Ashwath Narayanan, Kamalakiran Vinjamuri and NC Bharadwaj - Vidya Bharathi 24Dec2025 4pm

[Carnaticworldmusic]

Mela Maaala

4pm - ticketed slot
Kamalakiran Vinjamuri completely stole the show
NC Bharadwaj - he was v good also
Ashwath Narayanan - sang ok ok - but not good enough at all for a ticketed concert

Kanada ata tala varnam
raghuvara nannu - n and s at manasuna neeke - pretty much standard stuff that we have heard only too many times
ranganayakam - nayakam - sung v well - beautiful saahitya highlighting - best item of the concert
devagandhari alapanai - was good albeit a few pauses, Shruthi lapses and disconnect of ideas - violin did v neat alapanai with lot of good phrases and got good applause -naa moralakimpa vemi - was sung neatly
aadi kondaar - mayamalavagowlai - swarams - few rounds done ok ok - expected more- Amrutha VEnkatesh has set the bar v v high for mmg swarams for this kruthi
after all this was expecting a nice main
but sadly it was done and dusted shankarabharanam - everyday alapanai by Ashwath but what a beautiful alapanai by Kamalakiran - at least 2 times he got applause in between the ragam itself
next I thought maybe kruthi will be a grand one - turned out to be Sarojadala netri -was bit disappointed - nothin g wrong with the kruthi and he did not do much to make it a senior level rendition either -at least niraval could have been chosen at a diff place - same aracha maavu thingy - violin and mridangam did v well in the niraval portion
Ashwath's shankarabharanam swarams v good and in 2nd speed swarams and korvai it became a bit interesting
tani was super energetic - for every round NCB got applause and final korvai he executed v impressively with a completely diff pattern - did have a bit of bashing which took away the sama GANA from the sama GANA but we have now accepted that mridangams will bang and vocalists have to accept and sing along
pibare ramarasam ahir bhairavi
vadavaraiyai - ragamalika
Ashwath requested for one more song permission (possibly a thilanna) but he was denied
Ashwath lacked stamina and energy - throughout the concert he took a lot of pauses - during main Raga alapanai he stopped for getting a sip of water and Kamalakiran covered it nicely
for me 3 melakarta ragams in one concert and that too v v everyday ragams was too low for ticketed concert - naayaki and devagandhari was the good part -he should Have done manodharmam for these kruthis