Abhishek Raghuram MA Dec 26 2013

[Rangadu]

It is ridiculous to see how people on this forum have become so thin-skinned and intolerant to even a little bit of criticism. First of all, I personally don't find anything wrong in that review written by Veejay Sai. It is after all one person's subjective opinion, just like all of your opinions here belong to you. More over, googling this writer, threw up articles on music, dance and several other articles from as early as 2000. So obviously he has been writing long enough, irrespective of any of us reading him or not reading him that regularly. I also realized that he is a well-known face on Television debates from NDTV and other places. The other thing is how much abuse has happened to The Hindu over here. The same people who praise it now scold it. Don't know if one can take them that serious. There are hardly any places one can read good articles about arts. In that light, when The Hindu is atleast giving space, shouldn't one be thankful and respect what is being given? Unlike Times or other papers who don't seem to care a damn about any promotion of classical music but are busy making money of you and me, atleast Hindu is giving ample space for coverage.

The review is not the best one to come out, nor is Abhishek the best as we all would like to blindly believe in our collective sycophancy. But the amount of slander here has shown how intolerable people can be. And they call themselves rasikas? That is laughable! Let us learn to respect the artiste, the critic, the space and the art form in all its entirety. This is just a humble appeal.

Best

Ranga

[kvchellappa]

Can the same tune be played back to you, with greater force perhaps? Why not take criticism of criticism with some thick skin? Why not say what of the criticism of Sai is valid or what of the counter-criticism invalid, instead of mere invectives? Is what is said above applicable to the opinion of Smt. Gayathri Girish also?

[Rsachi]

Rangudu,
Were you at the concert?
Did you find Khamach confused with Behag? Did you hear Bhaktavatsalam's comment?
Did you find the concert a disaster?

Can you find me a good CM review by Veejay Sai?

[Rangadu]

Gayathri Girish is one of those who missed the bus. She couldn't ever be a Bombay Jayashri or Sudha who were far more successful, nor could she flaunt of a lineage like Nityashree or the marketing skills of Aruna Sairam. She tried hard but her music was so pathetic that she fell bad. Now she has become a commentator. How serious can one take her? She has retorted now to being an armchair commentator of everyone else's music. She will continue to remain in the fringes and can never be close to many other names, like she would wish she was. I know this sounds rude but than all truth nowadays is sounding as rude, if not ruder.

As for being thick-skinned, why not? Nothing wrong in being that. As I said....Veejay Sai isn't the best of reviewers we have around as much as Abhishek isn't the best of singers we have around. Each has their own drawbacks and one must accept them for what they are, and not for what they are not or worse...what WE expect them to be but they are not.

[Rangadu]

I was at the concert and I did hear Bhaktavatsalam's comment. It felt as if he was trying to market himself with AR's brand name. I even wondered why on earth did they bother to fix Bhaktavatsalam for AR! Was this AR's request? Who knows!

[mahavishnu]

DNFTT :-@

[Rsachi]

Rangadu,
Sorry your comments on Gayatri Girish are to me quite obnoxious. Please refrain from such criticism. Every musician is a gift of God to us. If we don't like their music it's our problem. And I think we don't need the reviews like that of Veejaay Sai here.

[kvchellappa]

Nor those of Mr. Rangudu which are not of the same standards set in this forum by unwritten consensus.

[arasi]

Heard of harsh truths, which at times we have to face--but rude truths? What are they? Are they what rude people believe to be true? I don't get it!

Gayathri Girish first of all isn't in the age group of those whom you have mentioned. If an artiste is multi-talented, explores music more and likes to add to her skills, is it curtain calls for her career?

[Rangadu]

This forum seems to have a great standard for sycophancy and intolerance )

People here seem to know all about music and take themselves way too serious as it seems.... (-|

[sreebeecane]

This forum seems to have a great standard for sycophancy and intolerance )

People here seem to know all about music and take themselves way too serious as it seems.... (-|

Someone who preaches how to take criticism in the right spirit by being obnoxious and intolerant of criticism is preaching. Irony died a violent death. You will be missed irony.

[rshankar]

Or maybe somebody came off their meds, perhaps????

[sureshvv]

Something makes me think that the Hindu has taken notice of the hatchet job and has not looked at it kindly.

[hnbhagavan]

Dear friends,

I feel the critics writing is for the artist to improve for the future.It is obvious that generally a critic's knowledge will not be as good as the musician on whom he writes.This is true unless the critic himself is a musician of certain standing.I feel we should allow both the critic as well as the musician to be in their hemispheres.In this case Gayatri Girish is definitely more knowledgeable to counter the critic.This is not with standing what was written about her comparing with other stalwarts.
Comparison of Gayatri Girish and denigrating her in comparison to other stalwarts is not the right thing to do.In case only such comparisons are carried out,carnatic music will cease to exist after some time.There are artists of various calibre and all of them are required to sustain the sampradaya.
I would like to bring to your attention one of the concerts a couple of years ago,Sri TN Seshagopalan performed at the Rama Seva mandali.He had a very bad throat and voice was not at all cooperating.One could have concluded that how Sri TNS could give such a performance.But people still respected his vidwat and continued listening.Later I heard him several times and each concert was a gem.

[Sivaramakrishnan]

Rangadu,
Have you attended any of Gayatri Girish's thematic concerts?

[sathguru]

Rangadu's posts are quite despicable, and speak of double standards.
Criticism is fine, but obnoxious reviews are not really acceptable.

[SrinathK]

I finally got to hear at least the khamas RTP from the Academy Archives with the limited time I had yesterday. It's free during the season, open all day from Tuesday to Saturday. I was curious to know what in the world was it that had the rasikas raving like that?

Dear. God. A 1 hour 10 min unfettered bonzana. What an alapana... 30 min of unbelievable phrasing and imagination -- I did not know khamAs could be elaborated like that - yes the raga bhava was in fact intact throughout. This recording alone would have cemented Abhishek's genius in history. Who does such instant graha bhedams on every round of kuraippu swarams on every note? All the ragas he sang were graha bhedams on khamas, and he was just shifting tonic at will. Mental.

The crowd's reaction has been preserved in the recording. They were truly mind blown. I have personally never heard a Carnatic crowd go so berserk to the point of hollering in my life - I did not think it was possible, but I myself would have been screaming "Bravo". I remember somehow making it inside at the very end and the crowd was on their feet, even some elders cheering like India won the World cup or something.

In retrospect, the music critics' were just writing crap in my opinion. Let's set the record straight on that.

[musi]

How do you listen to academy archives?

[SrinathK]

viewtopic.php?f=2&t=32400&p=346319#p346319

Just go there (it's on the side of the Kasturi Srinivasan Hall next to the vehicle in gate, an elegant, quiet room), sign a register. The staff will guide you and the software is very easy to use. Then just find your concert, or artist, or raga or composer, sit back and enjoy the music.

[shankarank]

What do you expect from somebody who asks silly questions like this?

https://twitter.com/veejaysai/status/10 ... 8359117824

And you had another familiar nitwit retweet this and ask why she should not attend?

And that the artistes are singing on Hindu Gods is the point of the argument!!

It looks like Thapar has managed to create nitwits all around. These guys don't have any reason to cite the golden era music of any stalwart if they have not understood even the basics of Indian traditions!

[SrinathK]

He has since then done an about turn and has been praising Abhishek all season now. Interesting.