On Day-10 of the Ramotsava music series by Ramabhyudaya Sabha at Alammana Choultry in Srirampet on Apr. 15, Amritha Murali from Chennai gave a vocal concert accompanied by Vid. R.K. Shriramkumar on violin, Vid. Arun Prakash on mridanga and Vid. Bhargava Halambi  on ghata. As the seasoned  violinist Shriramkumar is receiving the prestigious Sangeeta Kalanidhi award from Madras Music Academy this year, he was honoured.

Amritha has had the privilege of having tutelage under stalwarts like P.S. Narayanaswamy and T. Rukmini, which has helped her in understanding the subtleties, nuances, poise and beauty of the notes and gamakas and phrases. She is endowed with a good voice and sharp intellect. Her holistic approach to music is commendable and has gained a lot of appreciation.

In the concert under review, Amritha, rising to the occasion, chose to sing all the compositions on RAma. ‘Namo Namo raghukula nAyaka’ of Annamacharya in NaTa was the opening number for which she wove interesting swara patterns. A good sketch of Khamas was followed by ‘SeetApatE nA manasu’ by Sri Tyagaraja, which also brought a pleasant neraval at ‘PrEmajUci nApai and swaras. It was good to see that Amritha’s singing was not showy and fortunately there was no push for speed. Todi alapana was appealing but could have been more elaborate. Todi flowed smoothly from Shriramkumar’s violin and the nuances of the raga were captivating. Sri Tyagaraja’s ‘Enduku dayarAda Sri Ramachandra’ set to Mishra chapu tala was a good choice. The line ‘TyAgaraja Vinuta tAraka charita’ was chosen for lyrical and melodic improvisation, followed by a long swara essay, centring around ‘p’.

Three rare compositions on Sri RAma at a stretch came next — ‘RAma RAma kalikalusha virAma’ by Deekshitar in a rare raga Ramakali, ‘SwAmi mukhyaprANa’ in Yadukulakambhoji by Purandara Dasaru and TrilOkamAtA’ on Sita in Pharas by Shyama Shastri, which were good renditions.

The main melody taken up for vinyasa for the evening was Kharaharapriya in which Amritha chose to sing a RTP. Amritha travelled the octaves with  rich sancharas  in alapana and tanam. The pallavi ‘kamalAnanAm janakajAm vandE| kshitijAm’ in two kaLai set to Khanda Triputa tala was skilfully presented. The pallavi was also presented in ragamalike alternately by her and Shriramkumar in Devagandhari, Sama, Behag and Kapi and also in reverse order impressively.

Arun and Bhargava matched each other in exchanging sharp and powerful strokes while accompanying as well as in the taniyavartanam.

In the post-tani part, Amritha sang devaranama ‘Hari chitta   satya’ by Purandara Dasaru, a shloka on RAma in ragamalike, ‘KausalyAsuta kushikAtmaja makharakshaNa deekshita’ bhajan and the concluding composition was the all-time appealing mangalam  ‘RAmachandrAya janaka’.

—Dr. Padmavathi Narasimhan