Oldies and media are killing Carnatic Music

Media and the Older generation are killing Carnatic music performances. Visit any performance in the ongoing Margazhi Utasavam in Chennai and you will be greeted with an average age of 65 and counting.  These folks sit there either sleeping or nodding their head.  Once in awhile they will turn to their neighbor and say a deep insightful comments.  They will be discussing the detailed nuances of the style and composition of the song.  The newspapers also have an identical behavior.

Think about it.  How many times do you hear youngster complain that Britney Spears or pop artists are off beat.  Never happens.  It is because music is meant to be enjoyed.  It is not to discuss the correctness of a ragam or the accent of the singer.

To really enjoy the music, all you have to do is to sit back close your eyes and just enjoy the stream of sounds that flow through your ears.  it is so soothing.  It is not about the correctness. It is about what it provides the listener.

I am not a connoisseur of music or someone that can pick out the ragam.  Most times I go because a friend is performing or my daughter is interested.  I find people looking sternly, or nodding their heads or making comments about the musician. 

Think it is time to lighten up and make Carnatic music cool.  It is about giving it energy.  Why should the 3 or 4 musician be huddled so close to each?  Spread them out to cover the entire stage.  Have some jokes cracked in the middle of the session.  Maybe let loose a dog or a couple of eagles.  Spruce it up guys.  Get some guys to perform with torn jeans and rolled up t-shirts. 

Let us move on to the 21st Generation.

Making Bharathanatyam look simple is an Art

R. Janani- Student of Roja Kannan

A number of sabhas are making an honest effort to encourage and motivate youngsters to perform and get the rewards of their many years of learning.  Dasyam Yuva Festival and Vipanchee are two such dynamic organizations.  Today, I got a chance to attend the Bharathanatyam performance of R. Janani.  (Full disclosure: My daughter learns from Janani's mother- K. Subha.)

One thing that stood out at the performance was the enthusiasm of the dancer.  Right through the performance, she was smiling, showed no fatique, and was extremely vibrant.  Her white teeth showing could be mistaken for a Close-Up advertisement.  Her tempo was quite fast but she made the whole performance look simple, while still getting out the story.  During these performances, my daughter and I try to figure out what the dancer is saying through the movements.  In this case, Kaveri was able to comprehend and explain what the dance was about.  Of course, the giveaway was that it was related to Lord Krishna!!  Watching kids like Janani performance encourages other kids to also want to perform publicly. 

Bharathanatyam movement

Janani is a 10th standard high school student from Chennai.  I have seen her practice dance with Subha and learn abinaya's from Saranya (Kaveri music teacher).  The thillana piece generated a lot of claps from the audience.  Her abinaya was very well choreographed and allowed her to express the story  in a way that 4 year-old could figure out.  Her selection of songs were very good.  Moreover, her finale with a kavadi chindh was really creative and changed the tone, from being a monotonous "Krishna story" to a lively Southern piece.

Accompaniments to R. Janani.  Nattuvangam by Roja Kannan

A special mention must be made of the Compere.  She spoke very well clearly and explained the song before Janani started the performance.  It was very helpful for parents such as myself to explain the dance.  The accompaniments were veterans, which was nice and is a true encouragement for an youngster. The dancer's mother was glowing and her beaming face was brighter than the dancer.  It was truly a great performance.

The real problem in today's Sabha performance is that the top performers get the crowd.  Very few folks attend the up-and-coming.  This is a serious mistake.  If you are looking for the next MS, you are not going to find it in a Aruna Sairam kutchery.  People's mentality must change.  In American football, the scouts and agents attend High-School football to find the next Joe Montana.  I do not see it in these Sabhas.  Even the organizers of Dasyam, like Gopika Varma, did not attend today's performance.  To the credit of the auditoriums, they do have a nice atmosphere and a good facilities.  Youngsters must be rewarded for their talent and options must be attractive to make this their livelihood. 

