The first half of the performance under review was devoted to bhajans which included Abhangs also. The curtain raiser was a Ganapathi Vandana in raga "Mishra Hamsadwani" which was followed by a shlokam in Mohanam or was it Bhoopali? He then rendered a Tulsidas bhajan in Raag Tilang with feeling followed by an Abhang in the Raag Megh, the name of the raga being revealed in response to a query from the audience. The next bhajan Sumarino Karo was in the Raag Mishra Yaman. The first half came to an end with another Abhang in the Raag Kalavathi.

He then rendered or rather demonstrated how the same composition of Jayadeva is rendered differently in different parts of the country viz. Kerala , Orissa and Bengal. Here again, Arun's versatility came into play. By the way the reviewer understands that Jayadeva was born in Bengal, grew up in Orissa but his compositions are more popular in Kerala. I stand to be corrected on this factual information.

The remaining half was devoted to TAMIL GHAZALS. Before he commenced his first piece, he demonstrated glimpses of some Hindustani Ghazals which were rendered in the perfect Ghazal style of singing.

Alas, when he started rendering the TAMIL GHAZAL composed by PBS, it was as if he was rendering these tamil ghazals in the carnatic style and it should have been titled GHAZALS in carnatic style. Otherwise if one uses the Ghazal nomenclature for its lyrical contents only, then it is certainly a misnomer.