"Sandhya Ragam" - Concert Reviews by Sandhya Shankar

  Jharna …..a fountain of beauty     It was two weekends of wonderful display of dance, music and tholbomalatam at the Dhananjayan’s own school Bharatakalanjali. It was an idea born out of this school’s Alumini and now a Creative & Executive Director of Bharatakalanjali, a senior Bharatanatyam artiste of her own merit ….Shobana Bhalachandra’s passion !  The whole idea of having twelve performances of about one hour each stretching over two weekends, including Fridays, was to give an opportunity to young talented artistes to show their creativity and competence. In order to truly encourage them, they were all remunerated.   The festival started on the 11th of February for a niche live audience, and it was also streamed online. Srinivasan, one of Bharatakalanjali’s students gave the first performance in a traditional manner. His performance was good and had no mistakes, but he certainly has a long way to go. The next person to perform on Shreema Upadhyaya from...

I can confidently say that I don’t remember anyone in my generation, who has lived through a situation like this pandemic has thrown us in. Among other things, one thing that is happening in excess, is all art forms being flooded on the social media, giving anyone who has a smart phone too much to choose from. Everyone is posting or uploading. their singing, dancing, cooking and everything else they do ! I often feel mentally choked, not because I watch but just this unsolicited splurge of creative (often mediocre) outbursts are so distracting. I have to admit that this experience with the pandemic is awe-inducing in it’s commonality. And, creative responses in the form of art, literature, cinema, dance, music and many more are bound to keep emerging for years to come. Now more the ever, are the words of Lenin making sense….. ‘There are decades where nothing happens and there are weeks where decades happens’. I agree that this is probably the right time for great exploration of ideas. ...

  Vishakha’s Hurry She has been the unchallenged queen of storytelling for decades, with a loyal audience, who loved everything about her from the narrative skills to her madisaar attire! I remember the days where one needed to go well ahead of time to get a seat for her Harikatha program. This year, with most programs going online, being the opportunist that I am, I decided to see her program at my convenience, with my mother(who would have otherwise found it challenging to attend a live program). The topic she had chosen was ‘Bhakti Vijayam’, so we sat armed with coffee & snacks and were mentally prepared to delve into the depths of Bhakti. Now you maybe wondering, how coffee has got anything to do with Bhakti .......well just today I read in TOI that coffee drinking has many benefits, such as reducing heart risks, controlling type2 diabetes, being rich in anti oxidants, improves cognitive thinking, enhances mood and creates an awakening. Now the last 3 attributes are also wh...

  Ramakrishnan Keerthy Some years ago, when the opinionated music goers were raving about this young lad who had left the USA to come to Chennai wanting to make a serious career in Carnatic music, I was initially skeptical. The reason being that I have noticed that here in India, among the TamBram community, they are very impressed with anyone who has an academic background, has lived in America, has strong Indian values, chooses to pursue Carnatic music in some form and even excels in it. For an average upper middle class TamBram, this is an irresistible combination! Another reason for my skepticism is that, they glorify somebody too soon and too much, not allowing them to go through the natural process but instead adding so much stress that it may impact their growth, also creating an unreasonable expectation from the ever demanding audience. I felt that this young man Ramakrishnan Murthy certainly had much promise but we need to be patient to ensure that the spark becomes a glow...

  Thirssur Pooram Kaanaan In our country, everyone celebrates everything including festivals. There are certain festivals which are famously associated with certain places, like Ganesh Chaturthi in Maharashtra & Durga Pooja in Bengal. Likewise, Thrissur Pooram is an annual festival held in Kerala. It is held at the Vadakkunnathan Temple in Thrissur every year on the day when the moon rises with the Pooram star in the Malayalam Calendar month of Medam (April - May). It is a spectacular event which has lakhs of people visiting this city. A resplendent festival celebrated with a grand display of caparisoned elephants, dazzling parasols, and percussion music, the Thrissur Pooram is magnificent, merging the spiritual and cultural essence of Kerala. It is held at the Thekkinkadu Maidanam in Thrissur. This concert by the Trichur Brothers was also like the festival....spectacular ! They started as many do traditionally, on Lord Ganesha with a composition of Keshavananda Bharati, ...

  Marghazhiyil Rhapsody I couldn’t ask for a better way to begin a Marghazhi Sunday(after all the psychological games Corona played on most of us)......... sitting in the open air, with gentle sun rays filtering in through the green trees with hot filter coffee in my hand, while listening to the most melodious live piano performance, followed by a delicious ‘all’ South Indian breakfast, chatting with friends after a long time. All this was possible because of the ever warm & hospitable Anita Ratnam, who is always eager to open her house to friends, art, artists and beautiful things, no wonder she remains beautiful herself ! Year after year Anita invites a few like minded people on a December Sunday morning, to enjoy Anil Srinivasan’s beautiful music as they both join hands to celebrate Marghazhi season and this city, they both love ! Having been long-time neighbours, their relationship doesn’t just stop with sharing a compound wall but also sharing their love for art. Last year...

  Dushyanthaha, Dushyanthow Dushyanthaaha If you have studied Sanskrit, in school, (however briefly it might have been) you would surely have learnt Vibhakti declanation. If you were like me, then the choice of Sanskrit would have been thrusted by your parents, who thought it was a ‘scoring subject’, and you would have sulked because you thought it was ‘cool’ to take French or German, having not even the faintest idea what we are going to do with these languages ! Anyway, this should indicate my limited romance with this glorious language, though I tried to rekindle my romance at Samskrita Bharati, a few years when I had realised the value of this ancient language. Well, here we have this young man Dushyanth Sridhar, who is a qualified engineer from one the premier institutions, who had been in the corporate world, who had chosen to devote his time & life to pursue Indic studies, Vedanta, Vaishnavism, several languages(Sanskrit being one of them), possessing extraordinary memor...