Raaja by RaGa - In Dallas - A review

I have been to carnatic music concerts, be it Madurai TN Seshagopalan or my outright favorite KJ Yesudas. In general, these tend to be quite different in song selection, mainly sticking to support the manodharmam of their guru parampara. You can very well hear it when KJY exploring deep in Chembai's signature songs. I have also been in Raaja's concert, once about 10 years back in Toronto, which is mainly his list of songs performed by SPB, Hariharan and others. These two are very different genres of music and Raaja takes a lot of liberty in violating the strict guidelines of carnatic music in lot of his songs even though they may have been inspired by a specific raaga. 

However what to expect from a traditional carnatic duo who have taken the task of marrying Raaja composed songs in the traditional carnatic format. This curiosity is not unique to me, it seems like both the carnatic music lovers and the Raaja sir music lovers of Dallas are all equally curious and this could be seen in the almost houseful crowd in Dallas Majestic theatre. The concert started with the expected Saramati composition - Mari Mari Ninne - (with the background story of why he did not use Kambhoji in which it is originally tuned) and padariyen padipariyen medley. RaGa has shown their creativity in the kalpana swarams which is very different from the original song in movie but beautifully fitting into their ying-yang style of singing.

Ther next medley was in raagam Lalitha - the outright classic by Raaja - Lalitha priya kamalam (telugu version of ithazhil kathai ezhuthum neramithu). This song is beautifully mixed with Muthuswamy Dikshitar's composition of Hiranmayim Lakshmim in the same raagam. With all these the kutcheri is already in its peak. 

Then came another beautiful presentation, a non film composition - Vedhamum viLakatha unnai ( a song on Ramana Maharishi by Raaja sir) - in Shanmukahpriya. This song started with a detailed Alapana of the raagam and the charanam had a lot of traces of 'Nalanthaana' song (from thillana mohanambaal). 

One of the gems of the concert is the Sapthaswara medley starting with sa sa sa - sa sa sa and navigating to Pani vizhum malarvanam (raagam: Chalanataai). Each swara got a song in a different raagam and the violinist (Vittal Rangan) seem to trigger the change very beautifully from one to the other while the singers transformed it with finesse.Following are the swaras and the songs

Ri - Enthan Nenjil (Nalinakanthi)

Ga - Ithu Oru Ponmalai (Kedaram)

Ma - Anthi Mazhai Pozhitkirathu (Vasanthi)

Pa - Kanne Kalaimane (Kapi)

Da - Azhage Azhagu Devathai (Mishra Sivaranjani)

Ni - Kanna Varuvaaya (Patdeep and Gauri Manohari)

Typically in the climax when they did the Ying-Yang thing again by one of them singing Kanna varuvaaya and the other as meera varuvaala - it is divine. The final twist with sa pa sa and Malligaiye Malligaiye song was just an amazing touch and the crowd erupted with ovation.

After the high point of the Saptaswara medley is a complex exercise of Graha Bedham where a tonic note is shifted to another note to arrive at a different raga. They took a beautiful Hamsanandi - (Vedham Anuvanuvuna Naadham - from Sagara Sangamam) and navigated to Hindolam (Naan thedum sevanthi, Sagara Sangamame), Durga/Shuddha Saaveri (Kovil Mani Osai), Shuddha Dhanyasi (Ragavane Ramana), Mohanam (Ninukkori Varnam) and Madhyamavati (Thulli Thulli). Everytime they navigate to the different ragams and came back to 'Vedham Anuvanuvuna Naadham' as a base reference is just ecstatic. While the singing itself is just joyous one has to mention the percussion support by Delhi Sairam on the mridangam and S Krishna on the Ghatam for this graha bedham when they shifted rhythms based on different shruti notes using an array of different instruments - amazing variations and an awesome job.

While the crowd is already deeply entrenched in this musical ocean, they poured on more honey in the form of RTP (Ragam Taanam Pallavi) in none other than Darbari Kanada. I could not guess any of Raaja songs during the Raaga alapanai or the detailing during tanam. All the more, in my mind I started hearing 'Chinnanjiraya vanna paravai' from Kungumam (composition by KV Mahadevan) and then suddenly out of nowhere they started singing Aagaya Vennilave in a different tune. Ahaa - it fits so well to this tune that in my head I could not even remember the original tune. After a while in the end of the pallavi, the duo sang the original tune and just applause erupted across the hall and it was just goosebumps all over again.

The last but one medley is a 5-beat and 7-beat rhythmic medley with Azhagu malaraada (thaka thakita), Theeratha vilaiyaatu pillai, mazhai varuthu mazhai varuthu kudai kondu vaa, and finally with Ponvanam panner thoovuthu is a treat for rhythm lovers.

The last piece is a Sindhu Bhairavi medley with all four south indian languages. I couldn't quite get the Malayalam song because I have not heard it much, but the others are quite famous ones Jothayali (kannada), Priyathama (Telugu) and Enna Satham Intha Neram (Tamil). While we were all thinking that may be it is time to get out so that we can avoid the traffic in the parking lot, RaGa suddenly jumped from Enna satham intha neram (right where it ends at 'Adadaaa') to an Abhang in Sindhu Bhairavi. The crowd that was leaving just were mesmerised and frozen right away. We were all standing and arrested by the song, it took about 5 minutes of unabated applause, to come back to normal.

I haven't had such a musical treat in a very long time. If this comes to your town, please don't miss it. I don't think there is anything like this presented in any platform with such variations and research by anyone as of today. And that too hearing this live is a fantastic experience.