An evening of M.S. Sheela’s music is reminiscent of the legendary M.S. Subbulakshmi. This comparison is on two counts: Sheela sings with her heart; with her, the abstract swarakalpana, not to talk of alapana, seems to be pulsing; she breathes life into the ‘dhaathu’ aspect as much as she does to the ‘maatu’ (lyric). She is gifted with a dulcet tone whose pitch and timber are admirable. The pitch perfection stands out as a testimonial to being disciple of her guru R.K. Srikantan! No wonder the auditorium was bursting at its seams.
This must have been one of her innumerable concerts, but then Sheela does it with a meditative devotion. A series of Shyama Sastri’s Swarajathi would have been an overdose had it not been Sheela leading with her disciples. The three Swarajathis, each in raga Thodi, Yadukula Kambhoji and Bhairavi seemed like a melodic exposition of the ragas and their nuances. Each outshone the other and after the first, one was waiting for the second and then the third. The concise alapana for the Bhairavi swarajiti was delightful.
Back to solo, every kriti she handled was vested with a beauty through her stylistic frills when she meandered through the neraval, the kalpana swara wrapping it up with stunning muktayi in keeping with the raga. So we had a bouquet of rare and lovely kritis like “Sri Sankara guruvaram…” (Nagaswaravali ), “Amba Vani nannu…” a Muthaiah Bhagavatar piece in Keeravani, “Saraswathim, Bhagavateem, namami”, a Jayachamaraja Wadiyar composition in Hamsavinodini, “Bhogeendra Sayinam” in Kuntalavarali (Swati Tirunal) to name a few.
The prefacing of every kriti was done to a brief, lengthy and even elaborate alapana, which was a class apart from other women musicians of her stature. For instance, the Hamsavinodini alapana had the melodic touch of Hindustani style, while the Keeravani was as Carnatic as it could be! Sheela, who has a carved a niche for herself, was able to achieve a fine balance in merging scholastic with aesthetic.
Nalina Mohan on the violin was good as was H. S. Sudindra on the mridangam though not all his muktayis emerged as stupendous. With Gururaj on the morsing, they formed a creditable team. The concert was hosted by Nadasurabhi in memory of the doyen of music, R.K. Srikantan.
