Ranjani and Gayatri won over the audience with their characteristic vibrant singing

Ranjani and Gayatri conveyed the beauty of the ragas without dropping the momentum

Ranjani and Gayatri are key members of the blockbuster concert performers’ club. Their concert, especially the one for The Music Academy, is an important date saved by many. The sisters seldom disappoint their die-hard audiences. This Season was no exception. Their concert had all the ingredients that have got them unprecedented popularity — high voltage singing, exciting duets in swaras, detailed manodharma journeys, an intelligent pallavi and dramatic crescendos.

The sisters set the default pace of the concert in the first couple of kritis. ‘Sri guruguha tarayashumam’ (Devakriya, Dikshitar), rounded off with swaras, was followed by Shanmukhapriya. Ranjani’s raga alapana was exhaustive with classical touches, especially in the descent. L. Ramakrishnan on the violin was even more inspiring with his alapana. ‘Marivere dikkevarayya’ by Patnam Subramania Iyer gave the perfect platform for the vocalists to come up with a power-packed kriti and niraval rendition. At some moments, it did get overwhelming.

Tyagaraja’s ‘Hecharikaga ra ra’ in Yadukula Kamboji (Khanda Chapu) has a unique kalapramana that is a shade quicker than other popular kritis in the raga. Ranjani and Gayatri conveyed the beauty of the raga without dropping the momentum too much. In recent times, one has not heard of Vasantha being expanded as a main piece, and the sisters deserve credit for making that choice. Gayatri unfurled the petals of Vasantha’s grandeur with a few spellbinding constructs around ‘ni da ma’. It was a rare phase when emotive expression dominated the proceedings. ‘Sri kamakshi katakshi’ (Ramaswamy Sivan, Adi 2 kalai) is a rarely-heard kriti composed in a Dikshitaresque design. Every bit of the raga swaroopam is woven into the song and the vocalists brought out an enjoyable interpretation, especially in the first speed swaram post the kriti. The Vasantha fragrance scented the hall.

After a customary rush through ‘Patti viduvaradu’ (Manjari, Tyagaraja), Ranjani and Gayatri brought in the Begada rein.

The raga alapana was pleasant but predictable. The pallavi, as was probably expected, was in a complex tala structure — Tisra Jampai Mishra nadai (‘Nadopasanache velachiti O manasa’) that was also sung in a Tisra nadai in parts, summing up to the same count. From then on, the concert moved up to a more skill-driven plane, with both intricate niravals and a three-raga bedam jugglery of Gayatri, featuring Kiravani, Hemavathi and Vagulabharanam. These are interesting but tough challenges that Gayatri is well-versed in, and she evoked wows from the audience as she sailed nonchalantly through the maze. The heavy-duty passage of the pallavi, imposing as it was, provided nourishment for the mind.

L. Ramakrishnan is both an artiste and a technician and switched roles smartly as per the concert course dictated by the vocalists. His niravals were particularly aesthetic. Sai Giridhar on the mridangam and Anirudh Athreya on the kanjira were unfazed by the charged atmosphere and aligned well with the front-foot game, with their sheet-anchor play.

The style and high energy campaign of Ranjani and Gayatri were packaged brilliantly for the majority with one consequence – it sometimes veered off the cliff to an agitated state, perhaps unwittingly, even as they often reminded us of their well-honed capacity in delicate musical expressions.