By Lavanya Narayanan
4 November 2016
The concerts that have been the
most anticipated in this festival have still been the traditional, Sampradaya kutcheris, and the final day
was no different. The crowd filed in to see the combination of Vijay Siva
(vocal), S. Varadarajan (violin), and K. Arunprakash (mridangam) and they
definitely weren’t disappointed. Siva chose the magnificent Maa Janaki in Harikambhoji and did not
disappoint, though I was pleasantly surprised by Arunprakash’s brief tani,
something I am told is reflective of his unique playing style. In a time when
every mridangist is focused on showcasing all their abilities in a matter of
7-8 minutes, Arunprakash’s pacing is a breath of fresh air and something that
we all lapped up.
The tenth and final day of the
festival was a grand culmination of all the occurrences of the ten days, with
the crowd in the Mylapore area flocking in as early as the first performance,
which featured many young artists coming together for a Carnatic Combo concert.
The unique partnership of
Sriranjani Santhanagopalan (vocal) and Ramana Balachander (veena) was
introduced as the first program of the final day. Carnatica called their
program a Carnatic Combo concert, bringing to stage not only the vocalist and
vainika but also an ensemble of accompanists made up of B. Ananthakrishnan (violin),
Vijay Natesan (mridangam), K.V. Gopalakrishnan (khanjira), and Chandrasekhara
Sharma (ghatam). Most notable was the tri-raga
pallavi, weaving together Dharmavathi, Sarangi, and Hamir Kalyani in a
pallavi set to chathurasra jathi dhruva talam. The challenge in layam was
handled masterfully by both artists, with Sriranjani guiding young Ramana
through certain kanakkus, and the presence of more percussionists on stage than
one is used to in a Carnatic kutcheri actually worked to enhance the
performance. At moments, the combination of only khanjira and ghatam was quite
satisfying, making the re-entrance of the mridangam even more impactful.

After a felicitation of chief
guest B.V. Jagadeesh, a California-based businessman, and his family, the
Trichur Brothers took the stage to present a grand finale: Anuboothi. The band
brought together well-known young musician Navneeth Sundar along with many
others including Trichur R. Mohan, mridangam vidwan. The brothers presented an
interesting amalgamation of numbers that highlighted their Keralite roots and
also gave the crowd some time-tested film favorites. At one point, Srikrishna
Mohan – the elder brother – said to the audience: “We were told never to
present this in Mylapore of all places.” The crowd laughed and a gentleman
behind me said to his wife, “Well, this is Alwarpet.” Indeed, it reflected the
somewhat more open-minded nature of the audience, willing to vary their musical
palate to suit changing presentations.
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