What a shame of a review this is!

[sreebeecane]

http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/che ... 244998.ece

This is by far the worst review I have ever read. Review of the concert can wait, the first thing the reviewer needs to get right is the name of the artistes and the krutis/ragas.

Seems like this reviewer has just about managed to butcher everything perfectly!

1. I have no idea who this Madirimangalam Ramachandran is. I don't think Shri Madirimangalam Swaminathan changed his name recently.

2. What is 'bhani'? I know of what a bani is.

3. 'magusuva ninne' instead of 'maguva ninne'

4. When did Karnataka Behag become Kannadagowla?

5. Kasiramapriya it seems. Name of the raga is butchered. Dikshitar in Ettayapuram would be aghast at this blunder.

6. I have no idea how one can mess up 'kumAra guruguha mahitam' to 'kumura'. What next? Kaimur?

7. And, when did Anai Ayya sing 'intaparaaka' in mayaamaalavagowLa? Ok, this is excusable, let's say.

8. I have no idea how one can hear the lyrics wrong. 'parandhaamavati yuvati' instead of 'parandhaamavati jayati'.

The biggest service The Hindu can do to its readers is to stop this sham of a music review by hiring humble rasikas to just jot down a song list instead of getting self-pompous people to butcher the name of the krutis/ragas/artistes etc.

[rshankar]

These are very usual goof ups..but continue to be extremely irritating....
The one that I remember to this day is the one that went 'he then went on to present ananda natamaduvadillai in poorvikalyani' - All that I could infer from this phrase was that either the artist or the reviewer had a direct line to the cosmic dancer, who had expressed a desire to not perform his Ananda tANDavam to pUrvIkalyANi - although I suppose the more charitable of you will assume that he/she meant Ananda naTamADuvAr tillai in pUrvIkalyANi!

[Nick H]

the sad thing about this is that, amid the mistakes and the senselessly-joined strings of meaningless words, there are moments when the reviewer seems to have a genuine enjoyment of the music. Does The Hindu put some of its reviews through a scrambling machine?

[Lakshman]

Re: item 7 - inta parAkA has been sung by Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer as part of AVM 46B 236/237 cassette set. It is also sung in nAdanAakriyA.

[Rsachi]

Ramanujacharyalu’s version was almost a shadow of the original and evoked the same response from the rasikas, with a thunderous applause.
Well, almost a shadow of a review, coming from someone who discovered 'damavati'.

[KNV1955]

Rsachi Leave aside the review in discussion. How objective are the reviews otherwise.

[shankarabharanam]

Rsachi Leave aside the review in discussion. How objective are the reviews otherwise.

Well said sir.. I just don't look at the Hindu review these days. Their season coverage has been worsening every year. So we have page 3 coverage these days. Forget that so many deserving artists have not even been featured. I see the same names again. I know some of the youngsters need the media to encourage them but some of them are getting over exposure this year. These guys have been getting the same space every week. And even if the concert is reviewed what do they include? Really bad sub work I should say. They should stop claiming as the only paper which has been giving so much importance to arts.

[arasi]

One other problem: why do we rasikAs pay much attention to such reviews--is it because we expect the old newspaper to deliver classy write-ups at all times? In the same way that a Music Academy concert alone matters when a performer has delivered even better concerts at other sabhAs?

Yes, it seems that rasikAs are better at reviewing a concert (in giving song lists too).
Why? Most of them are more familiar with the lyrics (Ravi, naTarAjar had to take the day off, his inspiration totally marred by such misleading words!).

Our love for music is perhaps greater than that of some newspaper reviewers?

Above all, at Rasikas.org, we try to stem unnecessary criticism and prejudiced utterings when they surface, amongst ourselves. We correct mistakes in lyrics too.

Still, let's not bash them all at The Hindu in one go. There are still some reviews in the paper worth reading.

