Ramana Balachandhran’s inherent musical intellect left the audience in thrall

Ramana Balachandhran has made capable speedy strides to evoke a consciousness of awe, not conscionable with however his veena sounds to the ears, but besides with his wide philharmonic intellect. His performance for Parthasarathy Swami Sabha drew a full-house.

The performance was held connected Vaikunta Ekadasi, and among the songs chosen was ‘Koluvaiyunnade kothandapani’ successful Devagandhari (Tyagaraja). It has a antithetic gait successful the charanams, and Ramana recovered the contours of the tune a plum conveyance to articulate a vibrant opener. ‘Bogindra sayeenam’ by Swati Tirunal (Kuntalavarali, Khanda Chapu) has a akin assortment successful the charanam that is built connected Tisra Nadai. 

The Natakapriya alapana was aesthetic, with a ample chunk being devoted to delineating its unsocial structure.The mandarasthayi lucidity was attractive. Ramana’s leaning to raga bhavam ensured mechanical drone was avoided. Ramana elegantly handled Mysore Vasudevacharya’s ‘Idi samayamu’ (Rupakam), including the niraval and swaras, with manodharma sustained during the agelong piece.

Ramana’s swara kuraippu with immoderate laya accumulation showcased flourishes of the legendary Lalgudi Jayaraman. 

The performance had climbed to a buoyant signifier erstwhile the pensive Brindavana saranga was ushered in. The  raga alapana had galore emotive resonances. His customised veena aided this. The moves from 1 octave to different were conjured good to support the raga portrait. Tanam was different item of Ramana’s effort and alternated with the Hindustani ‘jhala’ benignant for a fewer avarthanams. It had an outstanding effect, but Ramana swiftly restored the Carnatic quality of the performance successful the concluding tanam crescendo. ‘Ranga puravihara enai nee’ successful dwi-nadai Adi (40 counts) swept up the assemblage with a scintillating niraval. Swaras and ragamalika are the icings that usually embellish an instrumentality concert. The Sahana portion successful the ragamalika was a beauty. 

It is often assumed that ‘mel kalam’ is simply a no-brainer ploy for assemblage appreciation. Sai Giridhar is simply a competent mridangist  but his non-stop apical velocity playing was not rather successful sync with Ramana’s expressions. K.V. Gopalakrishnan connected the kanjira did gaffe successful bully touches, particularly successful the niraval and swara passages.  A Madhuvanti process portion and the fashionable ‘Payoji maine ram ratan’ enveloped successful lukewarm Pahadi notes kept up the strength adjacent astatine the closing moments of the concert. 

Ramana occasionally sang the lines of the kritis, with a pleasing delivery. His nonchalance and the quality to seamlessly blend notes and strokes successful each kalams is evidently a gift. One hopes helium continues to enactment existent to the classical precocious ground.