Finished the weekly status call a bit early today evening, inorder to catch a bus to moodubidre. This time Mom accompanied me. We reached the venue at 6. The concert was scheduled to start at 6:15 PM and it did! We secured the places just a few rows from the stage, at a decent distance from the speakers. I thought it was a perfect place.

The concert for the day was a Hindustani-Carnatic vocal Jugalbandhi by Sriram Parashuram and his wife Anuradha Parashuram, from Chennai. They were accompanied by Tabla, Harmonium, Mridangam and a Violin. I was expecting a Jugalbandhi of styles, i.e Carnatic pitted against Hindustani. But the format was slightly different. The pair would choose a Raga, sing a composition in carnatic, have a jugalbandhi in between. Next they would sing a composition in an equivalent Raga in Hindustani.

They started the concert with a Carnatic composition which was followed by a Khayal in Hindustani set to Dadra Taal. Next they sang Purandaradasa’s Idu Bhagya Idu Bhagya in Raga Poorya Dhanashri.  This was followed by the popular Rasiya, “Saaware Aijayyo, jamuna kinaare mora gaon”. This is a song where Radha is invoking Krishna in a playful mood. Then came the ever popular Samaja vara gamana, a Thyagaraja composition in Raga Hindolum. Here, we got an opportunity to listen to a nice tabla-mrudangam jugalbandhi. Both of the players displayed their proficiency in Aditala/Teentaal. This was followed by two fabulous compositions. Purandara Dasa’s Rama mantrava japiso and a Sant Tukaram’s Abhang in praise of Pandharapur Vithoba’s form. The Abhang especially had the audience in splits. While one of the singers was singing the refrain, the other was rendering various nuances of the Raga. Slowly, they were increasing the tempo, a popular technique while singing something like an Abhang. It was extremely melodious. When ten minutes were left to 8:30 PM, they sang the Mangalam, thereby ending the concert well within the stipulated time.

I really enjoyed the coordination between the couple. And the ease with which they presented both forms of Indian classical music was truly remarkable.

Planning to attend tomorrow’s event as well. It’s a jugalbandhi between the Mandolin played by U.Srinivas and the Sitar played by Ustad Shahid Pervez.