Semmangudi Centenary Celebrations@Mumbai - 17th Feb

[nulls]

I was fortunate to be able to attend a very memorable function on Sun, 17th Feb in Chembur, Mumbai. This was to celebrate the centenary year of the grand old man of Carnatic Music, Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer. It was organized by his senior disciples Smt Kalyani Sharma and Smt Radha Namboodiri (nee Warrier) alongwith senior guru/vidushi Smt Alamelu Mani at the Sringeri Mutt basement hall. It was a full day-affair, with akhanda sangeetanjali (divided into 20 minute presentations) by various gurus of Mumbai alongwith their disciples

The function started with a film on Semmangudi by Santosh Shivan. It had excerpts of interviews with the doyenne, music clips, interviews with students etc. The film as such was not great in terms of quality and content, but nevertheless a fair documentation of the man and his music (compared to the little we have of other great masters, I mean). One of the highlights of the film for me was, after a long, intricate, bhava-laden kalpanaswaram for Kaamakshi in the Bhairavi swarajati, he says "enakku ippolam avlava paada mudiyala, neenga paada sonnelnu paadinen" (I'm not able to sing much these days, I sang because you asked me to) to the interviewer!

The film was followed by crisp speeches by Semmangudi’s son and Kalyani Sharma. One of his seniormost disciples Sri Vaidyanatha Bhagavatar just ended up prostrating before his guru’s photo, too overcome with emotion to speak. Then there were a lot of interesting anecdotes of Semmangudi narrated by his friend Kalki Kannan and wife. The ambience of the venue was intimate, everyone spoke from the heart and touched one, and the people who didn't speak, touched one even more!

The best part of the day was the sangeetanjali. It’s amazing how the man has managed to pass on the soul of his music to so many of his students. As a student, it was a great opportunity for me to listen to all these people on the same stage on one day - many of them quite old and feeble, but their music like burnished gold. His students who sang that day with their disciples (in order of singing) were Kalyani Sharma , Radha Namboodiri, Bhagavati Mani, Saraswati Murty (the last two his students in Swati Tirunal college in Trivandrum) and Sri Vaidyanatha Bhagavatar (an octogenarian who gave us a pristine Bhairavi with a bhava laden rendition of Sarievaramma in a perfectly sruthi aligned voice!) Apart from his students other senior gurus in Mumbai also participated, namely Alamelu Mani, T.R. Balamani, Vijayalakshmi Nathan, Susheela Mani, Kaveri, TN Ashok and Anantarama Bhagavatar.

I did have a premonition that this was going to be a great day, but didn't expect it to be quite so inspiring. I only regret I couldn't stay on till the end, had to leave because of a thumping sinusitis headache - ironical, in the face of such great music, but I believe I somehow managed to stay on that long because of the same. As a result I missed this outstanding recording of Semmangudi that I believe was played at the end – a shloka in Shanmukhapriya and Hamsanandi, which everyone was raving about.

Food for everyone was a nice touch too! It was good work on the whole by the organizers and heart-felt thanks to them!

[prashant]

The slOkA is part of the 1960 RTP - kIravANi concert with MSG and VR - it is commercially available.

Sangita Kalanidhi Smt. R. Vedavalli was also present for a part of the program and delivered a short but sweet recollection of her interactions with Sri Semmangudi. The last concert was performed by Vidvan Sri G. Balasubramaniam.

I agree with nulls - Sri Vaidyanatha Bhagavathar is just an awesome musician and a fantastic, loving human being. His encouragement to young musicians in Mumbai is well known and to see him in the audience despite his advanced years, is a fillip for any musician while performing.

[mahesh_narayan]

Vaidyanatha Bhagavathar (also known in Mumbai circles as London Vaidyanatha Bhagavathar) is a bundle of energy and positive spirit. Ever smiling and full of encouraging words for others, he, like Prashant said, elevates the ambience by his pesence and inspires the performer to perform better. I remember the many Tyagaraja Aradhana festivals conducted by my guru Shri G. Balasubramaniam, in which he participated. One such year is etched in my memory. After a day and a half of performers coming and performing, a sense of ennui had crept in, for some unknown reasons. At that point, Bhagavathar came in and rendered two songs, Mummurtulu in Atana and Varashikhi Vahana in Supradipam. By his weighty patantaram and his zeal, he metamorphosised the milieu from ordinary to blissful.

Truly a great nadopasaka. !!!