I admit that Abhishek Raghuram is among my favourite Carnatic vocalists, and when he is to perform in Mylapore, nothing could be more convenient for me. Like they say in Tamil, “Karumbu Thinga Coolie thevaya ?” — does one need wages to eat sugarcane. Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan was overflowing with people, just confirming that that there are more like me eagerly waiting for the concert. Abhishek started with an invocation to Lord Ganesh with Dikshitar’s ‘Sri Gananatham Bhajathe’ in Ragam Eesamanohari. When it is an invocation, one keeps the purpose in mind and doesn’t make it too lengthy and this is not the place to show you prowess, and Abhishek kept it brief, after all he had the entire evening to show his knowledge & craftsmanship. And he showed his skill with the next song, Sri Thyagaraja’s ‘Nada Tanumanisha Shankaram’ in Ragam Chitta Ranjani. While everyone knows Sri Thyagaraja had single minded devotion to Lord Rama, there have been many compositions on Lord Shiva too. Obviously, he didn’t have a problem with Shaivism, he only believed in Bhaktism if there could be such a word. Then came a marvellous composition of Dr.Balamuralikrishna Ragam Shanmugapriya ‘Omkara Pranava’. This is actually a Varnam and I am sure Dr.Balamurali would have been so happy if he had heard Abhishek sing it with so much passion& enthusiasm. What can give the composer more satisfaction than knowing that someone is treating the song the way it should be. Abhishek was fantastic and he was enjoying singing this Varnam.. Next came a gem from Dikshitar’s Panchabhoota linga compositions in Ragam Saranga ‘Arunachanatham’ for the Agni kshetram Tiruvanamalai. What an apt choice for Karthigai Deepam festival ! In fact, almost all the songs were on Shiva in this concert. Abhishek’s diction is so clear and I almost could visualise the Karthigai Deepam as he sang the phrase ‘Aprakrta tejomaya lingam’ which means the ‘unearthly & extraordinary’ linga of fire….I could use the same adjectives for Abhishek’s singing. And Dikshitar uses ‘athi adbuta karadhrta Sarangam‘ to reveal the name of the Ragam, Abhishek’s singing was also ‘athi adbuta’. Sri Thyagaraja’s composition in Ragam Thodi ‘Kotinadulu Dhanushkoti’ … this was his central piece for the evening. Abhishek gave us a refined and intricate rendering of this Thodi . In any case, my ears have got used to listening to so much of Thodi, thanks to ‘Varaha Roopam’. What followed was another Dikshitar composition on Shiva in Ragam Devagandhari ‘Shalivatishvaram Bhajare’. Although this kriti is attributed to Muthuswamy Dikshitar it is not found in the SSP (Sangita Sampradaya Pradarshini), and it is a prayer to Lord Shiva enshrined in Tirunelveli and it is this Lord Shiva who also became the reason for the town getting the name. There is an interesting story about this….Once; in this town, there was a poor Brahmin(Yes, Brahmins could also be poor and not all of them are privileged) named Veda Sharma who was a great Shiva Bhakta. Every day he used to go out begging and the alms thus gathered were used by him for offering to the Lord. One day, when the brahmin was drying the paddy which he had collected for offering to Lord Shiva, it rained suddenly and Veda Sharma feared that the paddy will get washed away. He became distressed and prayed to the Lord who took pity on him and protected the paddy from the rain by covering it and standing around it like a fence. So this place came to be known as Tiru Nel Veli (Tiru - means beautiful, Nel - means paddy and Veli - means fence). The Lord also came to be known as Nellaiappar. This has been reflected in the kriti in the phrase "Shalivati nagaravihara". That explains the name Tirunelveli, likewise Lord Shiva gets the name "Shalivatisvara" , Shali means rice/ paddy, vati means- an enclosure which translates into Nellaiappar in Tamil. For mysterious reasons, this kriti has become an extremely rare feature in concerts. Abhishek went on to sing a beautiful Virutham on Shiva, specifically mentioned Kapali who was right next door to the venue . What followed was Muthuthaandavar’s ‘Theruvil Varuvano’ in Ragam Khamas which was so good that words fail me. This is actually a Padam, which many Bharatanatyam dancers have performed on stage. It is about a young damsel who is lovestruck with Lord Shiva and is looking out for the Lord’s chariot or palanquin procession in Chidambaram and hoping he will atleast glance at her with compassion. She also is upset that there is none to take her message to Nataraja. She hopes that the Lord will stop & whisper sweet nothings to her. I admire such composers, who are able to transcend from their gender’s perspective and and think and feel like a woman. Suddenly there was a mood shift, when Abhishek started the last song, it sounded as if it was a ghazal mehfil, as he moved on to sing Sadashiva Brahmendra’s ‘Kelati Pidante’ in Ragam Sindhu Bhairavi. It was very soulfully rendered. Abhishek ended the concert and it was indeed a wonderful concert leaving us satisfied but asking for more ! Read less

