To go the extra mile

With better voice control, Prithvi Harish and Srividhya Lakshminarayanan could enhance their concert appeal

Srividhya Lakshminarayanan and Prithvi Harish chose mellow ragas for their centrepiece, despite both singers displaying an overall eagerness for vibrant pieces in a variety of tunes.

In back-to-back evenings at Mudhra’s 29th Fine Arts Festival, the youngsters showed the potential to grow in classicism. That would, however, necessitate stronger voice exercises. Not only will a sturdier throat clarify their ideas; it can also enhance the confidence of both artistes.

Tentativeness in expression occasionally blurred the intended Carnatic beauty of certain phrases. This wasn’t a minus for just the main suites. Srividhya went for a ragam-tanam-pallavi in Madhyamavati after an equally pivotal Subhapantuvarali package. Prithvi detailed a well-known composition in Purvikalyani.

Bubbliness set the mood of her two-and-a-half-hour concert when Srividhya began with Vasantha. The three speeds of the pentatonic ‘Ninnekori’ sprang with ease, their zigzags intact. Yet those three customary frills she kept imposing on the ‘ba’ letter of the charanam lacked grip. This drawback manifested in the next kriti too. Surplus brigas splashed out unwittingly along the upper reaches of ‘Sankhachakragada’’s end-stanza. Avoidable was Poornachandrika next to Vasantha, the alapana of which had opened with a touch of Kannada — another Sankarabharanam janya. Anyway, a swara sequence around the pallavi lent individual focus to Gayathri Vibhavari (violin), Krishna Pawan Kumar (mridangam) and H. Sivaramakrishnan (ghatam). All performed well.

Gayathri demonstrated sharpness in negotiating the curves of Sriranjani in her responding alapana, which, all the same, concluded abruptly. Tyagaraja’s ‘Marubalga’ converged to a celebration around rallies of solfa. A quick number (‘Narasimha’ by Swati Tirunal) in sprightly Arabhi contrasted with the pensive slowdown of Subhapantuvarali. Amid her largely neat 10-minute alapana, Srividhya shifted the scale that ushered in Madhyamavati after a whiff of Mohanam. Skill apart, this came across as mechanical. Gayathri tried the grihabhedam in her turn, but swam back without satisfactory result. In ‘Sri Satyanarayanam’, Mohanam reappeared after a streak of Hindolam down the swara passages Srividhya took up subsequent to a pleasing niraval. G.N. Balasubramaniam’s ‘Unnadiye’ in Bahudari was the filler ahead of the RTP.

The Madhyamavati vocal alapana spanned six minutes, and was more impressive than the tanam. The pallavi, ‘Sugunavati’, attempted no arithmetic complications, though the swara sequences did go for a changed gait. Meanwhile Srividhya conjured up three ragas: Mohanam (yet again!), Ritigowla and Nalinakanti. And then she reversed the order on her return to Madhyamavati. After the tani avartanam (2-kalai Adi), the concert concluded with a Surdas bhajan (Bageshri) and a Tiruppugazh (Sindhubhairavi).

Srividhya’s training in the GNB school made her concert brisker vis-à-vis Prithvi’s from the Semmangudi school. Colourful, nonetheless. Veena Kuppaiyer’s ‘Intha kopa’ navaragamalika varnam meant a nine-raga starter. A leisurely Anandabhairavi