As for rasikAs being better at writing, we are delighted to read Uday's essays in the Hindu! Uday Shankar, an accomplished writer, scholar, lover of music and so forth is one among us

[smala]

Methinks the reviewers/critics for The Hindu CM are old timers, possibly MMI (just a wild guess, don't get me wrong on this, I like MMI) school followers who cared less about actual words or lyrics than other aspects like Raga, Alapana, Neraval, Kalpanaswaras etc...in their (the reviewers) heyday of music enjoyment words were barely heard so we can't fault their "untrained" ears for not picking up phonetics when they are sung clearly, such as hearing "natamaduvadillai" for "naTamADuvAr tillai" trying saying these two words fast it will sound like the first! Bottom line : In recent times we might be anal about words and lyrics and correctness, ahem, esp. those that translate, but to those to whom music transcends the lyrics, what can be said if they misheard and didn't care? I am willing to stick my neck out and say that the reviewers are in their sunny sixties or more and a bit staid.

[Nick H]

(((smala... did you get my reply to your message? to contact me directly, you can easily guess the name-at and the domain is mridangam of the com variety)))

Murali sorted out the Academy: its a pity he cannot sort out his family newspaper on this matter --- but it is probably the least of the problems he has with the family business.

[smala]

Nick, got it, replied.

[jodha]

Folks...if U call this a bad review ,thank God U r not reading the reviews in yellow magazines like Kumudham by unscrupulous reviewers like Natraj I.P.S.After reading his review for Dr.B.M.K's BSU concert I went mad.

[anandasangeetham]

Jodha - cannot agree with you more......

[Ramasubramanian M.K]

I agree with Arasi--we have "elevated" whatever happens in Music Academy--be it the concerts,administration or recognition of atistes(Sangeetha Kalanidhi),or even the political maneouvrings--to a level that anoints the MA inadvertently as the final arbiters of taste/development of CM. In its heydays it may have deserved the reputation. Likewise,the Hindu pounced upon a niche --a decline in CM's popularity(perceived) and tried to expand coverage. The proliferation of the Sabhas,and the no of concerts to be covered within a short period of time forced a certain amount of dilution in the quality/capability of the reviewers.

I personally find forumites review of concerts across the world much more informative and convey the true flavor of the concerts themselves.They are very knowledgeable and objective despite whatever their personal likes/dislikes of the artistes being reviewed.
Far fetched and self-serving as it might seem I feel our site needs to be promoted--I do not know how--so that music lovers--several of whom regular concert attendees may be made aware of the site and what rich fare and variety our site has to offer--thanks to the myriad contributors. In my own attempts to make my friends aware of the site, I have had very little success despite unabashedly touting my own chronicling(!!)--but always emphasising that there is much more to the site than any one particular aspect.In fact whenever I go to the concerts in the NY area and when I am asked to review the concert(speech),I mention this forum as a reliable source for learning more about CM.

I think like any other field, the more people have an opportunity to learn/understand CM the better would be the quality of the artistes./orgs that serve music. Of all the CM sites that I have followed our forum has the best online instruction--however unstructured it may seem-- and the more we popularise this site the better.

I think -- after being actively involved in the practice and listening of CM for over 6 decades--I have enough credibility and honesty to admit that this site has exponentially enhanced my own understanding/appreciation of our music thanks to the collective contributions of the fellow forumites!!

So before we lambast the reviewers and the media.let's popularise our site whenever we attend concerts.
A short printed (1 or 2 pages) of the feautres of the site could be prepared and forumites could use it as a "selling handle"---(in the Book Publishing Industry that I worked for over 35 years,we used to use this technique to help our sales reps promote the books into the retail bookstores and was very successful!).

Sorry for the digression--but that has been the bane of my life--too much Mudikondan(circumlocution) and too little Ariyakudi(brevity/terseness)!!

[cmlover]

Dear MKR
There cannot be a better unbiassed testimonial for this Forum.
The Forum owes its existance to the genius and inspiration of srkris.
But its survival depends on the membership. It is the collective contribution of our members and their selfless sharing that makes this Forum the unique Beacon on the CM Pedastal.Let us stop worrying about other distractions and make a New Year resolve to contribute each ,our mite to the Forum for preserving the glory of our CM heritage.

[vasanthakokilam]

MKR: Thanks for those words. I feel the same way as you and CML. The forum owes its current shape to the invisible hands of the multitude of great contributors, the majority coming from the a smaller subset of regulars but there is indeed a long tail ( lots of smaller volume participants ). So it is truly of the rasikas, by the rasikas and for the rasikas. Crowd-sourcing is always better, as we have learned in the internet age.

