Margazhi Musings 2019: The "Royal" kutcheri

Date: 18th Nov 2019 / 18:45 Hrs

Venue: Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, Mylapore\

Team: Prince Rama Varma, Vinu (Violin), Pathiri (Mridangam) & Kartik (Ghatam)

As a simple rasika, the first "Kutcheri" of the season holds a high place and brings tremendous possibilities. Naturally, I was wondering with whom I should start my season 2019. Who better than Prince Rama Varma - a friend of our “Thalaivar” Sanjay Subrahmanyan, a patron of arts and a great human being! I stepped into Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan with much anticipation.

Truly “royal” music flowed from him. So were the anecdotes and snippets about the compositions and composers. I must say it was a mixture of lec-dem cum music. Every explanation added to the fervour and livened up the atmosphere.

The prince has two gurus. The first is Dr BMK as most of us know. Credit goes to him for bringing out his inimitable thillanas and other unique compositions. His other “manasika” guru is MDR. BMK was first and foremost a fan of himself whilst MDR was the ever-shy person who used to take evasive action when pronouncing his mudra “Varadadasa”!

A brisk varnam of Dr BMK in Shanmukhapriya started the proceedings. He took time to explain the swaras of the composition. How unique was the style of his Guru! The way the swaras are arranged was so beautiful. The interesting anecdote is that this was composed whilst travelling to Hyderabad by train. Along with him was Dr Padma Subrahmanyan who instantly fell in love with this and asked BMK to embellish this with sahityam. The very next day, she choreographed this to the delight of everyone! The prince even sang a few lines the way BMK used to sing. Once could see a true Guru-Shishya parampara before us. I am yet to see any concert of the Prince where he fails to remember his Guru in some form.

Next came the famed Jaganmohini in the form of “Shobillu Saptaswara” of Thyagaraja Swamy. The prince took time to explain the majestic composition that beautifies the 7 swaras in a ragam that has 6! Perhaps Thyagaraja Swamy enjoyed creating a wonderful puzzle!

MDR appeared in the form of Huseni in “Enna Kutram seidheno.” I didn’t know the background of this song until Rama varma explained it. When MDR went to have darshan of Goddess Kanyakumari, the temple doors were locked. ON the way back, he composed this kriti. Guess who was travelling with him and set the tune! The famous Lalgudi! MDR started some times from the Anupallavi.

What will the Prince’s concert be without Swathi Tirunaal! The composition, chosen, was a Saveri one “Anjaneya Raghurama Dhootha”.

The concert went on unabated embellished with the vocalist’s experience. What is perhaps unique is that he manages to create a bonhomie with his co-performers and the harmony is evident. When the performing artists are happy, that reflects on their faces, body and the output. Only a very few, I could observe, have the knack of getting the best. Ghatam Karthik, Vinu on violin and Pathiri on Mridangam too enjoyed the anecdotes and joined the proceedings.

The finale came in the form of western notes from Muthiah Bhagavathar where the entire rasikas joined and clapped along. To me, this was the way I wanted to start my musings for this season 2019. 

Ambience: *

Vocalist: ***

Accompanying artists: ***

Overall: ***

Song of the concert: Anjaneya Raghurama Dhootha - Saveri