BANGALORE: Sri Rama Lalitha Kala Mandira is organising an event to commemorate M S Subbulakshmi at Jayarama Seva Mandali, Jayanagar, during her birth anniversary week.
Friday evening will see a concert by M S Subbulakshmi’s great granddaughter S Aishwarya and the launch of Sri Rama Lalitha Kala Mandira’s quarterly newsletter. The anniversary edition of Lalitha Kala Tarangini is dedicated to MS, the organisers say. Ahead of the event, the organisers share some excerpts of the news letter with City Express.
‘Bangalore was like a second home for MS’
Ibecame a fan of M S Subbulakshmiji at a young age. I became a devotee of Meera after watching and listening to her in Meera. From then onwards, my bhakti and respect for M S Subbulakshmi has continued to grow.
In every one of the songs she renders, there is divinity. A major portion of her immense wealth generated by her music is given away to charities and other causes. She manifests as a yogi performing a great yagna of music.
Advanced age, tiredness, health issues — all these vanish once she takes the stage. Only music and melody become predominant. This is possible only because she has complete blessings of Saraswathi Devi.”
Lata Mangeshkar’s tribute to M S Subbulakshmi published in the nineties
S he was a model of assiduousness when it came to concert planning. A lot of us plan but never execute because we dream of the results without ever putting in the necessary effort. Today’s busy professional musicians are often satisfied with their preparation if they have glanced at a completely new song in an unfamiliar and odd tala a few hours before rendering it in a concert or recording. MSS never worried about the results but put in days of practice after learning a song, which is what made her sing absolutely unfamiliar songs with such silken sheen that one could be forgiven for believing that these songs had been part of the Carnatic repertoire for ages, polished by numerous maestros in the past.
People talk about the bhakti element in her singing and it was unquestionably a major factor in influencing millions of listeners. Not only did she possess true devotion, but she could make her listeners experience what true bhakti was. Her bhakti was born from an outlook where simple faith ruled as opposed to intellectual cynicism.
As narrated by Chitravina N Ravikiran
Travelling with the Sadasivams was always a most welcome event. Be it a car drive to Kanchipuram or the trans-country train journey to the capital (of course, I haven’t had the good fortune of travelling with them outside the country, but I have heard so much from their senior accompanists on how enjoyable it always was), it was an event that I always looked forward to. It was like a whole family travelling together on a joyous occasion. The well-coordinated efforts of Atma mama, their ‘soul like’ secretary, would make for a travel plan worth patenting!
Mama was always particular that all of us travelled together, stayed together and returned together. This trait of togetherness was one of mama’s and amma’s innumerable virtues.
As their car entered the portico of the vintage British structure of the Madras Central Station, the station manager would respectfully receive the couple. The mahavidushi, draped in the arakku bordered ‘ms-blue’ Kanchipuram silk with the fragrant jathi flowers on her traditional kondai, would walk behind the great svatantra tyagi attired in a sparkling white khadar pancha kaccham and kurta matching his inimitable mark of vibhuti. I would walk behind them with my violin case in hand. A sense of elation of being with such an unparalleled icon of Carnatic music would pervade my constitution. As I heard the whispers of surprise that ran across the sprawling hall of the busy station and noticed every other person invariably taking a step backward to have a second glance at the god-like glowing couple, the feeling of being blessed with such an association was inexplicable.
As narrated by violinist R K Sriramkumar