This forum has evolved pretty much like other specific interest forums and with a conscious decision to keep the content moderation very light keeping with the principle "speech is the best antidote for speech'. This is not universally agreed upon by the members and artists, based on the feedback we get which actually spans the whole range of possibilities from 'we do not interfere enough' to 'we interfere too much'.

I am stating the above, though obvious, for a specific reason. I think it is a great idea to evangelize the site to others for the greater benefit of all of us. But it needs to be accompanied with a health warning . As we all know, some conversations, especially in the review section, can get quite heated and at times very unpleasant. Unprepared folks can recoil in horror. 'More speech is the best antidote for speech' is a strange concept to new comers. Even when there are strong counter opinions to a negative review, the artists and fans of the artists feel that such comments should not be allowed to stand and should not be publicly available. They fear that the whole world can read it at any time in the future and come to the wrong conclusion.

it is understandable. The artist has spent 10000 hours to become an accomplished performer and they have a bad day like anyone can have. And some nincompoop know-nothing street guy trashes the artist here. it hurts and it hurts deeply. Yes, it is extremely asymmetric but that is the way of the internet forums like this. These things actually go back to the early eighties to the soc.culture.music.indian days but the community involved in such discussions were small.. But internet has come of age and with it comes the much wider exposure.

Before forums like this, the impressions of ordinary rasikas were restricted to word of mouth conversations and there is really no permanent record of that( other than the highly moderated letters to the editor). Newspapers were always lukewarm in their reviews compared to views expressed here, ( except for a few like Subbudu of course ). They try to keep things general. Even if there was any criticism it was all couched in a language that is barely comprehensible.

Not so here and it takes some time to acclimatise. But once people learn to treat personal opinions as just that and actually start to enjoy reading them and get something out of it, then the tide turns. It helps to put in one's own opinion. It also helps to consider all the opinions expressed in a thread instead of focusing only on the negatives or positives. It is a huge adjustment for most people to make. But on the whole, it is entirely positive. One can hone the skill to give honest consideration to a point of view that one disagrees with, without getting all upset. That is a very hard skill to learn since it requires strong conviction of your own beliefs. But one is forced into doing that here every day. I often say that communities like this help you find out who you are and what you are made of.

So, with that health warning attached, let us spread the word!!

[cacm]

Methinks the reviewers/critics for The Hindu CM are old timers, possibly MMI (just a wild guess, don't get me wrong on this, I like MMI) school followers who cared less about actual words or lyrics than other aspects like Raga, Alapana, Neraval, Kalpanaswaras etc...in their (the reviewers) heyday of music enjoyment words were barely heard so we can't fault their "untrained" ears for not picking up phonetics when they are sung clearly, such as hearing "natamaduvadillai" for "naTamADuvAr tillai" trying saying these two words fast it will sound like the first! Bottom line : In recent times we might be anal about words and lyrics and correctness, ahem, esp. those that translate, but to those to whom music transcends the lyrics, what can be said if they misheard and didn't care? I am willing to stick my neck out and say that the reviewers are in their sunny sixties or more and a bit staid.

As RABID MMI FOLLOWER I want to STATE that the NIRAVAL & SUCCINT EMPHASIS of MMI on the IMPORTANCE OF THE WORDS & MEANING of the compositions has been pointed out & acknowledged as HIS STRENGTHS by reviewers like KALki, S.RAJAM etc. His choice of the kritis also were very crucial & important. In my view thats one of the reasons for his success & why EXPERTS as well as ordinary folks were his fans. YOU obviously have heard bad recordings of MMI -LOTS OF THEM EXIST- due to poor technology of the times-to base your conclusions on.Let me let you know that his knowledge of Tamil, Sanskrit & Telugu were of a very high order(he used to consult experts on this) & I HAVE HEARD him in person & have decent recordings to prove it. There is NO NEED to drag people who are not around to answer critics who are free and not being disciplined enough. Sorry YOUR wild guess is both WRONG & not too relevent....VKV

[smala]

...There is NO NEED to drag people who are not around to answer critics who are free and not being disciplined enough. Sorry YOUR wild guess is both WRONG & not too relevent....VKV

Dear VKV:

I do enjoy MMI's music so the respect for him is shared. When I wrote what I did, I had a notion this kind of reaction might happen (hence my 'don't get me wrong' in parenthesis, sadly it didn't work) but even on the AIR broadcasts his words were not too clear for my ears. Untrained ears maybe, but I could follow some others.

