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There was a time when i used to look forward to every December with great expectations - for it was when the music festival in Madras started every year. This was soon to be followed by the greatest event of all - the Thiruvaiyyaru festival. Musicians and Rasikas would set aside pride and pelf and sit together in sheer devotion and sing the pancharatna keerthanas in true earnest. It was experience most sublime. I have personally sat through those exhillarating moments during my school and college days. The number of westerners that thronged the place was to be seen to be believed.
There was a time when i used to look forward to every December with great expectations - for it was when the music festival in Madras started every year. This was soon to be followed by the greatest event of all - the Thiruvaiyyaru festival. Musicians and Rasikas would set aside pride and pelf and sit together in sheer devotion and sing the pancharatna keerthanas in true earnest. It was experience most sublime. I have personally sat through those exhillarating moments during my school and college days. The number of westerners that thronged the place was to be seen to be believed.
Today, as i sit in some distant place and watch this on DD, i get the impression if it were a plenary session of a large political outfit. Politicians, their personal attendants, party workers, walkie-talkie holding security people, safari clad bureaucrats - the list is long. Where is the rasika?
As TMK orchestrates yet another melakartha (the presence of TV cameras and foreign media has made our musicians dress conscious and they emote more than what is necessary), i see party workers planning their evening dinner, i see a senior political leader whispering in the ears of another senior bigwig about how this electorate should be taken care of when the moment comes, i see a senior musician of yester-years running around desperately (possibly he is in some committee and is heckled by the demands of the political leaders that are in the committee)... well, its like those Dubai and Malaysia glitz. There is everything for a memorable picnic but the humility that marked Thyagaiyyar's immortality is conspicuous by its absence.
Will this morph eventually into a day when this festival starts with a Srikant Deva and Imaam's fusion of some rare gana-raaga, followed by a Gaana in Sri or Madhyamavati no one will ever know, then a jugabandhi that ensembles those great track-singing lippers... And then the festival for a few hours.
God save the King.
2 comments:
The sanctity of Tiruvaiyaaru came under microscope many years back thanks to late. Kunnangudi vaidyanathan. He even went to the extent of allowing film shooting while pancharatna krithis were rendered.
Today it has become an audio visual media and artists, barring few, spend more time on make-up. Gone are the days where the focus was only on singing or playing instruments.
About TMK, I have a sightly different view. After seeing the December schedule, I noted his name was missing in almost all sabhas. I got in touch with him and understood that he will not be performing as he wanted to listen to other artistes and hence chose not to sing during the entire season. This is something to be appreciated. Having said that, I note that most of the artistes (senior + budding) today are repititive and lack innovation. They are just run-on-the-mill re-creating yester-year greats' performances.
Carnatic music has indeed become glossy with more focus on cosmetics than content. Yes. it indeed requires a paradigm shift / GK
Dear GK
Thanks for the nice comments. Agree on Kunnakudi. He set the trend. I have some photos where i see the likes of Ariyakudi singing bare-bodied and oblivious of the world around them except the Thyagam.
i didnt know this piece about TMK - i didnt offend him in any way - i was only saying there is too much of mannerism among almost everyone. He is indeed a class.
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