CHENNAI: The evening sojourn at the revamped Vani Mahal saw a full-house post the mourning week of late Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa, as Bombay Jayashree performed during the weekend at the Thyaga Brahma Gana Sabha, flanked by Mysore Srikanth on the violin, J Vaidyanathan on the Mridangam and BS Purushothaman on the Kanjira.
I’ve always felt this hall was best suited for ‘Dramas’ and as the clocked ticked 7:30 pm it was clear that the acoustics left much to be desired. Well into what was her third song for the evening, Jayashree had to adjust the mike twice and instruct the same to Vaidyanathan as well, but it was a lost cause! The mike behaved like one of those automatic hand-faucets in jazzy multiplexes, where you try to move your hand first left, then right and then somewhere in the middle of this frantic right-left-up-down, the signal picks up and water gushes forth.
Jayashree’s otherwise honey-dipped voice where the husky mixes timbre with the mellifluous, sounded flat in ‘mono’ when it should’ve been ‘stereo.’ The Thyagaraja composition Maakelaraa Vichaaramu in raagam Ravichandrika literally had her imploring “What should we worry about.....when you hold the strings... Oh! Raama!”
The first song Natanaprakasam Aanandha Natana in Kedaram (made famous by the film song Sundari Neeyum Sundari Naanum) was like multiple voices singing as Jayashree’s low and high notes sounded like a ‘double-take’ thanks to the bad acoustics and a ‘pattu-sari-paatti’ who sat next to me and sang this Dikshitar number like it was her performance.
The one-tone mridangam sounded more like a ‘dolak’ and I wanted to get up and go check if there was anyone on the sound console! Jayashree was in superb form in the second Aanandha Natamaaduvaar Thillai with the jathis and swaras-impromptu flew-in as fluently as the lyrics.
A couple in front kept whispering as Jayashree launched into an elaborate aalapana for the fourth song. As she set foot into mid octave, a mobile rang loud enough for my row to hear and just then the two hitherto un-occupied seats ahead of mine saw some movement as Jayashree took giant strides and completed the rendering.
I, of course, drifted for a bit to ponder as to why any decent human being would come in late for a performance or get up mid-way when it is a ‘thaniyavardhanam’ for the instrumentalists. Is it not disrespectful towards the artiste performing for you?
The centre-piece in any concert is usually a peppy Shankarabharanam, Rithigowla or Kalyani but Jayashree chose the sombre Dhanyaasi. The song Nee Chethamu Nirmalamu seemed to reflect the mood of the city.
Thereafter, while Jayashree showed her prowess in the Dharmavathi led Raagam-Thaanam-Pallavi (Film song in Dharmavathi: Ottagatha Kattikko) the song which gathered much appaluse was the popular Navarasa-kaanada number Naan Oru Vilaiyaattu Bommaiyaa. I was reminded only of Tamil Nadu’s Amma when Jayashree softly rendered the lines arulamudham paruga amma amma endralaruvadhai ketpadha aanandhamaa... and left the ‘aanandhamaa’ hanging-in-there like a question-mark.