The point I was trying to make - with relevance - is that there are some old-timers and possibly some new-timers who pay less attention to lyrics than other aspects of the music in their enjoyment of the same. My contention regarding the reviewers for The Hindu and other "yellow" magazine given as example is that they must enjoy CM but possibly fall into this group. How else would you explain the frequent bloopers with Sahitya made by these reviewers that rshankar and the OP have pointed out? I'd be interested to know. They are not printing errors.

There is no need for caps, emphasis or otherwise. It comes across as shouting, so please write in lower case, can both read and follow English even without caps.

Now on an irrelevant note, today is a sad day for India, Nirbhaya has moved on to another plane.

[cacm]

SMala:Sorry! I do not follow the so called ETTIQUTTE reg capitals. I apologise if I come across as "SHOUTING" etc. I apologise if I upset you in this regard....Just bec it is recorded from Radio does not necessarily make it a good recording. If you write me at [email protected] your address I will be happy to send you the 2DVD set I made & distributed at Chennai & Cleveland in connection with the MMI Centenary Celebrations I was part of.. Its free. Then we can continue this discussion In reality I got interested in Tamil as a language only after listening to MMI & even switched to Tamil as second language from Sanskrit..........Reg Critics its another story altogether. MOST of them neither know the languages, compositions, or the technical aspects of the music. I sadly find that in India ability to write "well" trumps content. I had the opportunity to be asked by a former Editor of the Hindu how their music reviews compared to that of N.Y. Times. I told him he should fire every one of his critics for the reasons stated above and not even entertain the thought of comparisons with Virgil Thompson, Harold Schoenberg etc. He was forced to accept & concede that outrageous articles by the likes of Subbudu( who actually knew music) are the main menu because "it sells copies"....In my view economics+ appearing to be knowledgeable and sophisticated goes a long way.....VKV

[Nick H]

a by the way

smala, please do not understand VKV's CAPS IN THE USUAL WAY. I did, at first, but now I have got used to the WAY THAT HE POSTS and am pleased to be a friend

[uday_shankar]

Now on an irrelevant note, today is a sad day for India, Nirbhaya has moved on to another plane.

Don't worry, this can never be irrelevant...it's a moment of profound grief, rage, helplessness all mixed in one. One must be incredibly callous and smug not to be affected by it.

[Chalakkudi]

The worst part is 'okatesina padi nurai vayyai' has been butchered down too Okatey Senapathi... the line is rich in meaning. 'O Rama! our magical bow has the power to multiple arrows from one to 10 and 100 at the same time'.. Okate Senapathi it seems. Pathetic

[cmlover]

The whole world is mourning for her senseless death! RIP

[Chalakkudi]

though not of much significance,
in the same review (seocnd part) what does this line intend to signify? "From an accompanying artist, M. Narmada has now graduated to presenting solo violin recitals." ? So is an accompanying artist a notch lower than a solo artist? OMG! Blasphemy..

[cacm]

The worst part is 'okatesina padi nurai vayyai' has been butchered down too Okatey Senapathi... the line is rich in meaning. 'O Rama! our magical bow has the power to multiple arrows from one to 10 and 100 at the same time'.. Okate Senapathi it seems. Pathetic

My wife does not attend many concerts because she knows Telugu very well (tho' a Tamilian; she was born in Berhampur & is almost a telugu). Same can be said of Telugu singers who can butcher Tamil & Tamil artists who do not do so great (except MLV etc or artists like S.Rajam who learnt Kannada kritis from MLV'S Mother) or DKP OR MMI learning from Justice Venkatarama Iyer etc) in Kannada....USA is actually more tolerant as just the ATTEMPT to speak English is appreciated!
The MAJOR problem is Carnatic Music is too complicated-too many degrees of freedom and lots of opportunities to make major mistakes in practical implementation- and in my opinion most successful Platform Artists are clever enough to know their Strengths & especially their limitations.
Even if Roger Federer or Sachin Tendulkar had taken to Carnatic Music I doubt if they can be FLAWLESS........It would be nice if the socalled Critics emphasise the Various aspects but they are NOT QUALIFIED or KNOWLEDGEABLE.......VKV

[Sundara Rajan]

I too read The Hindu reviews and find them full of errors. However, let us be a little more charitable to the reviewer. Typos are quite common and transliteration of tamil/samskrit/telugu words as bANi/baani/bhani as well as words in languages foreign to the reviewer are forgiveable. Blame also goes to those who edit the article/review. May be The Hindu does no editing of their own articles/reviews, although they declare all comments are subject to editing, when it comes to readers' comments.

