Festival Review
Invoking Kaveri through Captivating Carnatic Music
by
Manjari Sinha
Artistically decorated and lit up with the Deep-maala, a garland of mud lamps as its festive backdrop, the open air stage in the Fountain Lawns of India International Centre (IIC) reverberated with the melodious voice of Sudha Raghunathan, the prodigiously talented Carnatic vocalist, who presented an eclectic repertoire of sonorous songs to the river Kaveri, during the IIC Experience-2009 conceived on the theme of River. She cited statements from the Vedas, Puranas and Mahabharat about the greatness of Kaveri which is supposed to be the ‘Paap-naashini’ the destroyer of all sins; before opening her concert with the Kaveri-Shatnamawali Stotram.
Her captivating concert comprised Kritis and contemporary songs to the two thousand years old Tantric literature and the poetry of the saint poets like Thyagaraja and Muttuswami Dikshitar who lived on the banks of the holy river Kaveri. The Kaveri-Shatnamawali Stotram rendered in the aalap style, free of the rhythm or tala constraints, was followed by the Thyagaraja Sapta-Swaras in raga Jaganmohini set to Rupak Tala, where the Kaveri is described as Sapta-Swara Shobhini, i.e. adorned with the seven notes. Sudha creatively used the Sapta-Swaras of Thyagaraja to weave the magic of Kaveri, before singing a Tamil song in Hamsadhwani with mesmerizing Swar-sangatis around Nishad.
There are many old songs sung in the Dhrupad-style twelve beat cycle. The next piece was one of these songs of Thyagaraja in Saveri ‘kari kalabha mukham…’ where the Raga-Mudra was also used in the composition. Then came a Paasuram where the poet Alwar says ‘Kaveri is holier than mother Ganges with complete surrender at the feet of Shriranganath at Shrirangapuram’. The song was preceded by a soul stirring aalap in raga Hindolam. The next Kriti in Kannada had the preceding verse by D.V. Gundappa describing the importance of Kaveri. Then came the Kriti composed by Purandar Dasa at the banks of Kaveri near Kumbhakonam in raga Shankarabharanam with a raga-malika comprising Hamsanandi, Khamas et al, with Kaveri-Stavan in Khanda-Nadai of five beats.
The Thyagaraja Kriti in raga Asaveri next, had several Taivarams describing Shiva-Teerth Kaveri followed by another Kriti ‘Raju vedala…’ in raga Todi set to Rupak Tala which was taken from ‘Shriranga Panchratna Kriti’ invoking Kaveri, where the creative kalpana swaras underlined the imaginative ‘manodharma’ of the gifted vocalist. Sudha also had a verse from Shilappadikaram describing Kaveri as a beautiful girl enchanting the heart of the Chola king, which she had to leave because of the paucity of time. She sang a lilting folksy ‘Kummi’ invoking Kaveri as Shakti, before concluding her concert with a Mangalam to Kaveri. She had inspiring accompaniment on Violin by Embar Kannan, on Mridangam by Naiveli Skandasubramanium and on Morchhang by R. Raman.
Sudha Raghunathan was right when she said in the beginning ‘Rivers too flow with the dignity and majesty of Music’. Her delectably vibrant presentation with substance as well as style proved both, the ‘dignity and majesty’ in her music. Her enchanting voice, rich in timbre, translated her eloquent melodic statements with effortless ease throughout her mesmerizing performance, making the IIC Experience an experience to remember.
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