DVD -BRINDAMMA, Music Beyond Music

[mohan7narayanan]

DVD Review of "BRINDAMMA" (Colour)

Happened to come across this DVD at one of the Music Academy sales stands and promptly bought a copy. At Rs 150 and the 10% festival discount, it is a good purchase. The Music of the legendary T Brinda has been competently documented by SANSKRITI, the music/video album producers of the Swathi Group. With the bye-line "Music beyond Music" and inclusive of expert comments by today's leading musicians - TMK, Ravikiran, Sowmya, Neyvelli, Aruna Sayeeram, Hariharan etc (it is a long list) the DVD (just under 2 hours) exposes us to the musical journey of T Brinda. As the grand daughter of Veena Dhanammal and a rich lineage in CM (her first cousins T Balasaraswathi-the Bharathanatyam exponent, T Viswanathan (Flautist) and her own sister T Muktha), Brinda was also a great Veena plyer, like her grandmother Dhanammal.

I liked the piece included of Brinda and Muktha singing together. The latter's higher pitch coupled with Brinda's lower registry, was indeed divine.

The Audio, which did not enjoy today's sophisticated audio recording equipment techniques, is of course scratchy but does not lessen or hinder your listening experience. But what is really saddening was the lack of her Kutcheri or live performance videos. Except for one small item, it is all the stills of Brinda's photos featured against the singing background. The Director has tried to introduce the the feeling of "motion" by showing beautiful landscapes of the Thanjavur and Cauvery locations, but at places they distracted.The miserable feeling I had at the end of the DVD was "Why were not sufficient Video recordings made at her period?" - This applies to all the giants of CM of those days. After all, 35mm movies were well in vogue - the first South Indian TALKIE (Bhakta Prahalad in Telugu and Tamil) was made in 1931 followed by the first full TAMIL Talkie (KALIDAS) in the same year. So we had the possibilities of live VIDEO recordings, of course in B&W - but they would have been today "treasures"! Brindammal was alive till 1996 and from 1931 (our first talkies) there were + 60 years of time available for making videos, not just of her music but her views of CM and her unique "Bhani' of rendering music the Dhanammal school way.

Which leads to my basic question I have been always asking myself and others- Why do we not maintain records of our rich heritage? Is it our basic philosophy - "Everything is just temporary, so no need of preserving anything"? Or is it just lack of interest? I am not able to trace my family lineage beyond what I personally know, which stops with my grandparents. It is said that my great grandparents emigrated to Kerala from the Thanjavur area when there was once a big drought there. In what year was it? Where in Thanjavur District were they living? Which was their nearest famous Temple? Were they fortunate to meet at least once Thyagaraja in their lifetime?

I want to know exactly where I am from! And that is MY problem!!

[pattamaa]

Door darshan may have something in archive for sure

[cacm]

mohan7narayanan,
Which leads to my basic question I have been always asking myself and others- Why do we not maintain records of our rich heritage? Is it our basic philosophy - "Everything is just temporary, so no need of preserving anything"? Or is it just lack of interest
As far as Carnatic music you will be happy to know that CLOSE TO 90 PERCENT of concerts that were recorded ACTUALLY EXIST IN DIGITAL FORMAT-in principle that implies for ever- with close to half a dozen persons.Actually MOST OF THEM are sharing their efforts to ANYONE who wants it.
If you are interested may be you can start an organisation that can collect, documernt & distribute it to interested persons. There ARE SOME so called LEGAL ISSUES that are being successfully circumvented right now.......VKV

[mohan7narayanan]

cacm.....Your are right, there are plenty of CM recordings of - many of them digitally processed - starting from our early/mid 1930's musicians. And these are transcripts of their 78rpm and later 45 and 33 rpm shellac recordings and we are thankful for HMV/Columbia/Angel recording companies for this mammoth job. What my pity is that there are no VIDEOs even in Black and white of Musiri, Dhanammal etc, even when 35mm filming was available. All said and done, seeing a musician perform is the ultimate treat. An expert from University College London, the concert pianist and psychologist Chia-Jung Tsay, has brought forth a theory that general physical appeal and visual aspects of performance are as important as the actual playing. True, because in Studio Recordings, plenty of corrections - even in rectifying any "abhaswaras" and "tala misses"- is in vogue. My good friend HMV Raghu will vouch for this. In a live performance, we need not ridicule or condemn a musician for the human "imperfections", as a matter of fact we are able to see and realise how difficult it is for even a trained musician to perform perfectly. l was discussing only about the lack of VIDEO recordings of our past CM masters. Of course, for the current CN musicians, plenty of DVDs are available. As another fellow "rasika" has pointed out to my review of T Brinda's DVD, Doordharshan may have the videos - but DD in Tamil Nadu started only in 1973/74 and first time in the nation in the '60s ......much before Ariyakkudi and Tiger Varadhachariar could perform in DD.

[cacm]

THE ONLY way in those days-video cameras were not available- was to take MOVIES. Actually I have spent close to 3 years trying to locate the ONLY MOVIE that was taken of a MADURAI MANI IYER CONCERT IN CALCUTTA. I FINALLY tracked it down to a PARAN-LOFT-IN A HOUSE ON POES ROAD BUT THE FILM BEC. OF HUMIDITY& OTHER REASONS HAD TOTALLY DETERIORATED & COULD NOT BE USED. I DO AGREE with you that INDIANS-I include myself- have no sense of proper history or in preserving things. VKV
AIR & DD ARE SO BAD THEY ERASED INVALUABLE CONCERT TAPES BY RE-RECORDING OVER THE ORIGINAL RECORDINGS.......TERRIBLE TO SAY THE LEAST. i-) [-x :-Q