 at a workshop by artist John Baby (left) at the art room of the Kochi-Muziris Biennale in December.jpg.image.160.84.jpg)
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Vijayalakshmi commenced with a beautiful 'aalapana' in thodi raga. Photo: Divya PKottayam: For Vaikom Vijayalakshmi, every sound is a heartfelt rhythm. While she was getting ready to perform at the Soorya festival in Kottayam, the organizers played the Soorya festival theme song. And one did not see an expected studied nonchalance from her part; she zealously started metering the stanzas of the song by the classical tāḷaṁ.
The lovely evening tossed its lights on the historical campus of CMS college, where Aatma, a charitable organization that supports artists and Soorya foundation collaborated to bring into being, an aesthetic evening with Vaikom Vijayalakshmi and Swarnanjali Fusion Plus.
Music aficionados thronged the auditorium, and Vijayalakshmi was greeted with a huge round of applause. A regular performer at the Soorya festival since 2001, this time, she was at Kottayam, a day ahead of her birthday, to perform once again. Vijayalakshmi commenced with a beautiful aalapana in thodi raga, adithalam. Accompanying her on the violin was Upendranath, with Shyamlal on Tabla and P. L. Harikrishnan on Mridangam.
She followed it up with a classical devotional keerthanam in Tamil, Ganapathiye Karunanidhiye, of raga Kharaharapriya in adithalam. A beautiful rendition, it was an invocation to lord Ganesha that transcended classical rhythms to possess a soulful quality.
She moved over to Anjanashilayil adi parashakthi, a noted devotional song on Kumaranalloor devi, made famous by K.S. Chitra. Next up was a Christian song written and composed by Alex K. Paul. A change of language, genre and musical subtexts seem to wash over her with ease and her versatility was reflected in the cultural collage of songs.
Soorya Festival: Vaikom Vijayalakshmi plays 'Katte katte...' from Celluloid on gayathri veenaA musical night at #Kottayam
Posted by onmanorama on Wednesday, October 7, 2015
She wrapped up her renderings with Ottakku padunna poonguyile, one her very own compositions, set to poetic lyrics by herself. A song of immense depth, layered with the grief, it talks of the song of a cuckoo that is dipped in sorrow. A line of it goes, “Isn't there any sweetness left in your voice despite having tasted all the honeyed fruits?”
Vijayalakshmi was accompanied by her father Muraleedharan, who then set the 'gayathri veena' for her— the legendary single-string instrument that is played by Vijayalakshmi alone amid the sea of musicians across the globe.
With astonishing ease, she strummed the veena, notes slithering off to blossom in the ears of the audience. She refrained from playing carnatic classical pieces, since they took more time, and resorted to light music. Lokam muzhuvan sukham pakaranai, made immortal by singer Leela Joseph, was the first of the lot to be played. The inherent beauty of the song blended stunningly with the veena rendition, making it a memorable listen.
She then moved over to swapnangal swapnangale, the renowned song from the film Kavyamela set to tune by V. Dakshinamoorthy and written by Vayalar. A perceptive song that it is, it sings about dreams and their significance in human lives.
Ably attended by the tabla and violin, parayan maranna from the film Garshom was born from the veena next. A song remembered for the magical touch of singer Hariharan, composed by Ramesh Narayan and written by Rafeeq Ahammad, Vijayalakshmi deftly recreated the charm of the song.
Katte katte from Celluloid, the one song that catapulted Vijayalakshmi to fame was the last song to be played, a fitting grand finale to her veena performance. An enthralled audience couldn't have asked for more.
'Katte katte' from 'Celluloid', the one song that catapulted Vijayalakshmi to fame was the last song to be played. Photo: Divya PSwaranjali Fusion Plus offers a spirited performance
An additional performance by 'Mohana Raga Sandhya' under the banner of Swaranjali Fusion brought about a dynamic energy rarely witnessed in the arena of classical music. The group of six singers, with accompaniments of violin, veena and mridangam, had collated all the kritis (carnatic compositions) falling under Mohana raga and had strung them together to be rendered. To induce more familiarity, and transcending musical boundaries, they had also corded some of the famous film songs, national integration songs as well as some Sastha (Ayyappa) songs of the same raga. So, a simple carnatic classical varnam, ninnukori varnam was played alternatively with Suprabhatham from the movie Pani Theeratha Veedu and Kani Kanum Neram, all falling under the lovely Mohana raga
Why Mohana raga, we ask Padmanabhan, the coordinator and music director of the group, who spearheaded the concept along with Swaranjali secretary, Sreekumaran Thampi.
“It is a pleasant raga with sringara bhava. The raga alapana is easy on the ears”, he said.
Among the musicians, was P. L. Harikrishnan, who had played the mridangam for Vaikom Vijayalakshmi. He had composed the final thillana that was performed by the group.
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