His was the only concert in the Carnatic style in the three-day Vishnu Digambar Jayanti Sangeet Samaroh 2011 organised jointly by the Saraswati Samaj and Gandharva Mahavidyalaya, past this week end in the Capital. The festival was organised at the auditorium of Shri Ram Centre, New Delhi. An exponent of chitravina since childhood, N. Ravikiran did a splendid job in showcasing the genre of music that he represents, in his brief recital consisting of just four items.
The three-day festival was organised as a homage to Late Pandit Vishnu Digambar Paluskar on the occasion of his 139th birth anniversary. Ravikiran began his concert with G.N. Balasubramanian's composition, “Karimukha varada” in raga Nattai in a grand manner by suffixing very impressive kalpanaswaras.
Ravikiran then moved quickly to take up Oottukkadu Venkatasubbaiyer's composition “Prasanna gopala Krishnan” in the raga Dvijavanti in a detailed manner. The slow tempo composition was presented to a riveting kalaparamanam (rhythm cycle). In a detailed alapana, he brought out the features of this raga to the fore. However, he seemed to have stretched too much in his sketch.
Ravikiran's main item of the concert was a ragam-tanam-pallavi. He presented a pallavi composed in raga Shanmukhapriya set to Adi tala. His creative talents came to fore during the delineation of this raga and subsequently when he played the tanam. However, the ragamalika tanams in the ragas Ahiri, Anandabhairavi, Hamswadhani, Hamsanadam and Hamsanandhi which he and his violin accompanist presented alternatively, came as a bolt from the blue. Instead, Ravikiran could have presented ragamalika swaraprastharas towards the end and his violin accompanist following suit. He could have also sung the pallavi once for the audience to have a feel of what he is presenting in his instrument, instead of doing this for the earlier item.
He however, finished his concert delightfully with a Javali in raga khamas.
Akkarai S. Subhalakshmi on the violin and Patri Satish Kumar on the mridangam provided excellent support to Ravikiran in the concert. Subhalakshmi's sketch of both the ragas, Dvijavanti and Shanmukhapriya, were delightful. So was her tanam and kalpanaswaras. Subhalakshmi was in Delhi during her childhood days and would perform violin duet concerts with her younger sibling Swarnalatha in the Capital. Years back her family shifted base to Chennai. It is heartening to see that Subhalakshmi has blossomed into a highly talented violinist.
Satish Kumar provided understanding support in the mridangam throughout the concert and played an enthralling tani avartanam (percussion solo) in Adi tala.
The organisations, Saraswati Samaj and Gandharva Mahavidyalaya, deserve to be complimented not only for inclusion of a Carnatic music concert in their festival but also for their choice of the artiste.
Published - August 29, 2011 04:47 pm IST