Lakshmikanthan’s Murder a docu-drama. Recently, the entire nation was shocked by the gory details of the murder of Shraddha Walkar. The news anchors of all channels had become psychologists giving their own analysis of the murderer Aftab’s thought process. All this anger, shock and excitement will be there only till the next murder happens. Nobody is so interested about anything which is a thing of past. How then, does the ‘Lakshmikanthan Murder Case’ still generate interest enough to have a FULL house, when The Madras Players premiered their play on yesterday at Narada Gana Sabha. It was a joint launch by Brahma Gana Sabha, Kartik Fine Arts, Hamsadhwani, Narada Gana Sabha and Madras Players, now does that explain the thronging crowd ? The average age of the members of all these Sabhas is 60 , and these people would have at least heard of this ‘famous’ murder from their parents, grandparents, aunts & uncles. It was not that the victim Lakshmikanthan was famous,on the other hand many knew of and still talk of him only because he was murdered by two of the accused people who were very big names in the movie world. I mean imagine arresting Amitabh Bachchan or Rajinikanth, Chiranjeevi, Mohanlal or Mammooty, what a sensation that would be ! This was like all these names rolled together…the accused were bigger than the biggest.. MKT (M.K.Thyagaraja Bhagavathar) & N.S.Krishnan. The Madras Players staged this still selling real murder story but chose to make it an English (must I say with P.C.Ram’s touch) docu-drama, making the court room trial the focus, And, what a brilliant way to bring to life the murder trial which ran for years. I think P.C.Ram is a director who has this talent of being able to condense an elaborate & lengthy story or stories as in the case of ‘Trinity’ to give the audience an engrossing play ! I was particularly impressed with Trinity where three life stories were beautifully blended without any distortion and aesthetically presented. ‘Chudamani’ was another mentionable play. And, the latest being ‘Lakshmikanthan ‘s Murder’….making me wonder why no one has attempted to make a film or play on this story earlier. The choice of actors were also very good, almost all were physical resemblance to the original characters. I was particularly impressed by Raja in the role the defense lawyer K.M.Munshi, who was the founder of Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan and the Public Prosecutor Rajamannar played by Shantaram. Another good choice was in Justice Vere Mockett played by Michael Caves, to give us a close to reality feeling. But, the show stealer being Ramachandran as Lakshmikanthan. He was so good as a cheap blackmailer in the pretext of being a journalist., who would resort to anything to get his way, that you kind of understand why somebody got rid of him. If one were study the mind of Lakshmikanthan -it must have made him so very powerful that the biggest names in the Tamil film industry were having sleepless nights because of him ! He was parasitical in nature ,trying to live off other people’s clandestine affairs (those were the days when people were conscious of their public image and were worried about their marriages and how all this would affect their career ). It is not like these days, where one doesn’t bother about hiding their relationships and the public either doesn’t care or appreciates. This is an era of being "non judgemental" ! The play was well edited and one could see the craftsmanship of Victor Paulraj who did the sets. Though everyone in the audience knew the outcome of the murder trial, the play kept us invested during the entire 2 hours, and that is not easy without special effects & songs. The play stops with MKT & NSK being convicted and doesn’t show the 2nd trial where the most famous V.L.Ethiraj defended MKT & NSK and proved their innocence. That would have been very interesting,because none other than Sir.C.P.Ramaswamy Iyer had said that Ethiraj’s advocacy was a ‘marvel of the 20th century’. The Question remains, who killed Lakshmikanthan….my feeling is Lakshmikanthan being the crook he was, might have organised an attack on himself, not realising that will be fatal. He was in the habit of maligning & slandering high profile people. Why else would he go to meet his lawyer and then to the police station to register the complaint after being stabbed rather then rush to the hospital straight away ? While Lakshmikanthan’s murder remained unsolved like Aarushi Talwar’s murder, I hope The Madras Players will have a sequel called Murder 2 or LM2 like PS1 & PS2. Read less

