CHENNAI: She belongs to a school of music which is unique, yet Chennai-based vocalist Geetha Raja has managed to create a space for herself, sticking to tradition and at the same time, exploring the bounty of possibilities outside it.
Talking to CE about a gratifying music season and her constant journey of discovery, Geetha, who is a disciple of T Brinda, says there has been a revival in the interest in padams and javalis. “It has a niche audience in the music context, but I have noticed that there is a resurgence in the interest for the music genre. The prolonged notes are almost like an alaapanai. In the recent years, I have had classes at The Music Academy and lot of youngsters have come forward to train in the genre,” she says.
Geetha has worked with several artistes and historians on a number of interesting collaborations such as Chumma Chumma Varuma Sukham (a composition in Attana Ragam), a lec-dem on javalis along with Sujatha Vijayaraghavan, an expert in dance and music, and Aadum Chidambaramo with historian Chitra Madhavan. Her interest in research and the history of some of the popular compositions based on religious sites of worship took the shape of the unique collaboration with Chitra. “The compositions of Muthuswami Dikshitar are fine examples of how composers saw temples through their works. Dikshitar’s songs are about the deity, the temple and even the flowers offered at a particular temple,” Geetha says.
Outside the carnatic repertoire, Geetha has worked with hindustani vocalists like Sandhya Kathvate in jugalbandhis, which explored the similarities between carnatic and hindustani music.
Training under Brinda, when she was just 18, Geetha credits her family’s support for her to pursue music with dedication and perseverance. “She stayed for two months every summer at my in-law’s place in Mumbai and I learnt from her for five years. For the rest of the year, I used to practise with the help of her tapes and with my first guru Bombay Ramachandran. She was such a great person. Her school of music, the Veenai Dhanammal style was about elegance, restraint, melody and beauty. There is a clarity of utterance of the sahityam and emphasis on dueting,” she says.
The sister-in-law of renowned vocalist Aruna Sairam, Geetha who began performing at the age of 22, has travelled far and wide, including venues in Austria, Belgium, Canada, France, the UK and the United States.
While it was after she shifted her base to Chennai almost 15 years ago that she got more opportunities to perform in the South, she adds that being in Mumbai in the early years didn’t make any difference. “I just worked as I would have worked in Chennai,” says Geetha, who also trained in the veena under K S Narayanaswamy.