Venue: Sastri Hall, Luz, Mylapore, Chennai
Date: 14th Dec 2006
Organizer: SAFE
Vocal: Smt. Pantula Rama
Violin: Sri M.S.N. Murthy
Mridangam: Sri Vellore Ramabhadran
Ghatam: Sri N. Guruprasad
I reached the concert about 10 min late and left a bit early to reach Sri Karaikkudi Mani’s taniavartanam concert on time. Here is the partial song list:
* sharaNu sidhi vinAyakA – sOwrAshtram – misra chApu – purandaradAsa
* mArubalka – srIranjani – Adi – thyAgarAja (AS)
* sarasa sAma dAna – kApinArAyaNi – Adi – thyAgarAja (O)
* rAmA vishAla vikrama (viruttam) – pantuvarALi
ennagAnu rAma bhajana – pantuvarALi – rUpakam – bhadrAchala rAmdAs (NS)
* nA jIvadArA – bilahari – Adi – thyAgarAja (ANST)
(Key: O=raga outline, A=raga alapana, N=neraval, S=kalpana swaram, T=taniavartanam)
A top class concert in which the rasikas never stopped saying “sabaash” or “bale”. This is the first time I am hearing Smt. Pantula Rama live. I knew that I was in for some good quality music having listened to a few of her recordings on AIR before and quality music was what she delivered. The srIranjani alapana was, for example, pure gold.
I was left wanting for more when I had to move after the bilahari composition. Hope I do get to listen to at least to one full concert of hers this season.
Ramkumar R 
Ram
Nice to see u back . SOWRASHTRAM was the first song and ended with ” Govardhana Giridhara ” in Darbari Kannada.
Concert was OK , felt her voice could have been with little more ‘ azhuttham” that was seen in her earlier concert.
The “sabashes” and “bales” are because you sat near a person who is a ” devotee” of Pantula Rama.
Dear Sri Sriram,
Thanks for the info about the first song and for your views on the concert.
Hope to bump into you in one of the concerts these days.
Regards,
Ram