Series on Musicians-II Sangeetha Kalanidhi M.L.vasanthakumari

As I promised in one of my earlier post that I am going to write a series on musician who has influnced me earlier in many ways, MLV amma needs no introduction. Yesterday as I was downloading one of her concerts, I realised that I posses nearly 1GB of MLV amma's live concerts, apart from commercial recordings. I consider myself fortunate to have been introduced to her music and its indeed a great oppurtunity for me to write about Sangeetha Kalanidhi M.L.Vasanthalumari. Popularly known as MLV, I was introduced to her music by my guru Smt. Mangalam Muthuswamy. Apart from that my incusitiveness to listen to MLV amma aroused after listening to a concert by Smt. Sudha Ragunathan(disciple of MLV) at shanmukhananda hall nearly a decade ago where she spoke about her guru.I was a novice who attended concerts with my grandfather. As a young girl trying to figure who she was talking about I asked my grandfather. He didn't say much apart from the fact that she was a great musician. But i wanted to know more about her and listen to her voice. Thanks to the invitees and the artist of the day who spoke so much about her that I was impatient. I asked my guru who instantaenously gave a cassette and said you listen and all your queries would be answered. Indeed they were....

Her strinkingly different voice attracted me. Then I didnot understand her sheer mathematical brilliance while rendering swaras or neravals.My guru has been very careful while introducing me to a number of well known artist.As I have been lucky to listen to this extraordinary artiste, let me be frank that she is one of the few artist whom I feel has that brilliance in rendering Pallavis, which is a rarity in todays concert. I would consider MLV amma as one of the best in rendering Tanam. Being a vainika its muh easier for me to understand the nuances of tanam. The jati that is inbuilt in it is never understood. Ta.num tha..anumtha...how beautifully she renders it.An artist who could easily handle unkown ragas and render ragas like hamsavinodini,andolika, subhapantuvarali,malavika,sivasakthi,mohanakalyani etc. ate ase.Subha Pantuvarali has not been relished by many,but MLV's rendition of Subhapantuvarali is just amazing. While rendering an alapna she would venture into some mind blogging areas,which probably we would not have ever imagined. Never short of creativity she has aptly followed her guru's footstep GNB(a genius in ever sense) she evolved her own style. A torch bearer of GNB style she has captivated audience in every concert.Talking about pallavi's I have heard from musicians and my guru that she would compose it minutes before the concert and bring out all the musical elements in it,anulomam, pratilomam, niraval, swara improvisations for tricky take off points, kuraippu and the grand ragamalika garland in sweet melodies such as Bowli, Sahana, Behag, Sekharachandrika, Tilang, Sindhubhairavi, Revati, Hamsanandi, et al, and reversing the order to culminate in a superb korvai hitting the Pallavi eduppu bang on target.Her musical spontaneity was unparalleled. In fact her own disciple Sudha Ragunathan once told me that her concerts were never planned.I still cant figure out how she did that. For all of you who are reading it lot goes behind a concert. From my own experience what you practice is not the same while you perform, a lot of thinking goes behind before one chooses a raga for the concert.

Everytime I listen to her rendition of hamsavinodini and the krithi sharanam bhava a composition of Narayana theerthar, one can just admire her.Within few years she attained great stature and was considered as one amongst the trio(the other two being DKP and MS).One of the memorable concerts of hers that I posses would be Sastri Hall concert where she was accompanied by Mridangam Maestro Palghat Mani Iyer. Mani Iyer had never accompanied ladies in his career before accompanying her.After that Mani Iyer accompanied her for some concerts.One of her concerts at Krishna Gana Sabha where Mani Iyer has accompanied her,one would be speechless after listening to her rendition of Eduta Nila chite in Shankarabharanam and bhairavi Ragam Thanam Pallavi.Her ragamalika viruttams and slokas would transport one to the seventh heaven of delight and devotion with their soulful appeal, combining bhakti and bhava.Her Marathi Abhangs, Hindi Bhajans and Tiruppavai, would create a mood of contemplation, while the tillanas spread immense joy and cheer.Its heard that had mastered Sindhu bhairavi raga, to the extent that Bade Ghulam Ali khan would always insist MLVamma to render it when he came to chennai.I have heard from my guru that she was magnimous in nature and was always there to help anyone who knocked her doorstep. In fact she was very keen in teaching and appreciating good music. In fact my guru who was MLV amma's earliest fan says she would appreciate anyone who sangwell even if it was a kid. How many of us would do that, probably today people are satisfied in criticising than appreciating. To quote her experience "MLV amma once had come down to tuticorin to give a concert. My guru went to visit her, but unfortunately she had gone to visit someone.As she arrived some time in the afternoon she was surprised to see young girl waiting to welcome her. She insisted my guru to sing. Scared,my teacher was apprehensive. But somehow she gathered confidence and sand Evarikai in devamanohari(till today my guru laughs saying what guts she would have had to sing this krithi which MLV amma was really good). But after the rendition, she quickly got up kissed my guru and giftd her.Unfortunately my guru lost that priceless gift.But my guru believes that her blessings are more important to her,and that it is always with her".

Following her guru's footsteps she groomed many musicians, today who are renowned artiste.Indeed her disciples have shared their experiences on many occassions. Unfortunately she bid farewell sixteen years ago, but her music would always remain.She came, she sang, she conquered. I don't know when can we see the likes of her again.Probably three letters "M for melody, L for laya, V for vidwat". Not a single day passes without hearing her concerts and I have definately benefitted, as many have.

