My Music Journal- 3

The indomitable Sanjay!

6th December:

From the time, the schedule of MMU has come out, I have marked this day in red and with mounting expectation and started a count down!  If you wonder what all the hype is about, I am coming to that! It is the evening of Sanjay subramaniam’s performance and I had to complete all my work/responsibility in time to attend the concert.

When the stars of classical carnatic music perform, it is like first day-first show of Super star/Kamal/Ajith/vijay movie particularly in the MMU. I should say, it is a great work that Shubashree is doing for the promotion of this music form. I keep seeing many NRIs with their young sons/daughters who aspire to make it big in this field (or should I say the parents aspire and dream for their children?) 

Sanjay is traditional yet innovative and his voice traverses in all octaves effortlessly.  And curious about how he was going to present the theme, ‘Divyaprabandam’ within the structured format, I was happy to start early. People come to the gates of the school around 2.30 pm itself, I think. They patiently wait in the broad and wide corridors, catching up with fellow rasikas and friends. The gate opens at 4.15 pm only and so, I reached there by 4 pm and what do I see? A huge queue snaking around the corridor is what I saw and I had to go round the hall in the corridor to join the queue.

I normally do not get bored for the people around me provide an interesting picture! So, I was not disappointed. All around me, I saw people with sreechurnam in different sizes on their forehead,  Iyengar mamis in their graceful ‘madisars’ walking here and there and mamas reminding ‘நெடியோன்  himself with their personality. I could not connect it to anything till the friendly and chatty lady standing next to me pointed it out! Yes, of course, it was ‘Naalayiram’ that Sanjay was going to sing and Vaishnavites had turned in great numbers. The friendly lady proved to be very communicative and I enjoyed my time with her.

It was a beautiful and poignant moment when I could observe the affection and companionship of an elderly couple with friendship maturing with age in their gesture of holding hands to climb the steps and taking turns to stand in the queue. If nothing else interests you during this waiting, you cannot but be drawn to the paintings- copies certainly- of Ravi Varma.

Hmm….. After the long but interesting wait, the door opened and we filed in. Mind you, there was another kutchery by Manimaran before Sanjay. It is like a package! One has to be patient. A carnatic music kutchery in Chennai is inclusive of all these besides the ‘Sabha canteens, without doubt!

Now to the Star performance!

He had arranged aptly and suitably the ‘பாசுரங்கள் of the 12 ஆழ்வார்கள் that was aesthetic and showed an understanding of the background stories of the ஆழ்வார்கள். பெரியாழ்வாரின் ‘பல்லாண்டு in Nattai provided an impressive start! Sanjay gives voice to Thamizhisai wherever and whenever possible and we could see that he enjoyed this particular occasion immensely.

Yadhukula khambodi brought out the utter devotion of திருப்பாணாழ்வார் in a soft and gentle manner.(‘கொண்டல் வண்ணனை').the next three pieces formed the main pieces in Simmendra Madhyamam, Sama and Bhairavi.

My curiosity was satisfied  in the ‘Simmendra madhyamam’’ piece of ‘மாயா, வாமனனே  by நம்மாழ்வார். Keeping the meaning intact, he used each of these names of the Lord to say’நீ அருளாய்'. He could beautifully work out a pallavi out of these phrases and elaborated the raga with sangathis.

When he   began essaying ‘Sama, it evoked the feeling of  deep longing and bhakti typical of ஆண்டாள். And so, he took up, நாச்சியார் திருமொழி,  மாதவன் என் மணியினை‘.

How do I put into words, his Bhairavi! Looked like he became another தொண்டரடிப்பொடி ஆழ்வார் to melt and immerse in arangan’s beauty. The popular ‘பச்சை மாமலை போல் மேனி in his rendering took such a poignant meaning and pulled the soul to fall at the feet of திருவரங்கன் in complete surrender like the ஆழ்வார்- especially when he took up the line, ஊரிலேன் காணி இல்லேன் for niraval.

Pasuram of Kulasekarer, Thirumangai alwar and the first  three(mudhal alwaars) all were gems. He concluded the programme with திருப்பாணாழ்வாரின் 'ஊனின் மேய ஆவி நீ in surutti.

I cannot but mention the wonderful support by varadarajan and Neyveli Venkatesh. As  always, they worked as a team with the perfect understanding of Sanjay’s flow.  

After all the research, he sincerely must have absorbed the songs and internalized them because he never referred to any notes.

His answers to audience questions call for a separate write up, I guess. So, I end it here.