Kalabushana award conferred on Vainika Balakrishna

Sri Tyagaraja Gana Sabha Trust is conducting music programmes every month punctually from last 44 years. It also conducts Shankara Jayanthi, Tyagaraja Aradhana, Ekaraga Sabha – every year and provide ample opportunities for young artistes too. 

In the annual music festival the Trust will elect a senior musician as the festival president and confer the title ‘Kala Bhushana’. This year during the 5-day festival gamaka, veena, flute and nagaswara recitals, apart from vocal were held. Besides, the birth centenary of Chintalapalli Ramachandra Rao was celebrated and the festival was dedicated to C M Madhuranath, senior flautist. D Balakrishna, senior vainika received the title ‘Kalabhushana’ in the sadas, last week.

The Reetigowla varna proved an effective opening gambit and helped spread a fine musical atmosphere in the auditorium. The Purvi Kalyani composition of Pattanam Subramanya Iyer was pleasing. The rendition of Bilahari by Srinivasa Prasanna, the coplayer, was brief but pleasant with the ‘Raga Bhava’ coming off in soft hues. The Dikshitar composition in Hindola, in which the “Kaala Pramana” brought depth of its own and the “Vilamba Kaala” highlighting the raga flavour. The colourfulness of Balakrishna’s outline of Kambodi and the wholesomeness of his compact description of Pallavi revealed the richness of his experience as an insightful Veena player. Thana in the ‘raga Panchaka’ (Naata, Gowla, Arabhi, Varali and Sri ragas) made the Pallavi interesting and colourful one. Appealing tonal quality, alignment of expressions on the sruthi, artistic modulation of their flow and the artiste’s delicately demonstrated dedication to the disciplines of “Mysore Baani” – earned appreciation of audience. V S Rajagopal, T N Ramesh and Bhagyalakshmi Krishna gave good support on mridanga, ghata and morching respectively.
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Samarasa
Nrityantar, the popular dance school, presented Samarasa, the thematic duet performances. ‘Samarasa’ means equal feelings and even essence and organisers called it “interplay of motion and emotions”. The festival featured four thematic dance presentations. On Sunday, Madhulitha Mohapatra and Bishwabhushan Mohapatra, brought grace and beauty of Odissi dance on the stage. They commenced their programme with Ardhanareeswara of Adi Shank-aracharya in ragamalika. It was followed by Varsha Avisar depicting the glory of monsoon and rains. In the Geeta Govinda “Chandana Charchita” they beautifully depicted Krishna and Gopis. Madhulitha’s Abhinaya skill came to the fore in Harirabhisarati’. In the Radha Vadana, they presented merging of the ‘Jeevatma’ with ‘Paramatha”, impactfully.


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Bharatanatya duet
Seasoned dancers Anuradha Vikranth and Seshadri Iyengar presented ‘Udvaha’ in Bharatanatya. ‘Udvaha’ means marriage – marriage of not only man and woman but many other relationships. They opened the programme with Pushpanjali, in style. They tried to explore union and harmony through the composition of Shatavadhani R Ganesh, set to ragamalika. Songs ‘Thaalu Nee Thaalu’ and ‘Mugdanendeniside’ helped them to exploit a social-contemporary theme, which was welcomed by the audience. They concluded with a thillana in the raga Sumanesharanjini. Anuradha Vikranth and Seshadri Iyengar tried to explore the theme through their talent and experience successfully.


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Kannada compositions
The Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan and Infosys Foundation jointly presented a vocal music concert at the Indian Institute of World Culture on Friday. Prof K S Vaishali is a disciple of Seshadri Gavai and Kishori Amonkar and has performed at events conducted by several organisations, both in Karnataka and other states. She is a Professor of the English at Bangalore University and has authored a few books in English and Kannada.

Vachana and Haridasa compositions has an identity of their own. Though Hindustani classical musicians are not averse to the form, rounding off of a classical fare with a few padas in that genre being the practice for long. Though it is rare to hear concerts exclusively of Devaranamas, connoisseurs can recall ‘Dasavaani’ and also ‘Haridasa Habba’ held recently.

Prof Vaishali presented devaranamas of Haridasas such as Sripadaraja, Purandara Dasa and Kanaka Dasa, winning applauds. ‘Baraiah Ranga Baraiah’ in Bheemapalas was the opening pada followed by ‘Aadalu Pogona Baro Ranga’ in Durga. ‘Thoredu Jeevisabahude’ (Charukeshi) of Kanaka Dasa is a well-known devaranama.She also rendered a few Vachanas of Basavanna and Akka Mahadevi. ‘Dayavillada Dharma’ in Patdeep and ‘Bevina Beeja’ – were evocative. ‘Kaayada Kattalleya’ and ‘Kaanutha Kaanutha’’ of Akkamahadevi were attractive. She presented a string of Vachanas and devaranamas in the classical musical set up. She sang with good feeling though bit loud at times. She opened her recital with Keeravani (Madhya lay Jhap thal and Druth Eka thal). Though brief, it was embellished with some fine phrases. 

She was ably supported by Vikas Naregal on thabala and Madhusudhan Bhat on harmonium.

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