KOCHI: Darbar, mukhari and kapi ragas reflect different moods in carnatic music and kathakali sangeetham. The jugalbandi presented by kathakali singers Kottakkal Madhu and Nedumpilly Ram Mohan with carnatic vocalist V R Dileep Kumar presented some immortal musical moments at the Kalikotta Palace. Tripunithura Sree Poornathrayeesha Sangeetha Sabha organised the musical evening as part of this year’s Thyagaraja Aradhana.
The concert began with the raga hamsadhwani.
Madhu rendered a melodious piece, ‘Hrihara Vidhunuthe’ from kathakali sangeetham.
Supported by Ram Mohan, he explored the sweetness of the raga in all its depth. Dileep used this raga to praise the Almighty through the composition ‘Mahaganapathe’.
Madhu selected the soulful padam from Kuchelavrutham, ‘Ajithaa hare jaya madhava’ to delineate the serene mood of Kuchela. While rendering the lines ‘Pala dinamaayi njaanaum balabhadraanuja ninne’, Madhu unveiled the hapless state of Kuchela while meeting his old friend Sree Krishna. Using sree raga, Dileep delineated the lyrical beauty of the Deekshithar composition ‘Sreemooladhara Chakra’. The vocalist conveyed the devout mood of the composition through his stylised rendition and clear accent.
Unnayi Warrier’s ‘Nalacharitham’ in kathakali gives equal importance to the music and the acting potential of the singer and the actor respectively. Almost all the mellifluous padams in ‘Nalacharitham’ turn out to be catalysts for an actor to stage his best acting moments. Keeping the musical importance of ‘Nalacharitham’ - especially ‘Nalacharitham Naalamdivasam’ - in mind, Madhu rendered the padam ‘Poomaathinotha chaaruthano’ in durbar raga. The carnatic version of darbar was beautifully exposed through Thyagaraja’s composition ‘Mudhuvenuka’ and Dileep tried to explore the sensitive mood of the raga in a narrative style.
Madhu unveiled the beauty of another popular padam from the fourth day of ‘Nalacharitham’ which was used by Unnayi Warrier to visualise the mindset of Damayanthi while recognising her sweetheart, Nala. Madhu rendered the lines ‘Naishadhan ivan thaan’ in the raga mukhari. Dileep instilled in it a carnatic mood through another Thyagaraja composition, ‘Ksheenamai’.
The subtle elements of the raga shudha dhanyasi were well delineated through the padam ‘Panipeedanam’ from the story Devayanicharitham. Through the famous composition of Pattanama Subrahmanya Iyer, ‘Subrahmanyena rakshithoham’, Dileep elaborated the possibilities of this highly sensitive raga. The sweetness of the soothing raga bilahari was unveiled by Madhu through the soulful lines ‘Manyasheele srunu mama vachanam’ from Devayanicharitham. Dileep selected another Pattanam Subrahmanya Iyer composition, ‘Paridanamichithe’. The musical atmosphere was filled with the fragrance of romance as Madhu switched over to the popular srungaara padam ‘Harinakshee’ from the story ‘Keechaka Vadham’. Through his rendition, Madhu exposed the vipralambha sringaaram (lustful romance) of Keechaka and Sairandhri. He explored the pulsating moments of the raga kapi while rendering the padam ‘Vasa vasa sootha mamanilaye’, the conversation between King Rithuparna and Nala (disguised as Baahuka) from the fourth day of Nalacharitham.
Here Dileep adopted an entirely different devout mood by soulfully singing the lines ‘Ennathavam cheyvano Yashoda’.
Through a garland of ragas, the trio proved their vibrant singing style through the shlokam, ‘Kasthoori thilakam lalaata phalake’. The musical extravaganza concluded with the popular raga madhyamaavathi in which Madhu rendered the lines ‘Padmaa vallabha paayala bhagavan’ from thodayam and Dileep sang the formal mangalam, ‘Pavamaana’. The tonal support given by Manjoor Ranjith on violin helped the singers to maintain the basic tone as the two musical streams have much difference in the application of each raga.
The percussionists Guruvayoor Sanoj on mrudangam, Tripunithura Hari on edakka and Sasi on maddalam, helped keep the balance by playing their instruments in tune with the basic mood of each raga. The Thyagaraja Aradhana started with the rendering of Pancha Rathna keerthans in which renowned musicians like Kumara Kerala Varma, N P Ramaswami, Ponkunnam Ramachandran, Subhadra Thampuran and Govindan Namboothiri participated. P Sankara Narayanan, Sankara Krishnan and Ajith Varma joined the group on flute.
Thiruvizha Sivanandan, Edappally Jayamohan, P T Radhakrishnan and Parvathy Ammal accompanied on violin and Kuzhumathikaadu Gopalakrishnan and Kangazha Vasudevan Namboothiri on mrudangam.
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