Carnatic Vocal by Padmini Ravi

It was a rather quiet program for a select ticket buying audience. The South Indian Cultural Association organized a Carnatic vocal recital by a Chennai based artist, Padmini Ravi, whose typical native accent, manner of rendering and melodic elaboration delighted the Tamil audience. Padmini trained under her own mother Mangalam Muthuswamy, veteran Veena artist, later under T R Balamani and then under D K Pattamal of Chennai, before becoming a graded artist in the Chennai Kendra AIR.

Her seriousness was evident in the very first number that she chose to sing for the evening. The Kedaragoula Varnam saw her exploring the different phases of the compositions. And a brief Goula composition, "Sri Mahaganapathim", made an interlude before a plethora of compositions by different poets and in varied melodies flowed from the artist.

A Tamil song "En Parangmukham" in Begada, a Sanskrit composition "Ramanandam Bajheham" in Pantuvarali and a Telugu "Nannugana Talli" in Sindu Kanada showed a variety, and yet were bound by that typical style that Padmini has developed. More 'swara kalpanas' (knitted notes), 'nervals' (stylistic elaborations) and apt support and individual ornamentation came from violinist Roopa Natesan, percussionist Nagai Narayanan and kanjeera artist K Shyam Kumar.

The expected Raagam-Taanam-Pallavi in Todi remained the highlight of the evening's recital. Sadly, the concert had very little audience.