Who hasn’t heard & read about World War 2, Hitler and his immeasurable hatred for the Jews and the torture unleashed, leaving the world totally shocked. The scars and memories of the same is very palpable even today and the impact has been so large that youngsters today who were not born in that period( for that matter even I was not born) still find the horrors of that period moving them. During my childhood, I had of course heard stories shared among the adults of the family. But, the book by Anne Frank was what moved to me tears ! Later I read more about it here and there like 'O Jerusalem!'', 'Israel in the mind of America', 'The Holacaust' by Martin Gilbert and the gripping 'How we captured Adolf Eichmman' in Readers digest. How I miss Reader’s Digest and those days when there was no OTT and YouTube .. which has made me read rarely ! So, when I heard of this play ‘Wiesenthal’ being about one man’s lifelong struggle to bring those people who inflicted this torture on the Jews, to justice even years after the war was over, I was determined to watch it. Now, this is no fictional story made into a Bollywood/ Tollywood movie , where the hero brings the villain to justice by fighting him on the road, mountains, deserts and thrash him till the police appear from nowhere. This is a real story of a Jewish man, who was survivor himself having been in a Nazi camp and seen his loved ones go through terrible torture and who vows to identify each one of the uniformed men to the court of law and get them to trial. Imagine how painstaking and tedious this must have been. And patience in finding them and also in waiting for the verdict and respecting the verdict all this done in the pre Google era ! This play was a one man act staged at Alliance Francaise, produced by Poochus Productions, on August 28th this year. If anyone is wondering why it took me this long to write about it, the fact is it took me almost a month to recover from it, and what followed was PS1.. which was easier to recover from despite the glamour. Wiesenthal was a one man show played by T.M.Karthik who gave a breathtaking performance, and his acting was complete with authentic Austro-Hungarian accent, and the tremor in the hands due to Wiesenthal’s advancing age. It was remarkable the way, he remembered all those lines with no help from another soul on stage. He was quick to make us feel a part of his space and from there we were totally absorbed in Weisenthal’s story. One may ask why are we interested in a Jewish holocaust now, a dated story from a different land? Like Wiesenthal himself says in the play, "one must speak of all genocide, to prevent all genocide". I loved the way he as a stage actor controlled the urge to speak loudly. This worked well for the character . It was apparent that he had spent a long time getting into the character of Wiesenthal. Karthik carried it brilliantly with his "old man" voice and gait Victor Paulraj's lighting was effective, neat and his change of hues for establishing different time periods was perfect Sitting in the audience, I noticed many people were watching with almost moist eyes the sterling performance of Karthik. We all travelled to Nazi Germany from 1941 to 1945 and beyond. The make-up team from Pearls academy must be lauded for achieving such finesse , especially the bald look No wonder the show got a long and sustained standing ovation. The director of the play Denver Antony Nicholas should be commended in setting up such a wonderful space and getting the actor to deliver without melodrama. The images shown in between made the story that much more real. It was a masterstroke that at the end of the play, they showed a clip of the real Weisenthal asking not be portrayed as a hero but just a survivor ! And the one final question - who will do this after him ? Who will continue his work ? Most of us can resonate with this question as to who will continue what we have been doing ? I tell myself, why should someone continue something we have started? After all everyone will have their own mission and calling in their lives like Wiesenthal had !! Read less

