A take on Sriram Gangadharan’s Concert at Lamakaan

Sriram Gangadharan was in the city and performed at La Makaan. To an audience that is normally listening to Hindustani music this was a change and surely a pleasant change.

The over two hours concert was awesome and not a bit surprising. Sriram has come to perform in the city after more than three years and there is no doubt that he retains that amazing talent that still has not got its rightful place. At a time when a lot of adjustments are made to keep the audience engaged and also to move outside the clear precincts of the Carnatic music genre, it is a treat to hear a pure classicist which he doubtlessly he is and notice with awe how there is so much to play with in the defined area.
Singing in an open air theatre, in a weather that can be called ‘cold’ for one who lives in Chennai, his voice was amazing. Deep throated, the singer gives you that punch filled experience that you are tempted to reminiscence about a Chembai. Obviously addressing a mixed audience of people well versed with the genre and those who were taking their early steps to the art, he decided to announce the raagas that he was rendering and this indeed went well with the audience. The connoisseurs were not disappointed either given the fact that he played with raagas quiet common: Todi, Kamas, Mukhar, Kalyani and Panthuvarali.
At a recent concert at Chennai some one commented that it was wonderful that Sriram was so comfortable with the Semungudi style while is seen and perceived by most as affine example of the GNB school. This was a reflection of the range that the artist is capable of for most music lovers would know that the two masters approached music from very varying styles.
Yet another interesting feature of the concert was the very old tradition of announcing the main raga of the concert by starting the concert with a varnam in the same raga. It was great listening to a concert that dared to defy the normal norms within the grammar and then take the traditional route. Wow Sriram !! Keep it up.
I have believed that the concert goer or the listener often looks for variety and is a little disappointed when the choice of raagas at a concert are more unipolar. Like for the other day a famous duo at Kalasagaram chose one slow and appealing raga after the other lulling the audience to slumber and thereby marring the over all effect of the programme. In contrast here was Sriram brisk as ever moving from the soul filled Todi to the punch filled Kalyani. His Panthuvarali (Nanda Gopala Krishna) was outstanding. His Kalyani and the piece Vasudeva left no doubt as to who is the heir apparent to the GNB crown. If any one in the audience had a modicum of doubt on the issue he erased it with characteristic speed with the signature number Radha Sametha Krishna. The concert was embellished with a rare Varugalamo (Manji – straight out from Dandapani Deshikar).
The concert left the audience craving for more and with a belief that they had been witness to a great evening and that Carnatic music is in safe hands as long as musicians as he are around. For La Makaan it was a true new feather to have a Carnatic musician sing under their banner and a resolve to get many more of the kind if not the quality.

L. Ravichander.