The talent is there, the culture is there, high-quality education is available, auditoriums are established.  So, what really ails the industry.  If you are involved with Bollywood or Pop/fusion/Rap, you get a multi-million dollar pay check (cheque).  Here, most people simply get the satisfaction and a thank you ponnadai.

Chocolate Krishna- Taking comedy beyond MMKR

Tickets to the Crazy Creation drama Chocolate Krishna

I have seen almost all the stage plays by Manohar, S. V. Sehkar, Crazy Mohan, Kathadi Ramamurthy, Cho, Varadarajan, Y. G. Mahendran and Visu.  Chocolate Krishna is the best of the best for comedy.  Chocolate Krishna is a Tamil stage drama from Crazy Creations.  Crazy Creations is the stage group run by Crazy Mohan (http://www.crazymohan.com/) and Maadhu Balaji. Chocolate Krishna takes comedy delivery to another plateau.  It excels in almost every phase of a stage drama- delivery, dramatization, confusion, characterization, language, wit and above all - simplicity.  

Chocolate Krishna is about a typical Tamil middle-class household with common problems.  Maadhu is the breadwinner and a firm believer in Lord Krishna.  He believes that putting his trust in Krishna will solve all his misfortunes.  The story is about how the family fortunes are transformed by the arrival of a guest and how they deal with it.  The misfortunes of a normal family are turned it into a sequence of hilarious events.  Chocolate Krishna is all about the dialogues and the interaction between all the main characters.  The dialogues were all punchlines.  The best one's used the nuances of Tamil and their anatomy in English.  For my American friends, this drama would resemble the popular TV serial 'Friends' for it's ability to turn misfortune into comedy. 

Michael Madana Kama Rajan (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Madana_Kama_Rajan) was the epitome of comedy in Indian movies.  It has been regarded as a landmark in Tamil cinema.  Chocolate Krishna matched this one-for-one.  MMKR had Kamal Hasaan.  Chocolate Krishna has Maadhu Balaji. Kamal Hasaan delivered dialogues in different accents.  Maadhu delivered instant reactions punchlines, like it was the first time he had heard the words.  It did not look rehearsed, even thought it was the 400th screening. 

Crazy Mohan's script flowed so well and effective that even a sub-five year-old was rolling with laughter.  Unlike movies, the presentation has to be flawless and continuous, which it was.  The jokes were counters comments or take on the Tamil words.  Also Tamil phrases were modified to work with the situation and to create a climax.  The story moved so fast that you were still rolling from the first one when the next arrives.  At some points, 5-6 comic situations were occurring almost simultaneously. At the end there was a nice moral attached to the whole drama.  This was way better than a DJ playing on the Gramophone or dancing to a live rock-n-roll music session at a 5* hotel.

Deepak Shankar and A. S. Aiyar with Crazy Mohan

We were fortunate to get front-row seats for this events, thanks to my father-in-law, Gopalie and Crazy Creations.  We were the "Extra Chairs" in the sold out show. You can see the seat number on our entry ticket.  Both Mohan and Balaji are extremely humble and polite personalities. I also found out they are brothers.  But their personalities on stage are quite the opposite.  Maadhu is always jumping off the walls, while Mohan is calm and composed.

This is a must for all and everyone that likes a rolling laugh and is familiar with Tamil.  It is unfortunate that there are no new Stage groups rising up to continue this glorious traidition.  Crazy Crations has finished 33 years of existence.  At this rate, Tamil drama will disappear within our generation.

Happy (2012) New Year everyone.

Vaishnavi, Deepak, Aiyar with Maadhu Balaji of Chocolate Krishna

Anil Srinivasan, Pianist and the Madras String Quartet

Attended a tribute to the lives lost in the 2004 Tsunami with great poetry recital and instrumental music. It was kicked off by the celebrity pianist Anil Srinivasan.  He interspersed his concert with short stories and poetry. The next session was by this lady Sivagami, a serial poet and the last one was by the Madras String Quartet.  The acoustics in this open-on-the-side, submerged setting was great.  You could hear the upper tunes, without any squeaking.  Also, the seating was in a combination of mats on the floor and steps all around.  The cool Elliots beach air added to the ambiance.  This was a free concert thanks to the Prakrithi Foundation.  Also, they had free tea and some time to walk around the wooded Spaces complex.

