Senior artistes have their own way of presentation and the rich and ripe the experience gained over years comes in handy to make the presentation excel in its emotive appeal. So was the vocal concert of senior artiste V.V.B Sankaram on the premises of Sri Raghavendra Swamy temple in Visakhapatnam.
Born at Unagatla in West Godavari District, Sankaram grew up in an ambience of ‘Bhajana samparadyam’ as his parents Varanasi Venkata Subbarao and Sita Mahalakshmi were bhajan singers. An element of devotional fervour inherent in bhajana samparadayam continues to hold its sway in Sankaram’s rendition. A sense of involvement in the emotive shades of lyric makes his rendition remarkable. He has a predilection for raga essay and chose to begin almost every piece with a raga foray thus ushering the audience into the mood of the chosen raga. It, in a way, displayed his ability to carry the audience along with him.
He began with Sarasijamukhi an Aarabhi raga varnam and then took up Gajananayutam of Muttuswamy Dikshitar in raga Chakravakam. A fairly good swarakalpana at madhyamakala sahityam both in tisram and chaturasram accelerated its tempo well. Then came Terateeyagarada of Thyagaraja in raga Goulipantu. Thereafter, he picked up raga Kalyani for Nidhichalasukhama . Good aalapana ushered the kriti into the well of the raga bringing out superlative coalescence of raga bhava and sahithya bhava imbedded in the immortal composition of saint Thyagaraja. Fluent neraval at the line dadhi navaneetaksheeramulu enhanced its devotional accent.
In a compact treatment it, in a way, paved the way for the mainstay of the evening, raga Ranjani for the kriti Durmargacharadhamula again of Thyagaraja, set to the cycle of Rupaka talam. He negotiated the upper reaches with ease building the raga structure in a layered way and softly finished the essay displaying its multi shaded beauty in good measure at amble. His clear articulation, diction and internalisation of the composition and its delivery — all make it a pleasant experience to listen to his exposition.
In the post tani round, Enthanerchina in raga Saveri, Brovabharama in Bahudari, Sarvam Brahmmamayam of Sadasiva Bahmmendraswamy in raga Dharmavati Venkatachalanilaya of Purandardas in Sindhubhairavi are worth listening to.
Varanasi Jayadeep Sarma on mridangam and KVS Prasad on violin lent good support. Sangeetha Janakulam hosted it in its monthly schedule.
