Aishwarya Shankar unfurled the raga contours gracefully

Aishwarya Sankar accompanied by L. Ramakrishnan (violin), J. Vaidyanathan (mridangam), S. Karthick (ghatam).
| Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

N.C. Srinivasaraghavan

Aishwarya Shankar’s recital for Naada Inbam prioritised meaningful exploration through manodharma. She focused on expanding two weighty kritis — Syama Sastri’s ‘Ninnu vina mari galada’ and Tyagaraja’s ‘Enduku nirdaya’. A team of percussionists comprising J. Vaidyanathan (mridangam) and S. Karthick (ghatam) accompanied her at the morning concert.

Both Aishwarya and L. Ramakrishnan (violin) exhaustively handled Ritigowla through an all-encompassing alapana with pleasing phrases. The composition was sung in a sublime manner with clarity in sangatis. The nearly-half-hour presentation included a niraval at ‘Shyama krishna nuta’ with several rounds of neat kalpanaswaras.

Aishwarya started the kutcheri with ‘Pavanatmaja’ in Nattai and ‘Janaki Ramana’ in Shuddha Seemantini, topping the compositions with speedy swaras. Though she initially experienced a minor strain in her voice while touching the upper reaches, Aishwarya sailed through the performance confidently. She rendered Dikshitar’s ‘Jambupate’ and the Tamil composition ‘Hanumane saamiku indha’ in raga Malayamarutham (from the Rama Natakam) as contrasting fillers before proceeding to the main piece in Harikambhoji.

Aishwarya’s Harikambhoji was unambiguous and honest. Some interesting ideas were explored as she unfurled the contours of the raga gracefully during the 10-minute long alapana. L. Ramakrishnan painted a swift picture of the raga with many of its salient features. The composition ‘Enduku Nirdaya’ is unique as it has five distinct charanams post the Pallavi. One could say that the panchamam is the star swara in this masterpiece, as the kriti revolves around it. Aishwarya chose the pallavi line for the niraval and her detailed foray with the panchamam as mid-point was refreshing to hear. Some creative kalpanaswaras in both speeds were sung with the final swara circling back to the panchamam in line with the underlying theme.

J. Vaidyanathan and S. Karthick complemented each other throughout the recital, performing an elaborate tani Avartanam in rendu-kalai Adi talam.

Aishwarya presented some fascinating post-main pieces, including Thanjavur V. Sankara Iyer’s Ranjanimala, a medley of ragas that have the suffix ‘Ranjani’ in their names. She proceeded on to a Thiruppugazh in Jaganmohini, finally rendered Tulsidas’ ‘Hanuman Bahuk’, tuned soulfully in Sindhu Bhairavi by musician R.K. Shriramkumar.