Music and Lyrics, by Varmaji and TGV Sir at the Hindu Lit Fest -- a writeup so beautifully brings out the moments they spent on the stage, capturing the literary hearts; brought to us by another one of Varmajis ardent fans from Chennai, Nayantara. Today is the third day of The Hindu Lit For Life festival at Chennai. I normally try to attend at least a few presentations every year and seldom come home disappointed. It was the same this year too. This year was even more special, as there was a combined presentation by Prof.T.V.Gopalakrishnan and Prince Rama Varma about the importance of lyrics in classical music. The festival has multiple venues where workshops on theater, cuisine and so on happen simultaneously. I was extremely happy to see that the TVG/Varmaji show was held in the main auditorium, along with all the literary presentations and discussions. I used to write about Prince Rama Varmas concerts in orkut during the good old days, but stopped after orkut folded. After following many posts at various forums and having actually attended the event, I felt I had to write about this and send it to Varmajis fan page in FB. In the usual mix of clever, witty, bombastic, conceited, pretentious, post modern, pseudo intellectual, genuinely intellectual, high society and other types that normally populate Literary Festivals, Film Festivals and the like, the TVG/Varmaji duo, dressed in simple kurtas and veshtis, seemed to have dropped in from another world altogether! They looked disarmingly simple and sweet, both individually, as well as in combination with each other. Their presentation was slotted just before Chetan Bhagats and the huge auditorium was jam packed, mostly with people who had come to catch the Chetan Bhagat interaction. Varmaji has always told me that it was only because of the efforts of Sri TVG that he started to sing in public and how drastically that changed his life for the better. He had stayed back in Chennai, just to watch Sri TVG get the Sangeetha Kalanidhi title from the Madras Music Academy on January 1st, though it was so close to the Swathi Sangeethotsavam. Varmaji later told me that he felt really upset that nobody had spoken about Sri TVG the way he deserved to be spoken about, especially on such a special occasion. He made up for that now at The Hindu Lit For Life show. It started out with a major glitch when the sruthi box refused to work. Considering how little time was allotted to the entire presentation, my heart sank. Varmaji and Sri TVG shared a curious mix of warmth, mutual respect, affection and consideration, with each seeming to tell the other Please. After you. all through the show. It was very moving to see these two great artists from two generations come together this way for the first time, for the few of us in the audience who were familiar with them. The Chetan Bhagat crowd seemed to view them with mild curiosity and amusement, to start with. When the Sruthi failed to work, Varmaji rose to the occasion and gave Sri TVG an introduction befitting a king! He said that while people normally consider the violinists T.N.Krishnan, Lalgudi Jayaraman and M.S.Gopalakrishnan legends of the 20th century, Sri TVG had worked with the Fathers of all the three! He spoke about his musical association with the greats from Hindustani and the Western music fields too, like Pandit Ravi Shankar and George Harrison. By then a thoughtful lady from the audience went on stage and gave Varmaji a mobile phone with the sound of sruthi. The problem was that it would work just for a few seconds and Varmaji was finding it difficult to keep turning it on again and again. The two of them sang the last part of Rakshamam Sharanagatham together. This brought about a generous round of applause. I dont know whether it was because I was familiar with the two of them already or not, but I definitely felt a sense of anticipation that this was going to be something not just different from all the other events during the three day seminar, but also something truly special and eye opening. After Rakshamam, Varmaji started to speak. I have always enjoyed listening to Varmaji speak, be it seriously or casually. But it was something extraordinary that day how, while remaining completely natural and true to himself (and as usual as he said later) and respectful and affectionate to Sri TVG, he completely won over the non classically inclined Chetan Bhagat audience, bit by bit, step by step ! ! One could see, hear and feel the audience warming to the two men on stage, as well as their topic, every minute! After knowing Varmaji for more than a decade, I still havent figured out how he manages to remain himself all the time; be it teaching kids at Perla or other places, interacting with a senior musician like Sri TVG or addressing a huge big gathering of Chetan Bhagat fans like this! There are some artists like Visakha Hari whose bhakti filled discourses move me to tears at times. There are rationalists who argue impressively in favour of atheism. But Varmaji is in a class of his own. He is true to himself, sure of himself, self effacing, spontaneous, classy, childlike, wise and irreverent, all at the same time! Bhakti is such a volatile topic these days and it was incredible how Varmaji addressed it. In the hope that the video will surface one day, I dont wish to spoil the effect by revealing here, everything that Varmaji said. But it was easily one of the best presentations I had ever EVER attended! Between that evening and the next morning, Varmaji must have given at least two to three hundred autographs and posed for dozens and dozens of photos; patient and kind to everyone who approached him. If people like The Hindu use him more, then it would be a blessing for lovers of good music for sure! The constant play between traditional and contemporary, serious and funny, respectful and irreverent, not to mention the perfect time sharing between Sri TVG and Varmaji, was fascinating to watch. By the end of the show the entire audience was so completely engaged that they would have loved it if the presentation had gone on for an entire Day! With peoples attention spans growing smaller and smaller, I always used to wonder how Varmaji manages to teach small kids the whole day at places like Perla. I will sign off with a Varmaji story that he didnt tell on stage that day, but had told me earlier. He was talking about how Lord Krishna had defied Indra when Krishna was a child. The entire village was supposed to worship Indra. Krishna told the others that this was nonsense and they did pooja to the mountain near the village instead. Indra got furious and unleashed a terrible thunderstorm on the village. Little Krishna then lifted the mountain with his little finger, held it up as an umbrella, protected the village and earned himself the name Giridhari. Then comes the Varmaji touch. He says, Holding up the mountain with his Little finger, was Krishnas way of showing Indra the Middle finger! All of us at the Hindu Lit For Life, gave Varmaji not fingers, but Two Thumbs Up!
Posted on: Mon, 19 Jan 2015 19:00:23 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015