Kalyanapuram Aravind Photo credit: PICHUMANI K
Kalyanapuram Aravind presented a concert at the afternoon session of the ‘Aradhanotsava’ dedicated to the Carnatic music trinity, besides Puranardasa, Kanakadasa and Vadiraja. The event held recently in Mangaluru was jointly organized by Sangeetha Parishad, Karnataka Department of Kannada and Culture, Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan and Ramakrishna Mutt.
With braga-filled alapanas, soulful renditions of swarprastaras and kritis in earnest, Arvind maintained the momentum throughout the concert and proved himself a worthy disciple of Madurai TN Shishagopalan. Violinist M Srikanth followed in earnest and joined Shane and Sukhya Bhava in the performance. Most of the songs were in Kannada and almost all were by Puranardasa. It was a pleasant surprise when he started with the hymn, ‘Sri Gannath Sindhura Varna’.
After Venai Kupayyar’s Begda Varnam, ‘Antha Chalmu Jaisethe’, he sang ‘Hari Narayan, Hari Narayan, Hari Narayana Anu Manave’. A delightful composition, it extols the power of the Lord’s name, tracing how Narada sowed his seed in devotees like Dhruva, Prahlad, Bhishma, Draupadi and Sukka Brahmam. Arvind sang the first and last verse.
This was followed by Anandabhiravi Alapana and the kriti, ‘Srinivasa Nene Palisu’. He sang ‘Rama Rama Rama Setha Rama Eneru’ in Purvi Kalyani with an impressive alapana and niroval in ‘Namadinda Bhajeesovaara’.
Tyagaraj’s ‘Hichariga Ra Ra’ in Yedukulakumbuji followed. In Hindulam, ‘Yarai Rangana, Yare Krishnana’ was performed at high speed with equally fast rides.
The main piece was Syama Sastri’s Sankarabharanam Kriti ‘Saruja Dhala Netri Hamagiri Pathri’. With a relaxed alapana, Narwal in ‘Sama Gaana Vinodhani’ and an energetic Swaar session, he paid an admirable tribute to the composer and Kriti.
Percussionists, Palakkad KJ Krishnan on mridangam and Manjoor Unnikrishnan on ghatam provided effective support to the singers and violinists and rendered a splendid thani. The vibrant rhythmic patterns of the mridangam and the shimmering laya rains from the ghatm challenged and complemented each other. Glad to see that there was no normal exodus during Thani.
The highlight of the lighter session was the shloka ‘Puram Rama Tapavananaugamanam’ (narrating important events in Rama’s life) in various ragas followed by Swati Tirunal’s composition ‘Ramachandra Prabhu Tum Bin Pyare’ in Sindhu Bhairavi.
Arvind concluded his concert with a fast-paced thalana in Hamir Kalyani and Troupugaz’s ‘Yaromailiri’.
