MaNakkAl Rangarajan

[Pasupathy]

Amen to VKV!

[rajeshnat]

The below url to the best of my knowledge was not shared. When MAli who has so much sathiyam presents a diamond ring to shri manakkal rangarajan , what can any one say?

http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp ... 019365.ece

[cmlover]

Thanks Rajesh for enlightening us..

[Pasupathy]

Manakkal Rangarajan-Reethigowlai & Vachaspathi- Part1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k0NTNWs ... jpu4mpJUj0

Manakkal Rangarajan-Vachaspathi & Dwijavanthi Part 2
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lsZLM8J ... j0&index=1

[prasanna]

Sri Manakkal Rangarajan passed away today at his residence.

[hnbhagavan]

Oh What a sad news? Yes he lived his age by god's grace.Music Academy did not acquit itself creditably and honored him with TTK award in 2010 in his late eightys.He also deserved Sangeethakalanidhi and should have been conferred at least three decades ago.

[rshankar]

Really sad news.
Condolences to his family and disciples!
May his soul RIP

[rajeshnat]

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THoughts about great vidwan Manakkal Rangarajan - Part 1 of 5
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What I have written in the past about manakkal rangarajan Mama in rasikas

1. rajeshnat discovery of manakkal Rangarajan mama dated Sept 02,2007
viewtopic.php?f=12&t=276&hilit=manakkal ... 150#p57413

2. Rajeshnat took few photos at manakkal rangarajan mama house in indiranagar , Chennai. WE had a series of 20 plus concerts and one concert was also held in rangarajan mama house . His son manakkal sriram and his extended family were very sweet , lot of rasikas core contributors went .
Check viewtopic.php?f=12&t=276&hilit=manakkal ... 150#p52441 and scroll and atleast see the photo with PMI and with great leader rajaji.

3. CMlover was a big time paithiyam of manakkal rangarajan . Here is his comment about he hearing manakkal rangarajan at suchindram , rangarajan mama did neraval and swaras of taaye Yashoda for close to 2 hours in sucheendram
viewtopic.php?f=12&t=276&hilit=manakkal ... 150#p57416

4. Once Cleveland Sundaram told me that he has heard near his home town around trinelveli a mega concert . Forgot the place , I am only stating his name as sundram sir does not exagerrate at all . I am yet to find the url as sundaram sir spoke in one event that i attended

[rajeshnat]

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Thoughts about great vidwan Manakkal Rangarajan - Part 2 of 5
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5. Manakkal sriram wrote a brilliant post about his appa . His pluses and minues , lack of PR . Manakkal sriram post was lost when migration happened . I saved in my notepad and reposted with my id.
viewtopic.php?f=12&t=276&hilit=manakkal ... 75#p184084

6. CMLover lamenting about how he as intense rasika of manakkal , in his generation they did not write much about rangarajan mama in his prime days.
viewtopic.php?f=12&t=276&hilit=manakkal ... 150#p58035

7. There was a lovely manakkal rangarajan dvd documentary celebrations held in partha . I and thanjavooran have covered it
viewtopic.php?f=13&t=19658. Prasanna who posted the obiturary is the son of the daughter of manakkal mama.

8. CHeck the post of rajeshnat and a next reply by cacm (vkv sir) on manakkal perception of then to very recent
viewtopic.php?f=12&t=276&hilit=manakkal ... 75#p256510

[rajeshnat]

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Thoughts about great vidwan Manakkal Rangarajan - Part 3 of 5
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9. Few Folks in UK like Jayaram and Rishi sharma have played a big role in recognizing mama in UK and invited him . Photo of RIshi with manakkal family
viewtopic.php?f=12&t=276&hilit=manakkal ... 75#p147906

10. manakkal rangarajan@IIT Madras on April 17th,2007
viewtopic.php?f=13&t=2549&hilit=rangarajan#p45443

11. manakkAl rangarAjan@rAgasudhA on April 28th,2010
viewtopic.php?f=13&t=13101&hilit=manakkal

12. Manakkal Rangarajan himself gave an exclusive concert for rasikas team at mantra's house . That was exclusive HMB concert. For few months my work pushed me out of India i did not attend this concert .My bad luck Review by Late Ramaraj Sir - himself a respected vageyyakkara and song list given in post #19 by manakkal sriram in the below url.
manakkAl rangarAjan@Nungambakkam (concert #6) on August 25th,2007
viewtopic.php?f=13&t=3504&hilit=manakkal

[rajeshnat]

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Thoughts about great vidwan Manakkal Rangarajan - Part 4 of 5
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13. manakkAl rangarAjan@MusicAcademy (Mini) on October 31st,2008
viewtopic.php?f=13&t=7178&hilit=manakkal
Personally rajeshnat thinks manakkal rangarajan is a clever concotion of very heavy SSI+GNB and a minor lining of MMI.
Manakkal rangarajan mama singing an exclusive Muthuswami Dikshitar compositions.

