By Dr. Padmavathi Narasimhan
On the third day of Heritage Music Festival at 8th Cross, V.V. Mohalla, Malladi Brothers — Vidwans Malladi Sriram Prasad and Malladi Ravikumar — performed a vocal concert. They were accompanied by Vid. Embar Kannan on violin, Vid. Arjun Kumar on mridanga and Vid. G.S. Ramanujam on ghata.
The concert was a crowd-puller. Before commencing the concert, Sriram offered condolences to Sangeetha Kalanidhi T.V. Sankaranarayanan (TVS), torch-bearer of Madhurai Mani Iyer style of singing and technique, who passed away on the 2nd of this month. Sriram remembered how Sankaranarayanan used to sing the akaaras in the concert, how intense his bhakti was, which was evident in his singing especially at the end of his concerts where he chose to sing Harinaama using various adjectives for the Lord, the way he easily reached the upper notes with ease and the way he travelled in India and abroad on concert tours. The Brothers dedicated the concert to Padma Bhushan TVS.
Sriram took time to settle down due to bad throat but managed the concert with Ravi’s support. ‘Vinayaka ninnu vinaa brochutaku’ in Hamsadhwani set to Aditala by E.V. Ramakrishna Bhagavatar was the starter.
The brothers chose all the compositions for the concert popularised by TVS. Even the sarva laghu swaras for the Hamsadhwani piece and also for ‘Subramanyena Rakshitoham’ in shuddha Dhanyasi by Deekshitar reminded one of TVS. After a short ragalapana of Asaveri, they presented Sri Tyagaraja’s ‘Samayamu delisi’ (Mishra Chapu) and ‘Sarasa Saama daana’ (Kaapi Marayani), which TVS and Madhurai Mani Iyer regularly sang in their concerts.
Ravikumar’s version of Hamsanandi was expansive and and Embar Kannan responded with equal competence. Papanashanam Shivam’s ‘Srinivasa Tiruvengada’ saw detailed neraval and swarakalpana at ‘Jagannatha’ which was very apt. Kapi was expansively and richly treated by both the brothers. Sri Tyagaraja’s ‘Inta Soukhya’ of TVS fame was rendered slowly with clarity, decorated beautifully with a neraval at ‘Vara Raga Laya’. Varieties of swaras alternated by each singer which led to a koraippu at ‘p’ was concluded with a suitable muktaya giving way for Taniyavartanam by Arjun Kumar and Ramanujam. The duo displayed their virtuosity over the patterns in their tani.
The last part of the concert included a shloka ‘Shantakaram Bhujagashayanam’ in Behag, leading to Smarajanaka Shubhacharita’ by Swati Tirunal in Mishra Chapu, devaranama ‘Neene Doddavanu’ in Revathi and Sadashiva brahmendra’s ‘Prativaaram vaaram bhajare Raghuveeram’ in Pahadi. Each one of the compositions presented brought strong memories of TVS, who left his mortal coil to make God’s ecstatic in the heaven with his music leaving a huge void in the hearts of rasikas.
Although TVS, the nephew of Madurai Mani Iyer, was often referred to as the musician continuing his uncle’s style of singing-the rich kalpana swaras for example, he was no way nearer to the genius level of Mani Iyer. Similarly bout GNB and his disciples, MLV, Kalyanaraman and Radha Jayalaksmi.
Madurai Mani and GNB were geniuses , born for the Carnatic music. That simple. To the credit of violin Chowdaiah, he brought these 2 to his Bidaram Krishnappa Mandira almost every year during Ramanawami celebrations.
About Mani Iyer. He perennially suffered from ailments, and was unable to climb to the stage and had to be assisted by Vembu Iyer. Sitting in the audience, one wondered , how could this ailing person sing! But, the moment Mani Iyer completed his first selection, every one used to be stunned with awe at the sheer genius of this human being born to sing Carnatic music.
The last time, I l had the privilege to listen to this genius, was at the Seshadripuram High School Pendal in Bangalore, in 1965, where Gopala Iyengar, the businessman , educationist and music lover, arranged the unique Ramanawami Carnatic music concerts by the stalwarts of those days, in an open session , where every one was invited and listened to those concerts for free. That was the year, GNB passed away about the time of Ramanawami celebrations. A poignant time. Mani Iyer concert was superb. I could see that he was ailing. He passed away 3 years later.