Sishyas of iconic gurus have the initial advantage of early recognition, of a decent concert- standard and exposure to concert planning. Alas! For soon enough, the listener says, “I have heard it all and more from your guru. Even now, I can go back to the archives to listen to them. What have you got to offer? Why should I listen to you?”
These thoughts occurred while listening to A. Narayanan. A faithful disciple of the late Lalgudi G. Jayaraman, his concert went along predictable lines. He opened with a varnam of his guru and concluded with a thillana, again Lalgudi’s, much in the same mould as his guru and some of his earlier disciples.
Narayanan’s voice, which attracted attention initially, showed its first weakness when he ran out of breath while negotiating the later chittaswaras of the varnam in Shanmukhapriya. A couple of phrases appeared ‘violin-like’ and did not go well in vocal form. Dikshitar’s ‘Swaminatha Paripalaya’ came through brightly, while the chittaswaras seemed to belong to a contemporary genre.
Narayanan commenced ‘Sankari Sankuru’ (Saveri) well, showcasing the identity of the raga clearly. That bliss was short-lived, though. The barrage of phrases leaping over notes, the greater focus on the scale of the raga, the tendency to pour out phrases without a pause and nasality of his tone marred the listening pleasure.
Violinist Shreya Devnath gave him excellent company, hailing as she does from the same school. She was a great source of strength to the vocalist though her bowing was a tad harsh, ostensibly due to the lower pitch to which she would have had to tune her strings. The kriti was rendered well with the expected niraval and swaras at the mudhra line, ‘Syama Krishna Sodhari’. These were executed with a high degree of professional competence.
‘Niravati Sukhada’ in Ravichandrika, intended as a ‘pace maker’, did not click, despite all the dazzle around its famous chittaswaras. Kalyani (‘Nidhi Chala’) was the main piece. Again, after a thoughtful opening, the alapana meandered; a couple of phrases sounded more appropriate to Mohanakalyani. The graha bedham, showing Shudda Dhanyasi while anchoring on nishadam, was successful with good support from Shreya’s long bowing on the same note. The rendition of the kriti, niraval and swaras went through smoothly.
M. Sridhar, who supported well on the mridangam, played a sensibly short-yet-effective thani.
