In one more week, it will be curtains for yet another Madras
Music Season (MMS) – the largest music fest in the world (in terms of number of shows) that brings together
Carnatic music lovers from across the world!
Not that secular Chennai forgets to celebrate Christmas – every large retailer peddling his wares on the famous Usman Road has a Santa Claus mannequin riding the reindeer sleigh with his bag of gift; in a way, this is about as close to winter as Chennaiites can ever get.
Also, while the music fest draws discerning Carnatic music lovers from across the world, in our own country, it is a little-known and even less-publicised event confined to peninsular India. This can be changed by including other Indian classical art forms in the event’s repertoire, thus making this fest appealing to a larger section of Indians. The idea of music tourism has huge commercial implications; in other words, there is something in it for everybody – the state tourism department, private tourist operators, tourist infrastructure providers and, of course, music lovers. Acting together, these parties can turn MMS into a Music Megafest - India's answer to Wisconsin's Summerfest!
**Lyrics from Vairamuthu’s national award winning ‘paadariyen padippariyen’ song in K. Balachander’s movie, Sindhu Bhairavi (1986)
While I can’t claim to be a connoisseur of Carnatic music, it
has certainly been a non-elective subject in my life, as it is for every for
every South Indian worth his/her upma. So,
this is the time of the year when a part of me longs to be back home in Chennai.
The month of Margazhi (Margashish in the North) that begins mid-December
and ends mid-January is the only season in the year when the temperature in
Chennai dips to around 25 degree Celsius, the city shivers (!!!) and its
residents take out their woollens.
To me, the mere mention of Margazhi conjures up a heady cocktail of images – elaborate kolams, early morning bhajans, grand
concerts, soulful music, scintillating dance performances, beautiful women
in gorgeous Kanjeevarams and, of course, tantalising food, making
Chennai a hedonist’s delight!
Not to mention the early morning darshan of Lord Balaji, the
deity of the month. For those inclined towards the bhakti
marga, it is considered an ideal time to engage with and embrace the Divine. After
all, didn’t the Good Lord Himself claim in The
Gita that He is Margashirsha among
months! (Chapter 10, verse 35)
Not that secular Chennai forgets to celebrate Christmas – every large retailer peddling his wares on the famous Usman Road has a Santa Claus mannequin riding the reindeer sleigh with his bag of gift; in a way, this is about as close to winter as Chennaiites can ever get.
The elite class have
no worries, so they enjoy (your) music...
(Kavalai edumilley, rasikkum
mettukudi...)**
But the event that is quintessential of Margazhi is the Madras Music Festival. Started in 1927, it is an annual event organised
on an unparalleled scale with 1500-2000 concerts performed by nearly 300
artists across various locations in the city. <Link
for the largest music festivals of the world>.
I remember my first experience as a fledgling Rasika attending a kutcheri at ‘The
Music Academy’, the Mecca of Musicians. The show began and I watched
mersmerised, excited about my first live concert at the Academy. After a
particularly melodious piece rendered by the artist, I turned to my neighbour,
a thin wiry old man in glasses, and enthusiastically remarked how wonderful the
artist’s Keeravani had been! He
responded with a shocked and disgusted look, much like the one St. Peter would
give a habitual sinner, and mumbled that the raga rendered had
been Simhendra Madhyamam and not Keeravani as I had wrong(ful)ly deduced.
With that, he got up from his seat and
moved away a few rows, not looking back until he put enough distance away from me.
That’s the sort of pedantic music lovers you get to rub shoulders with during
the ‘season’!
Apart from these typical Rasikas,
the festival also attracts the oddball music lovers from unexpected parts of
the world. I’ve heard of an Italian national who is a regular visitor in the
season. A plumber by profession, he works hard through the year to make enough
money to afford him a trip to Chennai. While in Chennai, he takes up some affordable
lodging and flits from concert to concert on a hired bicycle. End of the
season, having had his fill of melodious music, he returns to his home and his
profession. There are several others like him, who can be spotted in the music
halls during the season. (It can’t be denied that, for many of us who are still
a slave of the colonial mindset, flashes of white skin here and there does add
to the credibility of the performing artist.)
Yet another major patron of these kutcheris is the crème-de-la-creme of the South Indian society— its
NRI diaspora. This geographically distanced group chooses this time of the year
to re-connect to its culture. So, every
concert venue rings with the sounds of ‘Boston’ and ‘San Jose’ as much as it does
with Bowli and Shankarabharam. Fashionable women in lovely silk
sarees and clean-shaven men in full-sleeved jibbas
with their irrepressible American slang indeed add a tang to the twang!!
Another big attraction for the concert goer is the mouth-watering
delicacies the canteens at the auditoriums dish out during this season. Here, the mind-boggling menu (which includes some
delectable Tambrahm cuisine) takes on the concert-goer’s unabashed love of food
and his unsatiating appetite. And this is one performance, the Rasika calls out Encore for! Running these canteens is big business, with
some caterers enjoying near stardom. At
times, the choice of the canteen takes precedence over the choice of the
artist, and that's the venue where a Rasika,
who has his stomach in its right place, heads down to!
But dear, make an
effort to take your music to the poor in the slums (Cherikkum seravendum adukkum paatu padi....)**
All these years, Carnatic music has remained the bastion of
the rich and the elite. This music season, maverick musician TM Krishna and his team have set out to
change that. The team is organising concerts in the slums on the Marina for
the underprivileged sections of the society.
While MMS can boast the largest number of performances for a
music fest, its audience has pretty much remained confined to a small group. Given
the large number of concerts happening simultaneously across different venues, it
is only a few leading artists who are able to draw the crowds. It is a sad
reality that in many concerts of upcoming artists, the number of people on the dais
outnumbers the ones below.
In this context, I think Krishna’s initiative, apart from achieving
its stated objective of inclusivity, can vastly help widen the reach of this rich
genre of music and earn it a new audience. Also, while the music fest draws discerning Carnatic music lovers from across the world, in our own country, it is a little-known and even less-publicised event confined to peninsular India. This can be changed by including other Indian classical art forms in the event’s repertoire, thus making this fest appealing to a larger section of Indians. The idea of music tourism has huge commercial implications; in other words, there is something in it for everybody – the state tourism department, private tourist operators, tourist infrastructure providers and, of course, music lovers. Acting together, these parties can turn MMS into a Music Megafest - India's answer to Wisconsin's Summerfest!
**Lyrics from Vairamuthu’s national award winning ‘paadariyen padippariyen’ song in K. Balachander’s movie, Sindhu Bhairavi (1986)
