By S. Sivaramakrishnan
It could be christened 'Oliyum Oviyamum' (Pitch and Picture would be a rough translation). The story or glory of Krishna titled 'Muddukrishna' through select songs was sung by Sriram Parasuram, Nisha Rajagopal and K. Gayatri to the majestic strokes on a canvas by the genius-artist Keshav, famous for his political caricatures in The Hindu. The venue was the haloed, refurbished R.R. Sabha in Mylapore, Chennai, which could well be a hotspot during this December Season.
By the time the trio completed their rendition of a nice collection of kritis on Lord Krishna, Keshav completed his painting--a magnificent maroon-hued portrait of his 'ishtadevata' Gopalakrishna. The audience focus was perhaps more on the renowned artist working with his pencils and brushes on the canvas. A Tiruppavai, some famous kritis of Dikshitar and Tyagaraja, and a thumri, provided quite a different aural canvas. This was the second episode of a novel three-day series focussing on the inner story through music and art, organised by Charsur Foundation 20-22 October 2017.
The first day was a celebration of Purandaradasa (Purandara gurum Vande) anchored by R.K. Shriramkumar telling the story, with vocal support by Amrita Murali and Ramakrishnan Murthy. Illustration of the saint on canvas was by Subhiksha Rangarajan who is an artist and a musician.
The final day had Jayanthi Kumaresh (veena) presenting a Story in Concert--mystery of the missing veena--with K.U. Jayachandra Rao and Pramath Kiran and Vidhya Anand. The artist working on the canvas was Neernalli Ganapathy. As bad luck would have it I could not attend the last day's event.
It was indeed an entertainment of a different kind on three days. On the whole, the concept was received well by the rasikas.