Flautist Jayaprada Ramamurthy serves a traditional fare at the Venuganam festival

Among instruments, flute is one, based on the most fundamental sign of life, which is breath. Jayaprada Ramamurthy, who performed recently at Mudhra’s Venuganam series, is the daughter of vocalist Prema Ramamurthy. She was mentored by flute virtuoso N. Ramani.

Her profound Bhairavi alapana was followed Dikshitar’s ‘Balagopala’ on Lord Rajagopala of Mannargudi. This kriti is in the eighth (Sambodhana Prathama) Vibhakti. She made full use of the infinite scope to improvise, which the kriti offers and captured the bhakti rasa embedded in the lyrics. She embellished it gamakas and swaraprastharas. On the Violin, Chidambaram Badrinath responded impeccably in alapanas and kalpanaswaras.

Jayaprada was accompanied by Chidambaram Badrinath on the violin, Melakaveri K. Balaji (mridangam) and Adambakkam K. Sankar (ghatam)
| Photo Credit:
Courtesy: Mudhra

In the percussion department, Melakaveri K. Balaji (mridangam) and Adambakkam K. Sankar (ghatam) enriched the swaraprastharas with anticipation and competence. Their tani with deft transitions was enjoyable.

Jayaprada’s handling of both long (with a deeper base) and short flutes enhanced the melody in the songs. Another extensive raga enunciation that stood out for its manodharma was Pantuvarali. She chose a lovely Oothukkaadu kriti, ‘Ati nirupama sundarakara’, which has both tisra gati and chatusra gati patterns. The transition from tisra (pallavi and anupallavi) to chatusra (charanam) was seamless. The percussionists lived up to the task.

Earlier, Jayaprada commenced the concert with ‘Vandeham jagat vallabham’ in Hamsadhwani (khanda chapu) by Annamacharya. Again, swaras at pallavi were replete with rhythmic patterns. Chidambaram Badrinath embellished the kriti with his soft bowing technique. Tyagaraja’s ‘Chinna naade na’ in Kalanidhi bore the stamp of Ramani’s style.

After a short sketch of Kapi, she played ‘Enna thavam seythanai’, a popular kriti by Papanasam Sivan. Jayaprada concluded her recital with ‘Bhaja bhaja manasa’ (Sindhubhairavi) by Swati Tirunal and the Revathi tillana (Misra Chapu) by Lalgudi Jayaraman.