Margazhi Musings 2019: Gayatri Girish

Date: 8^th Dec 2019 / 18:15 Hrs

Venue: Meenakshi College

Team: Gayatri Girish, Sanjeev (Violin), Vijay Natesan (Mridangam), Alathur Rajaganesh (Ghatam)

I was sitting by the side of the sound engineer Mr Senthil. When a student walked in to enquire whether he was ready, I took the opportunity to ask who the announcer would be that evening! She smiled at me and said it would be Padmaja henceforth. To the uninitiated, Padmaja is a PG student who started off the proceedings at this Sabha a few days earlier by singing the college prayer song and welcome. True to form, she restored sanity to the announcements. The audience welcomed the vocalist Gayatri Girish as the alumna of Meenakshi college. One thing has become very clear in the last few days. This college has the knack of producing many stalwarts in all fields! The elderly gentleman, next to me, quipped saying it was the only good women’s college in Chennai then. Who am I to counter the gentleman!

She started with a Kedragowlai varnam “Sami daya juda manci” and went on to Papanasam Sivan’s Bauli kriti “Karunaidhiye thaye.” A brisk and short niraval at the Pallavi line itself added a briskness to the rendition.

What came next was a fabulous Reetigowlai. An outstanding alapanaa indeed. Brought back memories of "Chinna kannan azhaikiran" of Balamurali Krishna in the movie Kavikkuyil. I wish she had dwelt into this for some more time. May be, she wanted to race to the other compositions! The kriti was “Sri Guruvayurappane Appan” of Ambujam Krishna. Niraval and Kalpanaswarams flowed at “Vizhikatku amuthuttum.” Sanjeev did an able job at the violin. Again, I felt that he missed out delineating the nuances of the raga in finer detail.

Gayatri’s parents were seated a few chairs away from us. Her mother approached Senthil (Hope you haven’t forgotten him. He is from Latha sound company and mentioned in the first paragraph if you care to go up) and asked for some sharpness and gain to be given to violin. Evidently she was a lady not foreign to the world of acoustics. She spent a few minutes apparently not being sure if Senthil would oblige. To be fair to Senthil, he tweaked a few buttons. Thus reassured, she went back to her seat. Her husband was content to stand up and click a few photos of the audience. Perhaps he wasn’t sure he would meet the with the same numbers later.

A sedate Sarasangi came next. “Manaviche Konavaiyaa” of Patnam Subrahmanya Iyer was rendered well. Sanjeev rose to the occasion though. Seeing the drooping shoulders of rasikas, she delivered a racy Sriranjani “Maru balka.” In the film Seva Sadanam, MS Amma rendered a Sriranjani song in the same tune "Enna seiven Enge selluven." Of course, this ragam has been used extensively. MS Viswanathan's "Nadam enum kovilile" in Manmada Leelai is a brilliant one.

Gayatri’s mother approached Senthil again with a few suggestions. This time, she was prepared to stand for a longer time till Senthil complied with her. A Subhapantuvaraali in the form of “Ennalu urake” came next. The alapanaa was quite detailed though. I couldn’t help comparing with the way Gurucharan took it up. Of course, everyone has his or her own style. Vijay Natesan did a decent Tani with Rajaganesh.

Gayatri’s mother started from her seat for the third time. By this time, Senthil was trembling. He folded his hands quickly to reassure her that everything was under control. He offered her his seat and told her in tears that she herself was free to adjust any parameter she liked.

Periasamy Thooran’s “Kaliyuga varadan” in BrindavanaSarangaa consumed the next ten minutes. Gayatri announced her intention to wind up the concert with a thillana and Mangalam. Before that, she obliged a rasika who asked her to sing the Nayaki kriti “Ranganayakam Bhavaye” of Dikshitar. She did a fine job indeed. A thillana of her guru Seshagopalan “"tanana dhirana" in raga Niroshta (Adi talam) came before Mangalam.

Gayatri Girish is, no doubt, a senior artist who can hold her own on given day. The concert was good. The problem is that being surrounded by such wonderful talents who always want to experiment and bring out their best, there is immense pressure to go a few notches up. It is like the same problem in software. To test anything from 90% to 100% and make it flawless is the toughest and doesn't happen by chance.

  

Ambience: *

 Vocalist: *

Accompanying artists: *

Raga of the Concert: Reetigowlai

Overall: *