Knowledgeable Chennai Crowd

It was a truly remarkable eventful December and close to 2012. After a sedate first couple of weeks, I was a bit late to start on the music season but then it turned out to be a very heavily attended one. At least by my standards. Also conveniently bookend-ed by knowledgeable Chennai crowd everywhere.

The first one was a pre-season Sanjay Subrahmanyam warm up concert at NGS. The highpoint of this one was listening to his version of Pagaivanukkarulvai after being addicted to Rethas-Sandeep version for almost all of 2012. Such resonating lyrics. The first season concert I attended was Kadri Gopalnath at NGS again, after probably more than a decade. Nothing memorable but the Chennai Ambi mamas still found moments to go all Taj Mahal level reactions on it. Apparently Bombay Jayashree isn’t all that cool to like anymore (or cool to hate, what have you) so I promptly sent mom and aunt to this one (The real reason was I had work). They loved it and seemed to have loved Embar Kannan’s violin prowess even more. Can’t complain, really. If you can string together Raaja songs like this, what’s not to like?

Next was Sanjay at Vani Mahal that was topped by Petra tai with a seamless transition to Maname Kanamum. Absolutely divine. That was of course followed by dinner at Gnanambika. Unlike the previous years they still had the full menu post 9 PM. Gnanambika is Gnanambika, I tell you. Since 1984. The stuff at Vani Mahal and NGS were both stellar this time. Guitar Prasanna performed at Mylapore Fine Arts the following weekend and he dedicated an original composition in memory of the victims of the Connecticut shooting that had just happened. Very close to his residence in the US. This was also my first spotting of the cut banian guy this season. He was literally everywhere as Krupa will attest. Now LTP and I can’t wait for the next Hindu Lit Fest to see our man in action. Also spotted a note in MFAC saying “Please avoid towel reservation.” Couldn’t twitpic thanks to the crowd. Knowledgeable crowd indeed. The same crowd turned up in hordes for Sandeep Narayan at NGS Mini Hall. Mahesh and friends were quite shell-shocked at the turn out and it led to my first stage seating based kutcheri. Totally worth it.

So Sthit and I opted for the stage tickets for the customary Ranjini-Gayatri attendance. Sthit spoke to them after the concert, they asked for his name, kulam and gothram and he was floating around at the edge of stratosphere for better part of the evening. Also managed to score music academy tickets this time and attended Abhishek Raghuram and Sanjay’s. The last time there was a kutcheri update here, it had Sanjay singing Vettaveli Thannil and I spotted a pretty young thing on stage. This time Sandeep sang Vettaveli Thannil at KGS and I attended the concert with two PYTs – WhyShoe and the “naa romba artiste” Shreyas, who managed to sketch her way into the hearts of every musician on stage. But I wasn’t there when he got to Vettaveli. I left for the ARR concert.

Jaya TV in their Margazhi Mahotsavam mood or whatever scheduled an ARR concert on Dec 29, 2012 at the Nehru Indoor Stadium. Then they lost that mood, got greedy and switched the venue to YMCA grounds. Dick move no.1. Now Rahman is too big to satisfy every fan with a single evening of concert. It’s simply not happening. Also, Rahman is too big now to hold all-Hindi or all-Tamil concerts. Especially considering the last 5-6 years – even by sheer numbers – when he has been simply too prolific in Hindi. Unimaginable to have concerts without Delhi 6, Rang De Basanti, Jodha Akbar, Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na (what a fucking underrated minimalist album – the Hindi Alai Payuthey if you’d allow me, sadly not as celebrated), Rockstar among others. Jaya TV made it an all-Tamil concert. Dick move no.2. Put together bad management and the rains, not really an epic concert for an epic personality. Considering how special it could have been with that playlist in an indoor stadium.

There was an India-Pakistan ODI at Chepauk in between all this but then 1. Sachin retired. 2. Bilateral gap filling ODI series aren’t the shit anymore. And then they said it was a day match. No enthu. But it got an integral part of knowledgeable Chennai crowd – Gauks – on TV, giving gyan.

