A rough translation below.
A sampradAyA interview with MLV, by Vidushi Padmasini on 28th August 1989
Interviewed @ 22 North St, Sriram Nagar, Chennai 600018
P: Would request (like) you to provide a sketch about of your family, your early years first and then branch off into music, teaching music.
MLV:I was born in Chennai, on 3rd July 1928. We had a house in GeorgeTown then. There were a lot of women musicians in GeorgeTown then.
P: Do you recall which musicians were there?
M: Coimbatore Thayi, Veenai Dhanammal. And like many.
P: About your parents?
M: Father Ayyasami Iyer. Mother Lalithangi. Both were musicians. Father wasn't a performing artiste. He used to teach a lot. Worked at Sevasadan. He was a disciple of Kothavasal Venkatarama Iyer, the author of famous vernams like thOdi ErA nApai, etc. He had an admiration on Hindustani music. So he used to reside and learn HM in many cities like Calcutta, Hyderabad, Bombay.
Came back to Madras to teach a star those days, Thiruvarur Rajayee.
P: Is this Rajayee Pandanallur Jayalakshmi's mother?
M: No, this is a different Rajayee. She was the first woman artiste to perform an RTP. It was a time when dinamani vamsa, thanayuni brova etc. came out and were thought to be new kritis. As my father knew those songs, Rajayee wanted to learn from my father. Musiri (SUbramania Iyer), Ariyakudi (Ramanuja Iyengar) & Maharajapuram (Viswanatha Iyer) were some other artistes that learnt some kritis from my father. My parents met in such an occasion and were eventually married.
Mother was a performing artiste. She was a disciple of Coimbatore Thayi in her earlier days. And then she learnt from Flute Subbaraman. Then from my father. She suffered from asthma very much. Eventually even breathing became a chore. So by the time she was in her forties, she couldn't sing.
My mother is my father's second wife. So there was a big gap of 20 years between them. My mother passed away in 1955 at 49. My father passed away when he was eighty, in 1963.
My early days happened in musical surroundings. Lot of musicians will visit our home. So I had an attraction to that music. One could call me a 'child prodigy'. Pattammal, Brinda and Subbulakshmi, all popular artistes of today, were child prodigies. All had come to perform when they were 12-13 years of age.
I ascended stage when I was 8, to sing along with my mother. I have sung in children's programmes in Radio then. The agreement was 15 rupees to sing for 15 minutes. (pretty a good remuneration then - in 1930-1945 timeframe?)
I was studying in Presentation Convent. I wanted to study well and become a doctor.
When All India Radio came in to being after Corporation Radio, in 1938, there was a programme called 'Geeta Govindam'. To perform Jayadeva's Ashtapadhi in bhjanai paddathi in karnataka ragams. DKPattammal, GNB & my mothers took part in that programme. I went along with my mother. As I & DK Jayaraman (DKP's brother) were peers age wise, we spent our time together in the radio station, singing & playing.
Having overheard my singing, GNB has opined 'she is knowledgeable and capable. I would like to take her under my tutelage'. My father didn't indulge much in that and it just fell away.
In 1940s, my parents tried to publish a book on Purandara Dasar's songs. Purandara Dasar's songs weren't in much currency or circulation then in Tamilnadu.
P: So, how come your parents got interested in Purandara Dasa's songs?
M: My father then was teaching at U Rama Rao's, Music Academy's first president, home. At that time a descendant of Purandara Dasa, Narasimha Dasa, was staying there. A Vedic Brahmin. And an ayurvedic physician. He knew the tunes of many Purandara Dasa's keerthanais. My father got interested in those through conversations with him.
When he was about to leave Madras, my father asked him to come stay with us and teach my parents Purandara Dasa's keerthanais. He agreed to do so and stayed with us for about an year.
He used to stay in a small room at hour house; he used to cook his own food. And taught about 150-200 Purandara Dasa's keerthanai's to our family. That's the origin story for our Purandara Dasa connection.
My parents thought of those as a treasure and wanted to popularize them. My mother learnt music through a guru but wasn't adept at notating kritis or keerthanais. Rangaramanuja Iyengar helped in notating them. Nagaraja Sarma was a professor in Presidency College then. He was a Kannadiga. He helped to translate the sAhityam. Still a few errors cropped up. Even though my mother was literate in Kannada.
Concert opportunities for my mother were a trickle and so we were running on my father's meager income then. So we didn't have the heft to publish the book. My father went the route of donations to realize the publishing of the book. That was the time of WWII; still The HIndu's Kasturirangan helped with the paper (newsprint perhaps). My father approached few musicians for donations. At that time, GNB asked, "I had asked that your daughter learn from me. Been more than 2 years but nothing has moved in that', to my father. My father had responded, 'She is more interested in studies than music'.
GNB then has claimed, 'She is going to a musician'
.
(One can surmise that MLV started her music tutelage under GNB then)
In 1942, when the war was at its peak, there was an exodus out of Madras, GNB went to Kumbakonam. We shifted to Thiruvallur. I was in 9th standard then. My studies were interrupted because of this. Still, I traveled to Kumbakonam to continue to learn from GNB.
When shifted back to Madras, GNB asked my father to stop studies and to focus full time on music. My father agreed to do so. I learnt from 1940 to 1951 GNB. So my bAni is based on GNB's bAni. As I had a facile voice, that bAni fit me pretty well indeed.
VRS Mudaliar was a convener of a Sabha in Bangalore. He had arranged for a concert of my mother then, with Abhiramasundari (is that veenai dhanammal family person?) on violin and Hamsadamayanthi on mridangam. As my mother couldn't perform, that programme had to be cancelled. Then GNB has suggested 'Let her (MLV) sing, She can manage'. Even though I was just 13 then, I could sing ragam swaram even then, a bit (understatement of that decade perhaps!). GNB interacted with the Sabha and arranged for my concert. That was my first concert, as the main performer.
It wasn't a thing then - to have an Arangetram. Nobody then thought of marketing oneself or kith and kin as a 'child-prodigy'. My father was a stickler in music. He firmly believed that praise upfront runs the risk of arrogance or overconfidence. When I opined, why not ask little more in way of remuneration, he was very cross with me, 'Have you become so mature?'. Since then, may be because of that, I don't have an habit of negotiating for concert remuneration; neither ask for high a remuneration.
That's the start of my life with music. Believe I have covered quite a good ground about the background about my music journey.
P: Do you have any siblings?
M: I am an only daughter (by my mother she means). My father's had a daughter by his first wife too. Way older compared to me. She is no more.
P: When did you get married?
M: I was married in 1951. My husband is from Madurai. He was a stand up comedian. He acted in 3 - 4 movies too. We were acquainted since our childhood. It wasn't a love marriage; it was a traditional arranged marriage. My father chose him to be my groom since he was an artiste himself and he was also in to music. So there was no hindrances to my music because of my partner or marriage. My son Sankar was born in 1952 and my daughter Vidya was born 1953.
Vidya was a dancer but she left it when she got married. She is acting in movies now.
P: She is also a popular artiste as you are, being in movies. Isn't she?
M: She sings too. She learnt under B Krishnamurthy for 10 years. She has learnt about 300-400 keerthanais. She didn't practice to the level of exploring ragam or swarams in a concert. She is a good light musician. Sings urdu ghazals too, well.
Rest after a break. Quite a long interview it is.