Hamzini Vytheeshwaran’s choice of kritis and well-nuanced alapanas stood out in her concert

Hamzini Vytheeshwaran.
| Photo Credit: Courtesy: Madhuradhwani

Hamzini Vytheeshwaran, a disciple of Neyveli R. Santhanagopalan, sings with a reasonable measure of depth. Her performance at the Arkay Centre Chennai for its 14th anniversary was a mixed bag, with some surprises. To her credit, she included a significant number of Tamil songs in her song list for the day.

Hamzini commenced her concert with the popular Thodi varnam, ‘Era napai’ in Adi tala, rendered in two speeds. She followed it with ‘Vinayaka ninnu’ a composition by E.V. Ramakrishna Bhagavatar in raga Hamsadhwani, Adi tala. One looked forward to bright kalpanaswaras when she took up the line ‘Paramakripa sagara’ in the charanam segment of the composition for niraval. However, she chose to not sing swaras and completed the composition with three or four rounds of niraval. The slight deviation from the swarasthanam was apparent for the first time in Hamsadhwani, with the voice tapering towards the kakalinishadam when the artiste attempted to pause between the pallavi, anupallavi and charanam. The same was apparent throughout the concert — the voice was a trifle unstable at the tara shadjam, slanting towards the adjacent swara.

The next surprise was an exposition of Chandrajyoti raga alapana, preceding the Tyagaraja composition ‘Baagayanayya’ in Adi tala, which is more appropriately sung in Deshadi talam. Hamzini rounded off the composition with a good number of kalpanaswaras. This was a vivadi raga with a suddha rishaba and suddha gandhara, which reduced the tempo of the concert. A Pantuvarali or Kalyani may have been a better choice at this stage.

The next composition was a Muthuswami Dikshitar piece, ‘Palayamam parvatisa’ in Kannada raga, Rupaka tala. It was rendered well, save the slight lapses in swarasthanam, when the voice tapered from the tara shadjam to kakalinishadam.

Hamzini’s swaraprastara for Kiravani brought out the essence of the raga.
| Photo Credit:
Courtesy: Madhuradhwani

Weaving interesting swara patterns

This was followed by Kiravani, the main raga of the concert. Hamzini chose to initially dwell at the mandhra sthayi, touching the mandhra panchamam, before ascending towards the madhya sthyai phrases. The Kakalinishadam in Kiravani is usually used by vocalists to ascend towards the tara shadjam. The artiste chose to elaborate on this swara, weaving phrases between tara rishabam and gandharam, coming down to the Nishada swara, avoiding the shadjam. This does create a special effect. However, an overdose of this could reduce the essence of Kiravani. The Appar Tevaram ‘Vannanai Madhi Soodiya’, a composition on the Tiruvannamalai deity in Misra Chapu tala was a surprise, considering the number of popular compositions available in this raga. The niraval in the line ‘Veeranai vidamundanai’ was slow in tempo and dull as compared to the kalpanaswaras rendered in a madhyamakala tempo. The swaraprastara brought out the essence of the raga, commencing on each swara in the arohana.

Next, Hamzini chose to render a virutham in Ragamalika, followed by the Papanasam Sivan’s composition “Nambikettavar evarayya’. The concert concluded with a Dikshitar Nottuswaram “Rama janardhana ravana mardhana’ in raga Sankarabharanam and set to isra eka tala. G. Badrinath on the violin and A. Guruprasad on the mridangam elevated the concert with their dexterity.

The concert featured a significant array of Tamil compositions, and Hamzini demonstrated a good balance in the talas. throughout. However, the ragas could have been handled better, to elevate the concert to a higher level.