Then Chennai Open happened. Or rather is happening. Only place where you’ll find fans of Janko Tipsarevic, Marin Cilic and Charu Sharma. Pick of the shoutouts last night – “Well done Charu darling!” Having said that, watching yesterday’s Wawrinka vs Stebe match felt like a poor man’s Federer vs Nadal with the left right combination and all the power strokes and gets. But it by no means is a poor tournament. You go to these places not just for tennis but to witness more like minded fans and people as passionate. Steve Tignor wrote about this here, on new age tennis in the world of Internet and all-access fandom.

Is all of this exposure healthy? It has its drawbacks—I don’t really need to know what Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal are doing every day. But the upside is greater. It’s hard to think of a sport that’s better suited to the far-flung community that the Internet can build. Internationally, interest in tennis is wide and thin—it’s followed in virtually every country, but it isn’t overwhelmingly popular in any of them. This means that being a tennis lover can get lonely; it can be hard to find a serious fan of the pro game even among your regular playing partners at your club. The web’s message boards, blog commenters, and relentlessly tweeting fans from Serbia to the Philippines let you know that people everywhere are watching.

It’s quite a joy – and sometimes annoying – to witness the enthu school kids. The fifth standard school kid who decided Paes and Roger-Vasselin were no good and decided to support the barely known Ratiwatana (!) brothers instead. The same kid said to his mom,”Adhellam theva illa (that’s not required)” when she hinted at leaving at around 10.00 PM saying there is school the next day. Well done, I say! This is what the tournaments were about – aarva kolaru like this at every corner. Chennai may be only ATP 250 and it may not be half as beautiful as Miami, but Tignor again hits the right notes here:

My favorite part of the Key Biscayne broadcast that I saw didn’t involve any actual tennis. It came in the time between matches on the Grandstand, before del Potro and his opponent that day, Ivo Karlovic, got to the court. The TennisTV cameras didn’t cut to an ad or go to a different court; they just panned around the Grandstand, looking at the fans beginning to gather and chant, looking at the palm trees waving behind the court, looking off in the distance at a sunset over Miami. There was no commentary, so when I did turn the sound on, I could hear other fans chatting idly in the seats nearby. This, as much as seeing Novak Djokovic or Serena Williams play, was what I missed about not going to Miami. This was what a tennis tournament felt like. I was on the Internet far away, but it really did seem like I was there, part of the far-flung tennis world. It’s a good time to be a fan.

As Mahesh would say, Tignor has said it all. It’s a good time to be a fan.

2012 started off with beautiful Sydney, hopeless Test match and more disappointments on the cricket field. Hopefully 2013 makes up for it, starting with Federer in the flesh. Hopefully.

Vettaveli Thannil, Shruti Kakkar and P.G.O.A.T

Vettaveli Thannil, one of the end pieces of Sanjay Subramanyan’s concert at Brahma Gana Sabha on Dec 15th, had some captivating lyrics. I had never heard the song before(not like am some severe Carnatic enthusiast to have heard a million songs). But to me, it rose above the mesmerizing Sriranjini in the end – Kana Vendamo. Also loved the elaborate Mohanam piece with Kapali. Say what you want, Mohanam is after all, Mohanam. It’s Sanjay’s way of flirting with the intricacies of a raagam, like he did with this Mohanam and the RTP Marg Hindolam that puts him miles and miles ahead of other contemporary artists. Somehow, every concert of his ends up being a learning experience. Of course am saying this as a nOOb but am pretty sure even an ardent knowledgeable fan would agree. On a lighter note, decked up Page 3 type pseudo maamis at his concerts. Whatay groupies they make!