14. Bharath lovely review of Carnatica-Tattvaloka with MC and VelloreRamabadran in Dec 2006. Also check post of #7 of coolkarni
viewtopic.php?f=13&t=1535&hilit=manakkal

15. One recording just to illustrate Rangarajan mama and his music with speed and slow typecast (vachaspathi swaras in kantajoodumi and dwijavanthi alapana with akhilandeshwari).See the vocal finesse
https://youtu.be/lsZLM8JBm6g?t=144 for his vachaspathi swaras in turbo charge mode.No wonder even Flute Mali said I cannot play like your voice

AND

https://youtu.be/lsZLM8JBm6g?t=561 for few minutes his dwijAvanthi alapana . Rangarajan mama in dwijAvanthi was pristine and brilliant.

16.Attn @ManakkalSriram or @Prasanna(maternal grandson) - There was a video recording that manakkal sriram put of his marriage reception where rangarajan mama invites somu, semmangudi etc. Rangarajan does namaskaram to semmangudi. Can you trace that and put that video recording again, I have lost it.

[rajeshnat]

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Thoughts about great vidwan Manakkal Rangarajan - Part 5 of 5
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17. Typing this just documenting my visit to his house around 2012
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This post is a fresh post typed as of Mar 2019 . I once went to manakkal rangarajan mama house around 2012 or so. I went to see him after manakkal sriram invited me many times to his home. I genuinely wanted to talk with rangarajan mama. THat evening when I went sriram and family had a marriage reception to attend and he left me almost alone with rangarajan mama. Few important conversations between me and manakkal mama

Rajesh : I asked him about ragam kalyani
Manakkal Rangarajan : In our days most of the time we always sing kalyani as the main krithi. We many times sing krithis like yeta unara

Rajesh: I asked if he could sing atleast one krithi or snatches
Manakkal Rangarajan : He said rajesh i cannot . I donot sing for any one person or few persons at home .I will only sing for GOD in my pooja room everyday.
Rajesh : I left it at that

Rajesh : I told that about 40 or 50 years back your anna manakkal varadharajan has come for few times to my house to teach my atthai few songs .
Manakkal Rangarajan : O appadiya . I dont know or recollect your family

The conversation between rajesh and rangarajan mama was like Award Winning Malayalam National Movie. One or two sentences and then equally a long silence.

THen quite a few questions he was too much into thinking something deep. At times he was putting talam and singing and humming. He started asking me few questions if I have heard GNB SSI chembai MMI or TNR. I got a fresh rejuvenation feeling .Those were considerably bit of my strong areas -thanks to internet, I started perhaps gaining bit more respect . Roughly after half an hour , the silence got considerably narrower. Rangarajan mAmA had a very deep respect particularly for Chembai is what I had thought - not really sure.

Manakkal Rangarajan : He said if you dont mind I would like to do a pooja and I usually sing one song .Can you wait here in the hall and I will come after some time . He said I want to talk with you bit more for sure about music. I will tell bit more about my music in my days

Rajesh : I decided that I should not stay long at his house and said Mama I will leave despite his genuine offer to talk with me . At that moment I just felt I should not hear what he is singing in his pooja room from the hall that I am seated.

All said , I am just stating that rangarajan mama was just thinking music and possibly he was quite pious atleast during evening time . I am not even half his age at that time . I am assuming this is what many great vidwans/vidushis have at times .They just donot bring that shade of PR and spoken communication skills . THis post is not meant to slamdunk manakkal rangarajan mama at all. On a sidenote i think two musicians manakkal rangarajan and TK rangachari gives me the feeling that i can throw my perennial carnatic idols MMI SSI and GNB collections out and just listen to these two.

18. I personally love and adore his kamalAptakula and bhuvanutha but that is commercial . Few years back Rangarajan Grandson posted nagumomu in abheri. This is manakkal rangarajan with very very minimal vocal support . Two great artists in mrudangam and ghatam(@ManakkalSriram or @prasanna may i know who the mrudangist and ghatam artist is) is rocking with rangarajan in the below abheri.
https://www.mediafire.com/file/lqgcepk1 ... gumomu.mp3

19.Manakkal Rangarajan is simply a great musician who challenged majorly GNB and SSI for sure . Lack of Media support in musicians career in second half will pull say even if Lord Narada decides to be a performing musician .

20. Manakkal Rangarajan mama lived upto 97 years as a meteoric undocumented musician ,two years more than even the meteoric and well documented semmangudi .

[rajeshnat]

Manakkal Rangarajan mama's DVD is available to be viewed in youtube. Thanks to the benevolence to few group of London rasika like R Padmanabha Iyer and Director Amshan Kumar who did the DVD out of sheer musical respect for this vidwan.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b4W0EhLDE8o

[shanks]

I believe this is a recording of Manakkal Rangarajan.
https://archive.org/details/81WHOISTHIS

Seems to be a part of a concert at the navaratri mandapam.
It is clear that T N Krishnan is on the violin.

Would be great if someone can confirm.

[CRama]

The above is not Manakkal Rangarajan. It is C.S.Krishna Iyer, Navarathri Mandapam concert. I discussed with some super senior vidwans and confirmed this. Very engaging concert. IN fact, I already got the first song and I was searching for the full recording. C.S.Krishna Iyer was a faculty in the Swati Tirunal Academy and was singing for many years in the Navarathri Mandapam. Thanks for posting this here.

[CRama]

Manakkal Rangarajan never sang in the Navarathri Mandapam.

[shanks]

Thanks for identifying C S Krishna Iyer.