Music & dance reviews
Lilting melody
K Gayathri, who gave a vocal concert on Friday for the Bangalore Lalitha Kala Parishat, is a vocalist climbing the ladder of success, quickly and establishing herself as a talented musician.
Gayathri is a post graduate in Music and persuading Ph.D. from the University of Madras.
She has drawn the attention of the music world by winning prizes and awards from the Music Academy (Chennai), Narada Gana Sabha, Kartik Fine Arts etc.
A ‘A-Grade’ artiste of All India Radio she has performed in many Sabhas and in few organizations outside India also. Gayathri’s long stint under veteran musician Suguna Purushothaman has helped her to imbibe the salient aspects of her Guru’s attractive style.
That evening her sweet voice lent the opening varna in Bhairavi (the composer’s name was wrongly announced) an air of dignity casting the shadow of coming musical experience. The effect was enhanced by the “Jalandharamashraye” with chitte swara. Then she took Varali, one of the favourite ragas of both musicians and connoisseurs.
It is an ancient raga and compositions of ‘Trinity’ in this raga, is quiet popular. Gayathri sang Varali with good feeling and laid foundation for the composition “Mamava Minakshee”. In this krithi Dikshitar says – “Oh Goddess Meenakshi, please protect me.
You hold ruby-studded vallaki veena in your hand ….. and she is the pulsating joyous form of Somasundareswara” etc. The Nerval (Shyame Shankari Digvijaya Prathapini) brought out the entreating mood of both the raga and the lyrics.
A Kannada deveranama (Ramakrishnaru Manege Bandaru) was also rendered with lilting melody. Then she moved to the main raga of the evening. Kambodhi, is a majestic raga very much suitable for elaboration.
The Ragalapana was evocative and gave a detailed airing.
“Evarimata Vinnavo” – the dignified Keerthana of Saint Tyagaraja with Nerval (Bhakta Paradhinudanucu Parama Bhagavatula), created a fine musical atmosphere.
She concluded with a composition of Suguna Prushothaman in ragamalike in the ragas Kaapi, Varamu, Behag, Sindhubhairavi, Desh, Shivaranjini and Hansanandi. Seasoned instrumentalists Nalina Mohan, B.C. Manjunath and C.P. Vyasa Vittala gave good support on violin, mridanga and khanjari, respectively.
No doubt Gayathri has a bright future in the years to come.
Chinna kalandam
Narthan Academy of Dance and Music (Nadam) had organized a 3 day classical dance festival. Nearly 150 children from 20 dance schools performed Odissi, Kathak, Kuchipudi, Sattriya, Yakshagana, apart from Bharathanatya.
On Saturday, student of Abhinay School of Dance and Music (Guru: Lakshmi Ramdas Sanjay), Nadam (Nandini K. Mehta) and Narthana Keerthana (Soundarya Srivatsa) presented Bharathanatya, while Sathkrutha Academy of Movement and Expression (Sweekruth) chose Kathak. Kuchipudi was the choice of the pupil of Natyavedam (Manju Bhargavi) and young trainees of Sanjali Centre for Odissi Dance (Sharmila Mukherjee) presented Odissi dance.
It was a pleasure to see these tinytots – all below 12 years – performing with gay abandon and happy to know that so many youngsters of Bangalore are learning classical dance!
These children need systematic training and to be nurtured carefully.
Most of them performed with ease and confidence and of course few of them with over confidence too! With more training and good home work most of them can reach great heights and no doubt, dance is safe in their hands. Kudos to Nadam, for creating a platform for these young learners.
