BENGALURU: Mandolin master Sathynarayana, more popularly known as Guru Rata or Mysore Mandolin Ratan, passed away on January 22 at the age of 75. He leaves behind a long legacy of popularising the instrument in the state.
He did not have any formal training in music but had a deep interest in music as a boy and went on to learn a number of instruments by himself.
Speaking with City Express, MB Sujatha, the late maestro’s wife, says “My husband came from a family of musicians. His father played the harmonium and gifted a mandolin when Ratan was in college.”
Ratan was a student of D Banumaiah College in Mysuru when he picked up the mandolin.Thereafter he would go to the great Kannada sangeet bhavageete composer and singer, Mysore Ananthswamy to learn the instrument. “He used to go to Mysore Ananthaswamy’s house to hear him play. He would not usually teach anyone. He probably saw Ratan’s talent and decided to take him in,” she says. Thereafter Ratan taught himself the instrument and he would play old Hindi and Kannada songs. Besides the mandolin, he also knew how to play the keyboard, guitar, mandolin, flute and the mouth organ.
Their son,Abhinandan divides his time as a musician and an employee in the hospitality sector. Ratan went on to compose music for well Kannada movies but his first love was always teaching and he opened an academy later on in his life after retiring as a deputy manager of a Japanese firm. There are legions of fans and students who remember him very fondly. N S Ratan, a prominent mandolin player in the state and one of Ratan’s foremost students says, “ He was a pioneer in the teaching and the use of the mandolin not only in Mysuru but in Karnataka as a whole. There are hundreds of his students who are scattered not just in Karnataka but all over the world.”
Suma Rani, another popular musician who plays the sitar and mandolin has played for a number of Kannada film songs. She first learnt from him when she was 14 years. Rani fondly remembers a time back in the 80’s when Ratan would judge music competitions in colleges and other functions.
“There would be times when around four to five participating musicians in a competition would end up playing the same songs. He would however always encourage the musicians and instead say that it was extremely difficult to judge all the songs,” she says. At a time when the more popular instruments were the veena and the tanpura, Ratan brought into prominence the mandolin, she adds.