'Sama Rasa' of 'Ninada'

Music reviews

‘Sama Rasa’ of ‘Ninada’

Team Ninada of the PES institutions conducted “Sama Rasa,” a two-day music and dance festival, aimed at promoting Indian classical music and culture among youth.

Dr Vidya Bhushana, who presented the inaugural concert of the festival on Saturday, is a popular artiste, known for his melodious vocal and compositions of Haridasas. He presented a number of Devaranamas which were familiar meat for the listeners and they created a happy atmosphere. The opening “Kondadalu allave” in abhogi was rendered with brief swara.

“Jnanavirali Enage” of Prasanna Venkata Dasaru in the raga Desh, was a meaningful Devaranama. The impact was further buttressed with another pada “Madhukara Vruthi Nannadu” in the raga Hindola. Though raga - swara was brief, were complementary to the compositions. With his melodious voice and good diction Vidyabhushana’s music was Lively through out. “Pillangovia Chelva Krishnana” is another most sought after devaranama from him. That being a “Uthvana Dwadashi” day the pada “Vrindavanake Mandira --- Thulasee” suited the occasion.

Pradeshar on violin, H S Sudhindra on mrindanga and Udayaraj Karpoor on tabala accompanied with good understanding.

A pleasant presentation

Bharathi Pratap, known to music lovers of Bengaluru from the last few decades, is trained under Maruti Rao Inamdar and Pandit Rama Rao Naik. She is continuing her practice under Vidushi Lalith J Rao. An electronics engineer, she has taken up music as her main pursuit. An ‘A’ grade artiste of Akashavani, Bharathi has performed in several organisations, in and outside the country and is a recipient of Kalpana Chawla Memorial Award.

Bharathi opened her concert with “Shree” and invested with a detailed elaborate sangathies in both vilambit and drut. A good flexible voice, the “Vilambit gati” tested her sound grounding. Then Chandrakauns brisk nom tom - exotic melody of its characteristic lilt - was also pleasing. Tarana in Malakauns was equally attractive. The vachana of Akkamahadevi in Jinjoti was a fitting finale for a good concert. Udayaraj Karpoor and Vyasa Murthy Katti gave good support on tabala and harmonium

Rare ragas to the fore

Of the 72 ‘Melakartha’ ragas, some of them have not reached connoisseurs and have become rare or less-known ragas.

Realising this problem, a few musicians and composers have composed new compositions to popularise these rare melakartha ragas. Latest addition to this list is R K Padmanabha, (RKP) the popular musician teacher and composer. For this, RKP had selected Devaranamas of Purandara Dasaru. He has composed music (Varnna mattu) in all the 72 mela ragas and has also brought to light several Kannada Devaranamas. RKP himself performed these ragas at Shree Purandara Mantapa, Kalayani Nagara, for the last one year. Every month he presented one chakra and the last chakra was rendered last Sunday morning.

Raga Sucharita (Sadhu Sajjana Rollage) gave a glimpse of the impressive fare that was to follow. Jyothi Swarupini the 68th mela, was a judicious mix of swara and rhythmic control (Naivedya Kollo). Dhatuvardhini Nechanaiah Hari is another raga waiting in the wings, which deserves better attention from our musicians. So also Kosala (Dhuparathiya) and Rasika Priya ragas (Kanninolage Nodo) are also less-known ragas. RKP also presented Jhenkara Dhwani, Kharahara Priya, and a few other ragas neatly.

He had selected meaningful devaranamas, which was an added attraction. The rendition was charmingly accented and lyrically sensitive. C N Chandrashekar and C Cheluvaraj accompanied on violin and mridanga respectively.