Carnatica's Rasika Forum

Review of concert on 15-12-2007 by TNS at Mylapore Fine Arts.

MoovarNa izaikolam that brought a standing ovation

The concert started with the begada krthi ‘abhimanamu,’ of Muthiah bhagavathar, followed by a krthi by Ambujam Krishna in shanmukhapriya, kolam kandu kali theerndhen. The raga alaapana was like izaikolam,adhuvum puLLivaitthu, the way TNS made the raga grow in dots and curves till it presented a beautiful pattern of shanmukhapriya which was rasikajanapriya. In Svarprasthara TNS Krishna joined and it was a delightful duet.

Next came the Thyagarajakrthi, ‘enthaveduko ‘ in sarasvatimanohari which reminded of the stalwarts of yesterday the way TNS rendered it though he added his own embellishments to it. It made one imagine how Thyagaraja himself would have sung it.

TNS chose ‘jananininnuvina,’ in reethigoula next with neraval-svaram at ‘neranammina naakaadho,’ in the charanam. Both the raga and the svara were bhavapoorva and wonderful. TNS sang also the last charanam ‘vanajayatha nethri which contains the mudra ‘kumara’ of Subbarayasastri.

The salakabhairavi krthi of Thyagaraja, ‘padhavini’ was the next, followed by ‘giripriyam,’ in kathanakuthoohalam of Muthiah bhagavathar and ‘yaarukkutthaan theriyum in devagandhari, a composition of Gopalakrishna bharati.

The izaikolam created in the beginning was the welcoming auspicious sign for the main rite. It proved to be a trichromatic pallavi sporting three ragas, vasantha, bhairavi and vasanthabhairavi. When TNS started vasantha and indulged in bhairavi the seasoned rasiksas could guess what was coming and it proved to be just that, vasantabhairavi! M.Chandrasekharan too, on the violin, not leaving the audience to guess , immediately displayed it the moment TNS started the raga. And what a pallavi it was ! Words cannot describe it. The lyric was “sruthilayabhaavasangeetham adhai en vasam thaa, bhairavi paavani. ‘ The rasikas proclaimed that it is already in his vasam by their standing ovation at the end of the concert. As Chandrasekharan remarked in the middle of it, ‘avaraale mudiyaadhadhe illai.’ It was such a masterly exposition the three ragas executing swift swirling dance coming in such quick succession that it was flabbergasting.

The tail piece of the concert was a bajan by Kabeerdas, in ahirbhairav. This was followed by by the pasuram aanu irai meykka of Periazvar as ragamaalika , the first being subapanthuvarali to which TNSKrishna joined and gave a wonderful exposition of the raga bringing a spontaneous applause. TNS ended the pasuram in suruti and sang ‘kannallavo,’ in that raga and ended the concert with thiruppugaz and mangalam

The auditorium was full till the end and all the rasikas as one man gave aresounding standing ovation to the great maestro in the end. There goes a great concert . When comes such another? Until TNS sings again!

Who played percussion? Was it not worth mentioning ??

The percussionist was B.Harikumar and I didnot know his name at athat time and hence the omission. Sorry about it.He has accompanied TNS for quite a few concerts since then and did a good job of it.