Padmabhushan Dr.MLV 80th birthday celebrations

DhwaniB · Post by **DhwaniB** » 03 Jul 2009, 12:29

There is a two day event 3 & 4 July at Bharatiya Vidya Bhawan, Chennai

Apart from speakers N.Murali (Hindu), M.Murali (Krishna Seets), R. Krishnaswamy (NGS) on 3rd July, there is a concert by Kanya Kumari, Embar Kannan and Sanjeev.
Apart from speakers R.Seshasayee (Ashok Leyland), TNS and Kanimozhi, on 4th July, there is video presentation by Sudha Raghunathan on MLV titled 'Maiden of Spring' followed by a concert by Sudha Raghunathan.

Sounds interesting. Had received the invite but as am out of town, will be great if members of the forum who have attended, share the scene.

Thanks

arasi · Post by **arasi** » 03 Jul 2009, 21:44

It is forever spring,
When you listen to her--
Sometimes with a thorn in her heart
But how she sang, she sang--
Bringing for ever spring!

VK RAMAN · Post by **VK RAMAN** » 03 Jul 2009, 23:04

A befitting tribute to a Living Legend

bilahari · Post by **bilahari** » 04 Jul 2009, 00:30

"Spring" is a great season to describe the sprightly, energetic singing of MLV. Thanks for the verse, Arasi!

PUNARVASU · Post by **PUNARVASU** » 04 Jul 2009, 04:51

sometimes it is spring;
at times it is rains-torrential
another time it is a mid drizzle
forever it is cool
yes that is
'gAnamzhai pozhiginRAL'
vasanthakumAri-varshakumAri

kedharam · Post by **kedharam** » 04 Jul 2009, 05:21

arasi and punarvasu,
beautiful!

rshankar · Post by **rshankar** » 04 Jul 2009, 06:26

'Maiden of Spring'! What a lovely way to describe her...kAlangaLil avaL vasantam!

bilahari · Post by **bilahari** » 04 Jul 2009, 06:37

Sabash, Punarvasu!

PUNARVASU · Post by **PUNARVASU** » 04 Jul 2009, 07:30

Thanks ,kedharam and bilahari-(from hemavathy)-

All inspiration from arasi.
arasi evvazhi, avvazhi nAn
arasi pOTTA kODu(line)
adula nAn pOTTa rODu(road)

Akshara · Post by **Akshara** » 04 Jul 2009, 07:34

Folks - was there for a while yesterday. Must commend the sincerity in which the team has put up the show. The speakers had littlle emotional moments in description of the 'Spring Maiden'. In fact Krishnaswamy of Narada Gana Sabha spoke of some incidents of MLV depicting what a fine human being she was - that in her last days, while she was ailing and Dr.CVK was bearing her medical expenses, a less fortunate person approached her for assistance for his daughter's wedding. She did not have anything to give, so she removed her thali and gave it to him and blessed him abundantly...A moving narration indeed. A book titled Dr.MLV Pillai Thamizh (hope have got the name right!) was released with MLV's son Shankar Raman receiving the first copy.

All her disciples were presented momentos and Sudha Raghunathan compered the show. Will try to catch some of the action today if time permits..

PUNARVASU · Post by **PUNARVASU** » 04 Jul 2009, 07:44

Akshara, thanks for the update. Waiting for the next one.

arasi · Post by **arasi** » 05 Jul 2009, 09:43

punarvasu evvazhi, nAnum avvazhi--yes, waiting for the report.

Akshara · Post by **Akshara** » 05 Jul 2009, 19:05

Punarvasu - your request motivated me to ensure I get there and perch myself until the end...so here I go...
To start with there was a bharatanatyam by Shobana Ramesh and Asha Narayanaswamy on about half a dozen old MLV movie songs..aadal kaaneero, ellam inbamayam, par kadal alai mele et al.
Then Sudha Ragunathan compered for second day too.Guest list Seshasayee - recollected many memories of MLV Amma, how she came to meet his mother once, found him painting and sat with him and painted for an hour and then told him, you teach me painting, I will teach you music. How she hellped a needy woman even on her death bed, her humaneness and genius.

TNS was fireworks. He elaborated on how cos of her magnanimity, he got the first opportunity at a young age, with a very senior mridangam vidwan (sorry, I am unable to recollect the name)accompanying him, again her recommendation, to sing at Shanmukhadnanda Saba Mumbai. He smattered the speech with incidents of the 'camaraderie' amongst the fraternity where peers, seniors are conspicously absent for performances by fellow musicians He was at his candid best and spoke fo MLV Amma's vidwat in awe.

