Impressive performance by expressive Suchitra

Suchitra, whose moulding was done at the hands of stalwarts like Padma Subramaniam, is superb when it comes to expressions and hence her Shivastuti turned out to be an admirable one. The manner in which she brought out the twin aspects of Shiva, the quot;ardhanareeshwarquot;, will remain etched in the viewers8217; minds.

Suchitra commenced with the customary Pushpanjali but she had a special salutation for Bharat Mata keeping with the nature of the celebrations. Suchitra8217;s expertise came in the Meera bhajans which saw the quot;bhakti rasaquot; in its varied forms, in the quot;hopelessly devoted to youquot; style and in the playful nature. And Suchitra emerged as the winner in both.

Suchitra8217;s accompanists were a real pleasure to listen to. Led by vocalist Lakshmi Narayanaswamy, whose pitches were in total symmetry with Suchitra8217;s movements, she had the beats of inner depth on Mridangam by Chandrashekhar and the notes of compassion on violin by Anna Durai, not to forget the tone-setter Natuvangam by Krishnamurty, to accentuate her recital.

The only flaw in the programme was Chaitali Nandi, whose stiff postures and school-girl like performance prompted dullness to creep in. Unfortunately, it was a case of quot;ghar ki murgi dal barabarquot; for the bigwigs, who presided over the stellar artists from outside during the last two programmes, were conspicuous by their absence.

Even the half empty hall also cried the same message. Did that upset you, Suchitra, for you seemed to be lost, lacking in concentration and was a frail shadow of your bubbly self? But then the viewers who sat through your recital were the ones who received the items with appreciation and applause.

The very fact that you could instil interest in this purely South Indian classical form into an urban crowd of diametrically opposite breeding is no mean achievement for you.