Disturbing Season trends

[svenkat]

Anyone who has sauntered into the Music Academy canteen the last couple of seasons might have noticed some self-proclaimed art critics and historians holding court with young musicians and other powers-that-be. Their cheap and distasteful posts on social media, openly making disparaging remarks on artists, irrespective of seniority, often at the cost of the youngsters' careers have been one of the most talked about subjects this season. These art critics do seasonal round-ups on websites and newspapers, with highly biased accounts of performances which they barely attend sitting in the canteen and gossiping. How can they be held accountable?

[Nick H]

... By naming them, for starters.

[svenkat]

http://srutimag.blogspot.in/2017/01/con ... ditor.html

[rshankar]

That was a good piece for Sruti - they just said that they'd not use/employ such 'creative reviewers' - But since your question was "How can they be held accountable?" - a good start is with naming names. Otherwise, it's just another rant.

[rajeshnat]

There was once an era where musicians like TM Thyagarajan etal were wasting so much of their youth to middle age sitting behind jambhAvan gurus like semmangudi. They did not realize that the youth fragrance only gives maximum count of rasikas and it can dwindle from there on. **Hobnobbing** is the key and many of the youngsters and parents have recognized that . It is just discerning rasikas have to look at this angle and find their own middleground- indeed there is more and more groupism starting from the corridors of the intersection of Cathedral Road-TTK Road.

[devan]

Sriram,vijay sai

[Madras-Talkies]

lol@ Vijay Sai.

[melam72]

Sriram is someone whom I deeply admire. While I do find his 'Season Vumboids' a tad too satirical and distasteful isn't that what 'vumbu' (வம்பு) is at the end of the day? Sriram is a very erudite person, but sometimes I feel that he uses his erudition in the wrong way, like his excessive favouring of The Car Driver, or his silence on the 'music' of The Cowherdess or Kathal-sree. Use your erudition for the right cause!

Veejay Sai - I have read his dance reviews of Narthaki and I was not impressed. Not by his spelling of his name (like, why dis neeyumaraalaji? Yit yis warse thaan benting to yany Suvaami-jee!), not by the negative angle of his reviews. Just look at his reviews of the recently concluded Music Academy Dance Fest:

The main piece of the performance was “Mohamaginen,” the Dandayudhapani Pillai varnam set to ragam Kharaharapriya and adi talam. The attempt at presenting this was good but Sukanya has no stage presence. In her nritta, even as Jayashree Ramanathan provided a great accompaniment on the nattuvangam, Sukanya’s basic ‘kita thaka thari kita thom’ flourishes were left incomplete. The smile we saw earlier had by now turned into a frown. Was Sukanya already bored of performing midway through a varnam?

(review on Sukanya Kumar)

Anjana began her performance with “Nyairu,” a composition of poet Subramanya Bharati in praise of the sun god, set to a ragamalika and talamalika. The first thing that was visible was her odd looking costume. Like a fading Apsara who might have had a wardrobe malfunction from an old Tamil movie, she was dressed in a costume that no one understood. There were dupatta ends hanging behind her shoulders and an extra waistband. All in different colours that only added to make her look like her back was hunched. Her main piece was the Swati Thirunal varnam “Sarasa Shara Sundara”, set to ragam Neelambari and adi talam. The choreography of it was by Sheejith Krishna. For most of the varnam, Anjana stood in one place, like she was glued to that part of the stage and danced. With a large expanse of the stage to her left and to her right, Anjana stood stranded in the middle. What kind of choreography was this? Was it inspired by Manipuri? Manipuri surely has far more grace even if the physical execution of it is so contained within a small space. If the dance was bad enough, the music didn’t get any better. Savita Narasimhan’s singing was strained and one could see her totally stressed out. Her bad Sanskrit pronunciation added to this. Several lines were misinterpreted in her sancharis. For “Sharada ritu” (season), Savita kept repeatedly singing “shaaradaa” which completely distorted the meaning. For “Paalita Sheshaloka” which means ‘one who nurtures the whole world’, Anjana kept depicting the visual of ‘Sesha’ the snake on which Vishnu sleeps. Sanskrit is a very sensitive language. Stretching a syllable or turning a phrase can completely change the meaning. Singers who aren’t familiar with the nuances of the language must avoid singing it in public. Savita made a mess of the Sanskrit and Anjana’s dance reflected that.

(review on Anjana Anand).

Tell me something, who let this man write reviews? The reviews are so insulting and demeaning, and so discouraging to young dancers! Big dancers, like Malavika Slipping, have PR departments and thick skins, but these may just be the 'Sic Semper Tryannis'-es of these young artistes!

Give me a break!

[pperumal]

Sorry if I sound like a Devil's Advocate.
At the risk of being branded so, well, for starters, let us start naming and shaming critics who make technical errors in their reports/criticisms.
Any technical mistake (printing mistakes apart) MUST be named and shamed!!!
However, anything apart from that, is just that - a criticism - one person's opinion - we may have an opinion different from his but we can't protest much can we?

- PP.

[rshankar]

I don't know Mr. Veejay Sai, and I don't hold with his views in general, but I really don't know what the issue is with the quoted paragraphs. Are they wrong - were the kiTa taka tari kiTa tOms perfectly executed? Did the other dancer cover the stage completely? If not, the criticisms are valid - granted that it could have been phrased in a much better way, but then, it's not very different from kathal-sree!