Kanimozhi spoke just aptly...she commended on Rasikar Manrams for such platforms of music and geniuses and that these gain in numbers and the 'other' rasikar mandrams dwindle gradually..Well said.
Following this was a presentation by Sudha Raghunathan on MLV which had age old pictures, reliving moments, short speeches by Mannargudi Easwaran, her student Deepika and Sudha herself. It was just for 20 minutes - apparently the entire dvd with more content is to be released on Oct 31, MLV's death anniversary.

Kudos to Chandrika Rajaram for putting all this together, honouring all MLV disciples, appropriately thanking the facilitators. mallika Srinvasan, daughter of Ambi Sivasailam was present and donated an amount on behalf of her mother. All this while the auditorium was spilling and overflowing...so was the rain outside..

Next was the concert by Sudha. This woman has so much of energy, I must say - she compered, she greeted all the guests, sat thro all the photo shoots and then again sat to sing for another 2 hours!!As TNS was late, the entire prog got pushed by an hour and the concert started close to 8pm.

Folks am not too good with technicalities so had to borrow some information from my neighbours..The songs that stood out stark in my memory were the kannada numbers Harismarane and Yadavraya...Sudha was phenomenal and it did feel as though MLV Amma was sitting next and watching..meysilirthathu...

So here is the list as is:

Navaragamalika varnam
Siddhi vinaayakam-chamaram-rupakam-md
Raakaa sashivadhanaa-takka-adhi-thyagarajar
Short raga aalaap-raghuvara-panthuvarali-adhi-thyagarajar with neraval and swaras at charanam line manasuna neeke
Eadhaiyyaa gati-chalanaata-adhi-koteeshwara iyer
Mangalavaradhaayaki-kadhanakudhoohalam-composition of GNB
Balagopala-bhairavi-adhi-md (raga, neraval, swaram, thani aavarthanam)
Ugaaboga followed by Harismarane maado
Chinnanchiru kiliye
Yaadavaraaya
Aarumo aaval
Ellaam inbamayam
Dikku theriyaadha kaattil
Virutham and Revathi thillana of Lalgudi Jayaraman in misrachaapu thaalam
Mangalam

I must say it was such a fulfilling evening. Thanks Punarvasu for the gentle push..else I may have gone on much later..Well done MLV Rasikar Manram

PUNARVASU · Post by **PUNARVASU** » 05 Jul 2009, 19:45

Aksharaa, I enjoyed every 'aksharam ' of yours; thanks for making it to the function,esp. for our
sake and giving such a beautiful report. I could visualise the proceedings; thanks once again.
A GREAT SHOW BY THE MLV RASIKAR MANDRAM.
MLV the musician, MLV the gentle human being-many facets of her were shown. I really like episode-about Shri Seshasayee-how she sat and painted with him etc.
WISH SHE HAD NOT GONE AWAY WHEN SHE DID.
Sudha Ragunathan- a worthy sishyai of a great guru and from the list of songs I can make out how every one in the audience would have felt MLV amma's presence on the stage.
I think both the guru and sishyai are blessed to have got each other.
Thanks once again.

rshankar · Post by **rshankar** » 05 Jul 2009, 20:19

A nice program, and even better review Akshara! Thank you...

arasi · Post by **arasi** » 05 Jul 2009, 21:24

Akshara,
Thank you for bringing the event to us with the spirit th occasion warranted, and thank you Punarvasu for bringing it about!

cienu · Post by **cienu** » 06 Jul 2009, 00:08

Thank you so much Akshara for sharing with us details of this function

kedharam · Post by **kedharam** » 06 Jul 2009, 00:36

Thanks for bringing it live...well, almost...

DhwaniB · Post by **DhwaniB** » 06 Jul 2009, 12:39

Oh thanks so much Akshara...nice to see this when one is back on a monday morning to a torturous week ahead...It must have been a truly nostalgic moment I guess. The doyen's music is evergreen and there is so much of 'ghambeeram'

vganesh · Post by **vganesh** » 06 Jul 2009, 14:25

I was there to attend Ms.Kanyakumari's Violin on 3rd july. There were three violins on Different octaves (kanyakumari, Embar S kannan & V.Sanjeev). The thani by Sri.Mannarigu A Eswaran was superb.

Akshara · Post by **Akshara** » 07 Jul 2009, 12:05

Punarvasu and Arasi Madam and all of you - truly my happiness if I could bring forth some moments. Ganesh, yes there was a violin concert that I could not stay back for but was told it was extremely good. My loss!

rshankar · Post by **rshankar** » 10 Jul 2009, 21:59

Here is the review in Hindu: http://www.hindu.com/fr/2009/07/10/stor ... 440300.htm

Shalu · Post by **Shalu** » 18 Jul 2009, 16:15

Thanks for the review rshankar. I think the Manram seems to have done a phenomenal job, getting all the veterans associated with the doyen on one platform to share their views. Am sure Kanyakumari and Sudha Raghunathan have done an astounding job with their Guru's noteworthy pieces. Are there snippets of the dvd available somewhere for us to see?