Soumya’s vocal arangetram

Soumya Ravi Kumar was a picture of confidence as she prepared to present her Carnatic music vocal arangetram (debut). And when she began to sing, she showed off beautifully her pleasing voice and its impressive range.

Soumya, a Year 11 student at the Hurlstone Agricultural High School, has been training under the guidance of Lakshmi Narendra, a well known Carnatic guru in Sydney, for more than twelve years now. The arrengetram took place at the Casula Powerhouse Art Centre in mid February, to a packed audience.

The debut was shaped like a regular concert and had sixteen items. It started with a Varnam in Mohana raga and concluded with the popular mangalam. The second item Vatapi was delivered with chitte swara as well as kalpana swaras and was a delight. In the ever popular item Nagumomu Soumya showed that her voice is well trained in the line Jagamele paramatma evareeli morelidudu, bringing out the despair it predicts. There was a good flow in sarasi janabha sodari. Another popular hit Endaro mahanu bhavulu went a bit hurried. Vasudevayani had an alapana as well and proved somewhat lacking. But Soumya was able to render the swara prastara well for the lines Raga thana gathulanu. The post intermission session saw a Soumya very much at ease. Swagatham Krishna was relaxed while Adivo alladivo showed her vocal ability towards the end. Thillana was effortless and brisk while Kurai ondrum illai brought out the bhava well. Bho shiva shambho was full of life. There were other pleasing items as well.

Soumya was accompanied by Ammula Sathyavathi, the well known and well travelled violinist from India and also Soumya’s guru’s mother. A crafty accompaniment was evident.

Popular Sydney sider Janakan gave the mridanga support while Crissan Segaram was on the ghatam. In the post intermission segment Soumya’s younger brother Suraj Ravikumar accompanied her on the tabla. The combination of Janakan and Segaram was very entertaining. They brought out a nice taniavartanam after Vasudevayeini.

It was a very enjoyable and memorable evening; congratulations to Soumya.

Sydney Srinivas possessions. He is driven away to a forest along with his wife. The grief-stricken king leaves his wife fast asleep in the forest and then comes across Karkotaka, a snake, which bites him. Consequently his body itself changes in shape and he becomes a dwarf. The meetings between Shani and the kings were enacted very well. The climax was the game of dice (ADidaru, pagaDe ADidaru). The scene where Nala reports his defeat and his wife volunteers to join him in his banishment to the forest was another highlight. The audience felt for Damayanti when she found out that her husband had gone away. “Ramana, Ramana!” melted the hearts of the audience. Another good soliloquy, this time from Nala, followed.

It was a jolting experience. At the peak of any scene, there was great acting, appropriate music rendered effectively, the drums made the experience intense, colour and costumes added to it.

The actors performing were Krishna Murthy Urala, Mugwa Ganesha, Umesh Poojari, Parthisha Katpady, Manjunatha, Prasada, Sanjeeva Suvarna and Ganesh. Music was rendered by Satish Kedalaya, accompanied by Devadasa Rao on maddale and Krishna Murthy Bhatt on chande Prof Krishna Bhatta is the director of Yakshagana Kendra and was present on the occasion.

In the intermission, students of Thrayee (with Gayatri Krishna Murthy as the Guru) and Samskriti (with Hamsa Venkat as the Guru) schools performed impressive dance items.

Sydney Srinivas