[cacm]

I am not talking about Typos; The mis-identification of Ragas etc is not a typo! It is plain wrong & has to be what the critic wrote EXPOSING his ignorance; If he did not know he could easily have checked with any number of pocket guides freely distributed. It just shows a lack of committment as well as disrespect for the reader & lack of pride in one's own work. VKV

[Ramasubramanian M.K]

Misidentification of Ragas-- I learnt a lesson the hard way from my uncle--when I was 7 years old,SSI attended my aunt's marriage and sang with Tanjore Vaidyanatha Iyer(Mridangam).I am told I could identify ragas at that age (big deal--nowadays kids hardly three years old recognise ragas in nanoseconds!!) and SSI propped me up before Vaithanna( as Vaidyanatha Iyer --PMI's guru---was affectionately called) and said I could identify ragas and tested me with some easy ones(I do not recall these but my uncle used to mention this to me later!!) and one raga escaped me --notwithstanding my silly pride overtook me and instead of saying I do not know, I blurted out the wrong name. SSI was amused and I believe told me that whenever I am stumped by a raga it is better to admit you do not know rather than say the wrong raga because I would be revealing my IGNORANCE about 2 ragas.

From that time whenever somebody sitting next to me in a concert asks me what the raga is I have no hesitation to say I do not know --in the process disappointing the person who upto that point thought I was knowledgeable about music judging from the way I was nodding my head !!!
MORAL:
Better to keep your mouth shut and let everybody think you are a fool rather than open your mouth and prove it!!!!

[smala]

I thank Uday Shankar and CML for taking a moment to recognize the senseless needless tragedy and heinous nature of it all. It is a miniscule tribute to a young fighting spirit that left us.

[vidyaarthi]

Namasthe..that day i sang as okatesina and not okate senapathy...
Vidyaarthi

[vidyaarthi]

The situation will definitely improve when we,musicians,rasikas,teachers and reviewers get more and more close to the sahithyam aspect of music as our members are pointing out.

As a performer and teacher ,i am realising more and more the importance and the responsiblity for the correct enunciation and understanding of the sahithyam.

[cmlover]

Thank you Sir:
What would you recommend for us to cross that language barrier?When you sing a sahityam not heard by us before would you suggest that a printed copy be distributed ( preferably with the meaning!)?

[vasanthakokilam]

though not of much significance,
in the same review (seocnd part) what does this line intend to signify? "From an accompanying artist, M. Narmada has now graduated to presenting solo violin recitals." ? So is an accompanying artist a notch lower than a solo artist? OMG! Blasphemy..

I realize your question is more rhetorical but I think that is indeed what the reviewer intended to convey and not surprising given the discussion in this "Where are the giants" thread : http://www.rasikas.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=20618

[rasaali]

http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/che ... 244998.ece


1. I have no idea who this Madirimangalam Ramachandran is. I don't think Shri Madirimangalam Swaminathan changed his name recently.

A side note to the main conversation:

One Madirimangalam Ramachandran was indeed a very accomplished vocalist. A contemporary of the likes of S. Ramanathan, B.V. Raman/Lakshmanan etc, he held a Sangeetha Bhooshanam degree from Annamali Univ. He served a distinguished career at AIR Delhi, retiring as producer of music. He continued to live, teach and perform in Delhi after retirement and passed away in the late 1990s or so. I believe he was also awarded either the TTK award or some other lifetime achievement award by the Academy.

I have fond memories of meeting him (serious man), of enjoying his Smarane Sukhamu and a great AIR national program with VVS And Raghu

At least one positive side effect piece of "butchering" by the reviewer is that I could cconfirm that the idea of Madirimangalam Ramachandran is non-fictional!

PS: please assume the honorifcs for all artistes mentioned here.

[PUNARVASU]

A few of the mistakes pointed out by the OP have been corrected in today's paper.