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Finally caught up with Band Baaja Baarat and thoroughly enjoyed. Some inspired writing, well constructed moments and for a romcom, it actually keeps you interested till the very end. Not to mention the superlative lead performances, something that’s become so rare in Hindi mainstream cinema these days. Shruti Kakkar(Anushka Sharma) manages to bring in some light into the poor characterizations we’ve got to see of late. She takes the DTC to travel and doesn’t drive around in a Volkswagen Beetle. Also when she gets her first car, it’s a Maruti Swift(And Swift is the new Maruti 800 anyway). But for all that, she isn’t pictured as someone naive, but someone who after the initial awkwardness, can probe the man she slept with in a state of inebriation to realize and move on from the situation. And Anushka Sharma plays her with the right amounts of spunk, fluff and temerity. In a lot of ways, she is the hero of the film. Like in the final scene, she asks Bittoo(Ranveer Singh) if she has to teach him even matters of love. Surely, the line of the year has to be, “Shit bolti hai toh bhi lagta hai FM bhaj gaya“. This is also #GRCA Movie of the Year. I haven’t consulted with the President yet, but am sure he’d agree once he catches it.

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At one of the concerts this month, I caught the P.G.O.A.T. Actually caught her putting thaalams as the concert progressed. She is Joelle van Dyne in all her glory. Of course, Joelle van Dyne is severely deformed but then don’t forget that there is a theory that her disfigurement is a ruse to cover her face all the time, as one look at her face makes men fall in love with her. But then I have another theory, but that’s not for public consumption. In fact, you’re not supposed to pay much attention to this paragraph. This is just a recording of sorts, of a could-be-significant event for future purposes. So never mind.

 

Carnatic Music & I

It was not inherent.

As am listening to this beautiful rendition of Tunbham Nergayil by Sanjay Subramanian, I awe at the beauty of dEsh. This version is so incredible and indulgent that it has slowly transformed into a leitmotif for Sanjay himself. I can’t write about the intricacies of the composition like Brangan or spin an imagery on the swaras like Aparna. Like most arts, classical music and especially Carnatic, is an acquired taste over the years.

There was a time when I used to protest playing Carnatic songs in the car. It used to annoy me to no end, and mom would silently comply. As a kid though I was made to sit through the various Ram Navami celebration concerts during the month of March-April every year at Sri Ram Samaj, more popularly known as Ayodhya Mandapam in West Mambalam, Chennai. Bragging alert, kindly adjust: My late maternal grandfather was one of the founders of Ayodhya Mandapam back in the 1950s and it has now grown to be a major landmark in this part of Chennai. My grandad’s house was in the street right across, and they used to tie speakers to the coconut trees in the garden. The house is still there and they do it to this day. We didn’t even have to walk to the temple to listen to the performances but the worth of all that was quite lost on me back then. The only instances I remember back from those wonder years are going to pick up Mandolin Shrinivas for an evening concert, with my dad in a white Ambassador, hogging the tamarind rice and curd rice late into the night after the concert was over and other minor games we used to play in the sand(The place is all concrete now).

My mom and her elder sister have performed on the stage in the Samaj. Maybe if they had continued in the music line, things would have been different but that didn’t happen. I went to Bombay in 1996 and only the memories of the Ram Navami celebrations remained with me. That was till about 2003 when, not only did I return to Chennai, but returned to the house across Ayodhya Mandapam to live with my grandfather and aunt(mom’s elder sister mentioned before)  and do my engineering. Again the speakers were up on the tree trunks, Ram Navami celebrations happened like always, and my favorite spot was the swing in the balcony. I had a book in my hand, usually for the exams that came around the same time(or at least the Anna University preparatory holidays) but that was just a prop.

Some of the regulars there were Unni Krishnan, Sudha Raghunathan, T.N. Seshagopalan, Nithyashree, Ganesh-Kumaresh etc(post-1994-95). The 10-15 days of blissful carnatic music frustrated a college friend of mine living in the same street. He found it hard to study for the exams with the speakers blaring and I must admit he had a fair point. I never challenged his statement but used to quietly listen to his rants against the whole noise pollution, as he used to call it. But over the four years that I lived there, the birth of interest in Carnatic music came about, gradually developed into a hobby and I graduated from the swing in the balcony to the front row seats for selected concerts.

Once again, after three years, I find myself back in Chennai, with all these things accessible. It was T.M. Krishna yesterday at Sri Ram Samaj and I took that front seat, thanks to granddad’s legacy. As brilliant as he was, it was great to know that something like the Ayodhya Mandapam was a reason for nurturing interest in the classical arts, even though theoretical knowledge still eludes. Listening, obviously, is the first step.