THE FINAL VERDICT

The wait is finally over. After two months of hectic campaigning by both the dravidian parties, Tamil Nadu is ready to be governed by a new party for one more term. Elections in Tamil Nadu was never fought so closely.Also election commission closely watching and forcing the parties to follow the model code of conduct. But that did not reduce the fanfare, flambouant election speeches and the war of words between the parties. Adding to the spice was the media coverage.Initially the trend favoured AIADMK. Tamil Nadu electors had to vote for a government that would pave for development.There was nothing that went against Jayalalitha, especially the last two years of her tenure. FDI's pouring in chennai, Tsunami was handled very well, during floods the government did its best to help the grieved.Unfortunately the mandate is against Jayalalitha. Now, if we analyse what went wrong then probably it was the pre-poll alliance. The people of Tamil Nadu were surprised when Vaiko joined hands with Jayalalitha.DMK had realised right from day one that it wouldn't be possible for it to form a government on its own.It turned the tables by constantly pointing out its realtion with congress at the centre.Its the numbers that changed everything. Karunanidhi has never allocated so many seats to its alliance in his political carrier.
One of the striking features of this assembly polls was it was a war of freebies.DMK started it by offering rice for Rs.2/kg, now when questioned whether it was feasible the FM said it was within the limits if the DPA led alliance if it comes to power.As a common man the main question that the government needs to answer is from where are they going to get the funds.There needs to be more transperancy in the policy formation.Its that time of the year when television manufacturers can throng Tamil Nadu as the DMK has promised colour television to those who dont posses it.I fail to understand this strategy of the DMK.Now, none of the parties have focussed on developmental issues, probably the money they are investing in these freebies can be used for rural development and for education. The AIADMK went a step ahead of providing 10kg free rice.Its hilarious :).

If we analyse then Jayalalitha hasn't done badly in this elections, if we compare her performance with the 2004 assembly elections where except Andipatti she failed to win a single seat. Obviously she antagonised the government vote share after she dismissed more than one lakh government employees. The DMK should not be happy with their performance because they have lost in some of their key constituencies in the caveri delta region.When we look at the overall picture the difference is hardly 5% of the total vote share between the DMK and the AIADMK. Jayalalitha has managed to win nearly 67 constituencies which speaks for the efforts that she has put in this elections. Its hard to believe that southern tamil nadu which has been an AIADMK bastion for so long didn't perform well. Lers not forget that it might be the last election that Karunanidhi would be consisting considering that he is already 83. But the irony is the the congress has formed an alliance with a party that once blamed it responsible for PM Rajiv Gandhi's assasination.Nobody is a permanent friend or foe in politics.Karunanidhi doesn't have an easy task ahead. Being the single largest party he has to form a coalition government or form a minority government with support from the left and the congress.Now the congress would play a crucial role in TN, now it can dictate term at DMK. Now the situation is balanced as both the parties need each other to remain in power. Jayalalitha has to rethink again on forming alliances before elections.She lost it in 2004, when she left congress and joined BJP. As said, politics is a funny game and in TN its unpredictable.

Inspirational...one step forward

I received lot of mails from people who visited my blog asking why I haven't updated. I am trying spend some time with my cassettes and cd's, trying to understand the nuances of classical music and also in the process of converting those into Cd's. It is time consuming. Apart from that I had my university exams, so couldn't take off my mind from some funky theories on journalism. Let me come to the point. Probably within few days i would be graduating and i don't what lies ahead. I guess most of us face this dilema..though let me not generalise it. Its been days since I went to movie theatre and watched some good movies. Common guys after Rang De Basanti(RDB) nothin really concrete. Unfortunately projects, presentations forced me to be with my best mate..the computer.But thanks to our local cable operator atleast three months after the release he must have had mercy on me and I caught up with this film.

It begins with the hanging of Bahgat Singh. At the outset it seems like anyother 'fight against the system' film.But its from the point of view of the present generation who have lost all hopes for improvement, its more realistic.But the real beauty of the film lies in the way the script has been written. It draws a parallel between the past and the present. According to me the first half of the film doesn't touch upon the issue of corruption, for a moment i thought the plot wasn't good enough, but i was wrong. The real climax of the film was the MiG crash. I guess the screenplay was intentionally inspired. The death of the MiG pilot with that of Lalalajpat Rai and the killing of the defence minister equivalent to Saunders. The film has everything in it. Fantastic music, amazing screen play, dialogues(its the kind of language that we speak). In fact RDB creates new definitions of patriotism. You don't have sunny deol desperately shouting"Bharat Mata ki Jai" and single handedly defeating the Pakistani Army.I don't have a say on whether we should appreciate the steps taken by the youngsters in the film, but i think we can do away with this social evil only if we fight as a cohesive unit. The other day i read an article in a magazine relating to this film where the critic was of the opinion that today's youth don't have much to fight about. I think it is ridiculous to say such things in a magazine.There are lot of youngsters who are working towards this cause.At the end of the day its just a step forward. RDB is truely an inspiration to all of us...Though one problem with the film, I think the army action in the end and killing those five characters definately sends a wrong signal. But at the end of the day its one of the few bollywood films where you don't find any main lead...Rang De Basanti is not over patriotic but after watching it we unanimously feel more Indian. Its definately too late to say worth watching but those who grab the DVD from the nearest shop full paisa vasool