Nithyasree Mahadevan Chennaiyil Tiruvaiyaaru

December 19, 2009, Saturday at Kamarajar Hall, Teynampet.

There was a decent number of people at the hall to witness the concert of Nithyasree. She started the concert with a charukesi raga varnam by Lalgudi Jayaraman. A humble start. The next song was okapari joodaga in the raga kalavathi, a composition of Tyagaraja. Kalpana swaras were nice and brief. Next was nannu vidachi in the raga ritigowlai, composed by Tyagaraja. The ritigowla alapana, steady rendering of the sahitya, portrayed DKP - DKJ school in her.

Fourth song was saraswathi manohari in the raga saraswathi manohari, DKP fame dikshitar song. Nithyasree chose mohanakara muthukumara in the raga neethimathi (60 th melakartha raga), a song of kotiswara Iyer. The kalpana swaras caught the very essence of the rare raga. This raga resembles simmendra madhyamam except for the dhaivatha swara.

Next was mohana raga alapana. An elaborate one. She chose Mysore Vasudevacharyar's Ra ra rajeeva lochana rama. She placed the niraval in the anupallavi - yela nee garuna kalkani karanamemo gaalara. The swaras were interesting. She changed from chatusra nadai to tisra, khanda, misra and sankeerna nadai in an alternating fashion which was very subtle. The swaras proved the artiste's command over the layam. But the sahityam she rendered seemed she was not much confident at few places. I may be wrong in this observation. The tani played by the percussionists were not up to the mark. It was a normal one.

Now a days we are hearing lot of innovations in tani and it seemed to be a normal one that is heard during practice sessions.

Kavingar Va Ve Su has translated a poem of Rabindranath Tagore in tamil. Nithya sung that song in rakesri raga. I think it was tuned by her. It was very pleasing indeed. Then came the beatiful raga malika of purandaradasar - nanenu maaditheno. Ranjani, Mohanam and kaanada ragas were rendered excellently.

The last song was a viruttham in the raga tilang yenniya mudidhal vendum of subrahmanya bharathi. The penultimate line of the virutham "nanniya ninmun ingu nasuthidal vendum annai" was not completely rendered. "nanniya nin mun ingu" was left out and she rendered only nasuthidal vendum annai. Then was bharatha samudayam vaazhgave. When she started, there were claps from the audience which served as the tempo for the song. The second stanza of the song, 30 kodi janangalin sangam muzhumaikkum podhu udamai, was sung in her own style - like 40 kodi, 60 kodi, 80 kodi, 100 kodi.. and so on.

With few ups and downs the concert was a pleasing one.