CHENNAI: Renowned vocalist Sudha Raghunathan’s voice has a special appeal that makes the rasikas enjoy her music. She’s blessed with the vidwat to make the concert click. When she performed for the Indian Fine Arts Society at Ethiraj Kalyana Nilayam, the faultless vision of her classicism was evident, revealing her adept musical potentialities.
What was admirable in her presentation was her wide repertoire, musical talent and excellent diction in her songs. Another interesting thing to observe was the verses that she sang in the form of viruthams on several occasions before taking up a composition. She commenced her recital with Eranapai, a Thodi varnam of Kottavasal Venkatraman and then moved on to Sobilleu, Thyagaraja’s kriti in Raga Jagan Mohini.
She gradually built up a superb edifice of the raga, traversing effortlessly through all the octaves. Her rendition of Raga Sivasakthi, a janyam of Karaharapriya (an important feature of this raga is that it has only four swaras (Sa ga ma dha) in the arohanam, and five in avarohanam — including ‘ni’) was enjoyable.
Then, she presented Sri Chakra Raja Nilayae, the most celebrated composition of GN Balasubramaniam, before embarking on a rhythmic contour, that progressed in an accelerated manner with controlled exposition. The raga-bhava came alive in the energetic swaprastharas.
This was followed by the Raga Dwajavanthi kriti of Dikshitar, Sri Akhilandeswari, which was melodious and catchy.
Next, she presented Nannu paalimba of Thyagaraja with virtuosity, evoking the sublimity of raga mohanam with niraval and torrential swaras.
Those fluent niravals were reflective of her enviable command over carnatic classical idiom. B V Raghavendra Rao on violin, N Ramakrishanan on mridangam and R Raman on morsing shared equal honours in their spirited percussion support.
Over all, though the concert was good, the listeners couldn’t enjoy much due to certain glitches in the acoustics.