Tuesday, 21 October 2014

Vijay Siva Bharatiya Vidhya Bhavan 19th October 2014

Vijay Siva
Amrita Murali-Violin
Manoj Siva- Mridangam

Date- 19th October 2014



The incessant rain played havoc in the city for the past two days and despite the Diwali rush in and around Mylapore, there was full attendance in the main hall for VS’ concert.

It was last day of Mylapore Arts Academy who had been conducting programmes at Bharathiya Vidhya bhavan for the past 6 days.

Started with sada bAlarUbabhi vignanthri…. Adhi shankara’s Ganapathy prArthana slOkam in Subramanya bhujangam

• Kari kaLabha mukham- sAVEri- Dikshitar

• smaranE sukhamu- Janaranjani- Thyagarajar (N S)

  Neraval in “rama nAma shravanamu valla nAma rUpamE hrudayamu ninji”

• KalyAni rAgam followed by “kathaya kathaya mAdhavam- Tarangam by Narayana Teertha (R S)

• Nannu brO judaku tAmasa mElE- Todi- ShyAma Sastri/Subbaraya Sastri

• kAmbodhi- Main- followed by “nadamAdi tirindha umadhu idadu kAl”- Papa vinAsa mudaliAr

  Neraval in- “Shakthi sivakAma valli tan bhAgam nOgum enRu”

• SeetammA mAyammA- vasantha-Thiagarajar- (w/o chitta swaram)

• RTP- Nata bhairavi- Pallavi- Ananda nata bhairavEEsa, jagadEEsa, paramAnanda..

  Followed by ragamaliga in “ ananda bhairavEEsa, bhairavEEsa.”

• Tani

• PerugalAm tavam- 4 line verse – ended with “marugalAnadi vAzthi vaNanguvOmE”- Tirumarugal  
  pasuram

• bhajarE rE mAnasa- Abheri- Mysore vasudevachar.

• Vrutham- vadilERu tiri soolam tOnRum.. followed by vAnathin mEEdu”- Mand

• pavamAna-Mangalam

As VS has “smaranE sukham” in his concert, for me, it is “ShrunvathAm sukhAm” of VS. (listening pleasure)

I feel that I have a “chemistry” with Vijay Siva. I always expect him to deliver “sort of” “one out of 3 choices (of mine)” and he delivers.

On that day, when I entered the hall, I was thinking what should be his list. !!!

I prayed for any Ganapathi kriti, which long unheard. He rendered “Kari kalabha”

That day morning, I was listening “smaranE sukham” from Madurai Somu. It was commercial CD. I was wondering Thyagarja’s bhakthi and being Ekadashi day, it was in my memory. So, when Vijay Siva took it as the second, I though Oh, here it is !!!

Next, when he started kalyani, I thought of “nee sari sAti” or “kathaya kathaya”. Once, he rendered nee sari sAti in MGR-janaji school, along with Sriramkumar. It was a unique kriti and I still remember the classic kalyani on that day. Kathaya kathaya was Tarangam, the place (varagUr, where tharangam was originated) of which Iam closely related to. So, again I was lucky.

I was bit disappointed that he did not render “mudra” charanam. I am a “sort” of old school. Without mudra charanam, I feel, Guru’s blessings are not invoked. In my opinion, MS only renders whether it is EnnEramum un sannathiyil or sEvikka vEndumaiyya, MS sees that that “balakrishna” comes

NadamAdi tirinda a papa vinasa mudaliar kriti was a “satirical” kriti on Lord Siva. Very good and thought provoking and once I listened to KVN rendering. My grand mother, born in Chidambaram, who passed away a month back, sings that more often. She was 78 and she cherished Chidambaram days and so, the kriti was dear to her heart and through her singing I also learnt.. I was bit moved when I listened to this because I spent my good old days with my Grand mother in Semmangudi, where she got married and shifted from Chidambaram.

Nata bairavi RTP, though I got confused with saramathy and slowly I realized it was Nata bairavi with a grip on “sri valli dEva”. I thought he would add vasantha bairavi and sAlakha bhairavi but he finished with Ananda bairavi and bairavi…. Of course, no time and Manoj was given tani at 8.25 pm only.

Amritha murali had some slips in kalyani but she was very good in kritis followed by kalyani. Manoj Siva is ,as usual, good.

Dundi Ganapathy - in the Dikshitar kriti- Dikshitar composed this thinking of mayavaram Dundi Ganapathy. My father told me that “dundi” Ganapathy is famous only in kAsi. Mayavaram “Dundi” must have come after that like “vAthapi” was brought to Tiruvarur subsequently.

Some meanings of the kritis are thought provoking (at least for me). In sadha bAla verse, there is word which means, respected by Lion. Here, the Lion is referred to Lord Shiva. Wonder, how Shiva is relatead to Lion ?

Even in kari kalabha mukham. (The Ka, bha and Kha were rendered perfectly by VS, a “perfectionist” from DKJ school. ) There is a word, which says “wearing moon on his head”. This also I don’t understand. May be Poetic beauty. Or I may be ignorant.

Coming back to Vijay siva, I say some links to his kritis rendered on that day. His Ganapathy kriti followed by “smaranE sukham” of Lord RamA, followed by kathaya, where the GopikAs are asking Radha to let them know whereabouts of Krishna, a “search for God”

This is again followed by “lAvanyam” of BangAru kAmakshi, the beauty of Goddess. Who else can elicit better than Shyama/Subbaraya sastri ? Seething Goddess as “Sister” must have resulted in more “pAsa malar rasam” in kritis.

Actually, I thought, kAna kaN kOti, when he finished kambOdhi Ragam. Though, unexpected, he came out with superlative “nadamAdi”

Vijay Siva’s kritis are always soaked in bhakti. Strict to basics, a unique style of DKJ school. That always fit to my taste.

Once I told him coming out Naradha Gana sabha, how come once you sing “kumarEsha soonO, guha skantha sEnapathE” (verse in Subramanya bhujangam, he sang this on that day followed by subhramanyO), I could feel the existence of Lord Muruga in the hall, he had a big smile and politely refuted my statement.

For me, that is True and that is Vijay Siva

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