A Divine And Heavenly Listening Experience At Sri Kapaleeshwar Temple

 Mylapore is a traditional homeground in Chennai. And pleasing the Mylaporians is a task all by itself for even the musicians of the highest calibre too! But Bombay Jayashri just charmed them for 2 hours, so much so there was pindrop silence......at a temple

Bombay Jayashri's concert yesterday , which triggered of the ten-day music festival in Sree Kapaleeshwar Temple, Mylapore , saw a jam-packed temple with people sitting , standing wherever there was space availible.It seemed as if whole Mylapore was there!

The concert  began with a prayer to Lord Ganesha , The remover of obstacles with  Shree Maha Ganapatim  in the Ragam Gowlai which is a signature composition of Sri Mutthuswami Dikshitar , one of the trinity of music.The Kalpana Swaram made a significant contribution to this piece.

Then she rendered  the Famous Sabapathikku Veru Daivam in Ragam Abhogi of  Sri GopalKrishna Bharathi  in the best ever way ever possible - with all  the spectators' heads nodding along with the song.
I had always wondered if Sri Thyagaraja an ardent devotee of Rama, had sung anything in praise of Shiva  ! But when Bombay Jayasri  sang Shambho Mahadeva in ragam Kamavardhini which was one of her best items yesterday with a small Alapana it re-iterated the magic of Sr Thyagarajas' lyrics.

A devotional Bombay Jayashree

Then came an Alapana in one of my favourite ragas - Reethi Gowlai following which was Janani Ninnu Vina in the same ragam by Subbaraya Shastri.I wouldn't be surprised if Goddess Janani was present in the audience during the course of the song.
This was followed by the melodious Parvathi Nayakane Sharanam in Shanmukhapriya composed by Sri Papanasam Sivan ,an ardent devotee of Shiva.
Then came Thaye Dhayapurivai , the Ragam Thanam Pallavi piece in Kapi ragam which was a mesmerising combination of notes.

Following this was the majestic  and  supreme Chandrashekhara in Sindhu Bairavi ,  a composition of Annai Vaidyanathan Iyer.

And the grand finale - Bombay Jayashri took  the audience to cloud nine straight away with the phenomenally fast Maand Thillana , an evergreen composition of Sri Lalgudi Jayaraman. Infact there was such a stunning silence after this.

The  mesmerised audience left reluctantly only 10 minutes after she had left.

So , No Wonder BOMBAY JAYASHRI ROCKS!!!
Awaiting her next concert.

This  is just a school boy's version.
-Sudharshanan Balaji