A sprightly performance!

CHENNAI: Malladi Brothers (Ravikumar and Sriram Prasad), with their cultivated voice and good sruti alignment, which enables them to effectively communicate their musical prowess, presented their concert for the Thyaga Brahma Gana Sabha. If Sriram Prasad’s delineation of Raga Atana, which flowed in a graceful diction with a variety of Sangathis and rate prayogas in (Anubhama Gunambudhi) of Thyagaraja, sent the audience into raptures, the Natta Kurinji alapana (Harikambodhi Janyam) and rendition of (Bhudam Asrayami) of Dikshitar in Misra Chappu Jampai Thalam, brought to me, the nostalgic memories of the legendary Madurai Mani Iyer’s beautiful rendition of the kriti. It revealed the unalloyed Bhakti of the composer. Ravikumar’s extensive exploration with confidence and remarkable clarity of the Raga Ramapriya (Prathimadhyamam of Raga Chakravaham) of Thyagaraja, though rhythmically flawless, could have been done with some more grip on the solfa syllables.The Ragam-Thanam-Pallavi in Raga Sriragam by Sriram Prasad was weighty and illuminating but yet, Raga Lakshana, though flowing naturally, was playing hide and seek.The ending Raga Punnagavarali Alapana by Sriram Prasad (Kanakasaila) of Shyama Sastri, sung with devotional fervour, took the rasikas to ecclesiastical plane.While Vittal Ramamurthy (Violin) was engaging, K.R. Ganesh (Mridangam) and Trichy Murali (Ghatam) were good on the scale of rhythmic excellence.