the Carnatic Music world. As she graduated from a simple MLV
school prodigy to the super star status in a fairly short span of time, Sudha
has carried a massive audience with her and yet not been free of some muted
criticism, branding her as a ‘songster machine’ with more glamour than
substance. Sudha’s performance on behalf of the Singapore Indian Fine Arts
Society (SIFAS) at the awesome Esplanade Concert Hall (as she herself
described it) was a great chance for me to explore this debate. In my own
simple understanding, Sudha has found the right balance between deep creative
music and the ability to connect to a vast diverse audience. She has
successfully migrated the traditional style to the new emerging audience, with
full fidelity to the character of our Music. There is no dearth of the craft
and art – of finesse in raga alapana or expertise in laya, classicism,
intelligent programming or creative swara either – except that these are not
treated as ends in themselves (as many other artistes do), but the means to a
larger goal of wooing different sections of the audience. She has moved the
‘line of control’ across art and commerce ever so slightly to fit the changing
times and the purists obviously have their view. As part of this migration,
Sudha will need to find ways to evolve this style continuously to keep her
flock and take the music to an emotion-kindling level, albeit in the classical
realm. Sudha belongs to the modern genre of musicians, with good education,
feel for audience pulse and self introspection skills and is therefore
perfectly capable of engineering this transition and keeping her brand value
contemporary.
Inheriting a
strong paddathi from the late MLV is only one of Sudha’s strong suits.
Complementing this are a strong resonant voice that holds itself for a full 3
hours or more, from the word go, great stage presence and a powerful
repertoire. The GNB-MLV tradition of brisk kalapramanam is another virtue
which she fully uses. After a staple start with Viribhoni (Bhairavi)
and Vatapi Ganapathim with the usual swara climax, Sudha launched the
more expansive part of the concert with the soft ‘Renuka Devi’ of
Dikshitar in Kannada Bangala followed by the poignant ‘Janani Ninnuvina’
of Subbrarya sastri in Ritigowlai. Sudha used the native opportunities in the
raga to pack melody in the alapana and in the powerful Pallavi and Anupallavi,
keeping the tempo on a leash. Karaharapriya (Chakkani Raja) was a
trademark Sudha effort, with the clarity of brighas and a fine kalapramanam of
the kriti. The rich tone of her voice ascended in this song, which had the
crescendo of swara korvais, a mandatory feature in today’s concerts.
The novelty of
the evening was the tri-raga Pallavi based on the ‘K’ sisters – Kalavathi,
Keeravani and Kalyani – built with a challenging Khanda Triputa, Khanda nadai
structure with ‘oru eduppu’ – this complex piece sat lightly on her
shoulders. The raga alapanas were imaginative with seamless transitions, and
Ganesh Prasad on the violin fully used the opportunity to play a good foil.
Tamil songs Arul seyya Vendum (Koteeswara Iyer, Rasika priya),
Malmaruga (Sivan, Vasantha). Thaye yasoda (ragamalika), Kurai
onrum illai (Rajaji’s lyric immortalised by MS) completed the
social responsibility segment of the concert. Ganesh Prasad with soft fingers,
a caressing bow and soothing tone, shone in his debut concert in Singapore as
did Poongulam Subramaniam oscillating between ‘theatrics’ and crafty crawls as
the songs demanded.
Urmila Satyanarayanan, Esplanade
Theatre, April 3, 2005
Today’s Bharathanatyam dance field poses several challenges for an artiste.
There is an oversupply with very little difference in the quality, especially
at the mass end. Further, the artistes have to contend with the cynical view
of the self-promotion practices. In this clutter and milieu, a dancer needs
to find a strong point of difference to sustain her following. Urmila
Satyanarayanan belongs to the top line-up of dancers who have chosen a
combination of lively choreography, brilliant execution and a heavy leaning
towards powerful lyrics and music, to sharpen the ‘uniqueness’ of style. It
seems as a departure from the traditional margam format and yet stays within
the contours, without spilling into a full dance drama concept.
Abhinaya and nimble movements are clearly her strengths and she chose the epic
‘Panchali Sabatham’ to bring a full panorama of expressions to the
audience at the Esplanade Theatre in Singapore on behalf of the SIFAS festival
2005. She almost brought Panchali to life on stage with her internalization of
the powerful story, the facile lyrics and the musical touches of Maestro
Padmashri Lalgudi Jayaraman. Urmila has a natural poise on stage besides
strong footwork (jathis) and oscillates creatively between vigorous movements
and slow impactful postures, with graceful ‘Hastas’ as decorations. One saw a
perfect blend of intellect, skills and emotions in her armoury. Her
performance at the grand Esplanade theatre mesmerised the 700 strong audience
for a full 2-½ hours.
The
Varnam brought her another opportunity to live the role of Goddess Meenakshi
of Madurai, with a choreography depicting succinctly the ‘nava rasas’ (nine
emotions) around the legendary love story of how Meenakshi charmed the Lord
Shiva. That Urmila chose a heavy menu despite the international nature of the
recital, in her maiden show at Singapore, is a testimony to her
professionalism and a strong commitment and endeavour to stay ahead of the
clutter – at a time when Bharathanatyam has reached mass production levels,
mostly self produced, self-promoted and self-financed!
Urmila had a favourable crew supporting her, with well-aligned music (an
aspect sometimes not cared for enough) especially the pleasing voice of
Swamimalai Suresh. Grand auditoriums are a boon to any show, however, Indian
dances with a strong expression content do not reach the farther corners of
the audience. A closer span of eye-reach is ideal and this could mean a move
towards smaller auditorium. |