Pianist Anil Srinivasan

Anil played a series of piano pieces around the stories that he had.  His command of English was comparable to his command over the Piano.  Most of the pieces sounded like children's songs but really a had profound story.  Kaveri was associating the pieces with nursery rhymes than she knew.  The piano and the pianist just blended together and production was so laid back.  It was possible for a casual audience to get full immersed. Anil's songs was about the greatness of the soil and the economics of India. He concluded the recital with a encore on-demand from the audience.

Sivagami mami seems to be a well known poet in the Besant Nagar area.  She focused her poetry on recent events in her life- like the marriage of her niece, visit with her daughter to Pudukottai and the death if a sister-in-law.  The peotry had a sequence of prose with a lot of current events. Of course, she covered the Kundakulam Nuclear Reactor safety.

Madras String Quartet.

The last part was the Madras String Quartet.  The group is a little controversial as they perform Carnatic songs with Western harmonics.  We listened to the first two songs- one was a varnam in Ragamalika set to Adi thalam by Patnam Subramanya Iyer. The second was a song Esane in Chakravakam set to Rupakam thalam by Papanasam Sivan.  Their fast pace and the interaction between the four musicians was very bright and brought life to the audience. 

Back to Anil.  One of his stories was about a conversation between Narada and Valmiki.  Narada goes to Valmiki and tells him there is an alternate Ramayana that is better than his, sweeter than his, with more eloquent prose.  Valmiki laughs and says that it is not possible.  He goes in search of Hanuman who has authored this other version.  At Hanuman's house, he sees a lot of leaves.  When he reads the prose on the leaves, he gets very sad and starts crying.  Hanuman asks him why he issad .  He says that this is so good that no one will read his version.  Hanuman crumpled all the leaves into a ball and ate it up.  When Valmiki inquired, Hanuman said the goal was to spread Ramayana, not who is the author.

Rede Drop Zone- Introducing Parotta-side dish as Mexican

If you want to get heartburn, this is the place to go.  The food is complete garbage.  The Chef and owner have never eaten Mexican food in their life.  First and foremost, there was no beans or cheese in any dish. 

I can list about 20 things that are wrong at this place.  But will restrict it to just a few.  Even the roadside dog will refuse consume this garbage.

I have lived for 20 years in California and visited Mexico multiple times. I also have Mexican friends and eaten at their homes.  So, I can consider myself as an expert.

The only thing right about this place is that they home-deliver and the driver carries a credit card machine.


What is wrong:
1. All dishes (be it Enchilada/burrito/etc) have the same filling- a mixture of long thin onions slices, crushed beans, carrots, bell peppers and lots of fire spices.  It was more like a side dish for Parotta! In authentic Mexican or even Oxacan food, first onions are cut into small pieces and not strips; jalapeno's are used for garnishing and not chili powder; and carrots are never used.  You need to beans for any and all filings.
2. The burrito showed up as a fried wonton with stuffing.  The only saving grace was that it was a corn chapatti.  My impression was they were trying a hard shell taco and failed miserably.
3. The food was so spicy that it was just not eatable.
4. The guacamole had no tomatoes and no onions.  Moreover it was not clear whether the dish even contained any avocados. The sour cream was really a hardened yogurt.
6. There was no cheese in any of the dishes.  So it cannot even be branded American Mexican.


All-in-all, my impression of Cascade restaurant chain is down the toilet.  They highlight the link to Cascade very prominently in all their literature.  I would definitely not go there ever again, even after my heartburn is over.


I talked to the Manager.  He said he that the Chef is from Taj and the manager has no clue what Mexican food is.  he was not even sure whether Burrito was Mexican or Italian!!

Bharathanatyam performances like none other

I am not a Bharatanatyam expert.  My review here is from a pure entertainment view only.  Experts can leave your comments below. After attending about 7 performs during the last 2 months, this event really stood out.  I would recommend this for the entertainment and educational value.