Shobanatya!It would be no exaggeration, when I say that, I was so looking forward to some live performances after almost 2 years of onslaught (rather assault) of online programs. Almost everyone was uploading something all the time, gender, age, skill, talent, knowledge no bar. Even children and pets were not spared. Imagine, YouTube will accept both mine and Sanjay’s singing. What an equaliser ! But performing onstage is a different matter altogether. One needs audience for a live performance and mostly they come by their own choice& interest. The live audience is less distracted and hence the experience is more enjoyable. When I was invited to the Sadhana Festival of dance organised by the Indisha Trust, I was there on Day 1, well before the program began, not wanting to miss the Bharatanatyam performance of Shobhana Bhalachandra. I know her to be excellent dancer and an equally wonderful teacher, who her students swear by. She started the evening‘s performance with a Mallari in Shiva Shruti. Actually, Mallari is a unique piece of music played on a Nagaswaram (or Nadaswaram as it is commonly known). This is played when the presiding deity of the temple is taken on a procession. The common Ragams played are Gambeera Nattai, Mallari is an invocatory pieces but it is not often we get to see an opening with a Mallari. But, that is Shobhana-uncommon in her approach, giving her knowledge and years of experience to the art. Both Mallari and Pushpanjali were not a part of the Bharatanatyam margam when it was only ‘Dasi Attam’. With changing times, it has been used an invocatory piece. Shobhana was captivating and got the interest of the audience in the very beginning. It is both interesting & amusing that the word ‘Mallari’ when translated means ‘wrestling with the Lord’, that is before the idol is seated on the chariot,the priests are supposed to wrestle with him and get him ready to seat him on the palaquin ! All this is fascinating, isn’t it ? Religion, philosophy, and the relationship with the Supreme, the way art and art forms are the means to attain God. Everything is so playful, colourful and lively. What followed was an exquisite Varnam in Khamboji by Thiruveezhimalai Nataraja Sundaram. Shobhana is an imaginative dancer who doesn’t misuse her imagination and digress from the tradition. She created an art experience for the audience which was absolutely delightful with her footwork & agility. In the latter part of her performance, Shobana chose the unusual role of looking at things from the male perspective. I remember sometime back, she had conceptualised a program ‘Ashtanayikas’, which was about the ‘Modern Woman’ and her individuality which was depicted in an interesting manner in 8 different scenarios. I always look forward to her representations which gives something extra. What I mean is that there is a lot of thinking which goes into her performances. The latter half of the evening showcased exactly what I am speaking. When we are all in a era oozing with feminism & and evolving to become a woman’s world, Shobana set out to bring to us the male perspective in the two Padams that followed. This was composed by her own guru, the one & only Dhananjayan Sir. The composition conveyed the man’s plight and anguish and his inability to understand his woman. After all, rarely has a man been able to decode a woman’s mind or feelings. It has been one of the unanswered puzzles for eons. No wonder, one of the best sellers even today is John Gray’s ‘Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus’. John Gray, a relationship counsellor who ironically couldn’t save his own (first) marriage, failing to understand his first wife (who was herself a relationship consultant). Probably multiple marriages gave him more research material and he could write this best seller wiser with his own experiences. Here Dhananjayan Sir’s poignant composition in Ragam Thodi was very beautifully crafted and depicted. In the second Padam, was where a friend, who tries to convince the nayika or the heroine to go back to her lord. Just as I was watching Shobhana dazzle on the stage, it occurred to me, how distant this scenario is from the relationships the generation today have. In our classical music or poetry, starting with ‘Abhignanashakuntalam’ by Mahakavi Kalidasa, the role of the Sakhi, the friend, the confidant, is so pivotal and important. Those whispered secrets are now there for all to see, read, advice on Instagram, Facebook and everywhere. I have so many friends who I have never met, who understand me and send me ‘HUGS’ virtually. But, these kind of friends don’t work, in our Padams & Javalis. We need those expressive eyes to convey the range of emotions, we need the that nod, that smile, that pouting, that glee, that confusion, that sorrow and every movement to convey something. Shobana could offer all these and much more. Enough have we seen the woman waiting patiently for her man to return, now it is a time for role reversal. Shobana ended the program showing the woman returning to her waiting man, with a thillana linking it the popular ‘Thunbam Nergaiyil’ in Ragam Desh. So, it is ‘All live happily ever after’ ! ! Read less