Gopikas and Shree Krishna in a elated and playful mood

I recently attend a unique dance performance called Prapathi Marg by a team of senior dancers- Roja Kannan, Priya Murle, Srikanth and Ashwathy Srikanth.  The show was at the Bharat Kalachar, which is in the PSBB School campus in Thirumalai Pillai Road.  This was not the traditional dance sequence of Jathiswaram, Thillana and Mangalam.  The entertainers told a story through the dance.  The performance was more focused on education and entertainment, as opposed to the technicalities of Bharatanatyam. Without letting out too much of the storyline, the storyline was based on the Vaishnava theme of total submission to the God.  The lectures by Srikanth were entertaining and were distributed throughout the performance.  His language combined "suddha" tamil and colloquial "bashai". The audience were truly spell-bound, including my four year-old daughter. There was no plastic oohs and aahs.     

Shree Krishna

What made this presentation unique was the combination of music, song selection, dance sequences, costumes, and the thematic rendering. The performers used the complete stage by introducing mood lighting, temple bells, playful action and an ongoing narration of the main theme.  The lighting, temple bells and the diction based on the onstage action were very well-done.  This reminded me of the RS Manohar dramas of a past era. 

Musical Accompaniments

The two singer- Srikanth (different from the dancer) and Saranya were captivating.  Saranya's facial expression captured the moods of the theme on stage was a nice draw!  The combination of Tamil, Sanskrit and Hindi songs made it universally applicable.  The flutist really brought out Shree Krishna, though he was hidden from public view until the end of the show.

Each dancer in the group focused on a different phase of Krishna's life.  There was love, emotion, devotion and color as the different themes.  The story was simple for my four year-old to ask questions and wanting the understand the details of each story.  She said the best part was Draupadi (Roja Kannan) going round-and-round, depicting the de-robing by Dushasana. 

Roja Kannan as Draupadi

The role of Meera (played by Priya Murle) seemed to bring MS into the eyes of the senior generation. 

Priya Murle as Meera

Srikanth as Krishna did a awesome job and his small role a Rajput prince made it quite realistic. 

A similar theme is being played out by the PARASAH group at other locations during the Margazhi Season.

Vilasini Dance and Chandra Mandala

Chandra Mandala, 1, Elliots Beach Road, Besant Nagar, Chennai, 600 090.

Chandra Mandala is this beautiful set of performance stages in the former house of the late Chandralekha.  I had never heard of this lady.  Since that time, I google'd her and found a lot of interesting information.  Here is a nice link about her.

Chandra Mandala is an eclectic location.  It is across the from the beach at the quieter edge. The place has a nice forest atmosphere.  The buildings are in Kerala style with sloping tiled construction.  There are three stages.  One is a atrium with an open space all around.  The second is a fort-like enclosure with huge stage.  The third is a sunken hall.  All three have been built with openness to allow the cool (Ok, it is December in Chennai) beach air to flow through.

I had never heard of Vilasini Natyam dance form either.  So, this was a great introduction.  Vilasini is a temple, court and theatrical dance traditions of the Telugu Devadasis.  In olden days, this performing tradition was referred to as Bharatam, Karnatakam or Tsaduru.  The emphasis is on abhinaya (facial expression), the hand gestures simply allow the flow of the story through.  Unlike Bharathanatyam, there is not a lot of movement around the stage.  This form has recently been resurrected by a dancer called Swapnasundari. She is also credited with renaming it Vilasini Natyam.  It is still a very niche form and there is no Wiki page on it.  The dancer wears wooden hand crafted jewellery called ‘Ganiyam’.  A main feature is a seated performance, where the dancer sits on a pedestal or thinnai.  The hand guestures and facial expressions are all that are needed to tell the story.  There are minimal instrument accompaniments.

Chandra Mandala is a dance school and conducts regular shows.  It is worth visiting, just to take in the art energy.  It has a lot of resembles to Cholamandal Artist Village in the layout.  it will great to hear from others that know more about this dance form.  Leave your comments.