TM krishna @ NSTSS, nanganallur

[kaarubaaru]

Accompanists:
Vittal ramamurthy - Violin
J Balaji - mrudangam
Anerudh athreya - kanjira

It was a typical commercial potboiler for " pazhutha "nanganallur rasikas. with less raga alapana and more kritis, which v usually not see in a TMK concert. It was my first full time concert of krishna outside mylapore, t nagar areas n the difference was very clearly visible
he started of with Upacharamulanu , n it seemed tat he has come very prepared to nanganalur, but then there was a subdued Tulyasamma in devagandhaari which didin go too well wit the rasikas n it also seemed tat he was struggling a bit wit his voice. Then came atana , which was well directed at the audience who were screaming from every corner to sing a raga of their choice. Poor sabha secretary had 2 intervene n calm things down!!! ( typical nanaganallur kutcheri , where people throng a sudha ragunathan concert n wait for 2 1/2 hours just to hear "Brahmam okkate " , n not bother about anything else.. there will b police deployed 2 control d crowds!!! ).
The came a brilliant bilahari ( very less ragam ) with some pacy kalpana swara , he stamped his authority wit some brilliant " thaattu varisai s " , n took everybody by storm . one could c from the dais, people dancing literally n it was fun watching them all.
Then there was another RT ( "P" conspicuously absent) in kaapi which was again breezy n wit some very catchy Gamakas n flashes n he was preparing the pallavi on stage in consultation wit the violinist!!! ( no comments) . It was a tad dissappointing not to hear a full pallavi ( which has happened only once this season out of 5 "so called RTP s " , i have heard of TMk since Jan 1) .
On the whole , there was something missing from his performance n the " contentment" element was missing for the first time this season from his concerts. But am sure majority of the overwhelming crowd would have been really pleased to hear this one but not for a hardcore TMK fan who has not been used to such stuff from him!!!

[sivakami]

It gives me a Déjà vu' feeling, as a rasika from Hyd. This is how artistes have treated us, the non-chennai-ites, many-a-times...

[arasi]

Our music has to reach the far flung suburbs of the city so that the suburbanites won't feel cut off from all the culture Chennai residents have at their beckoning. We can't contain CM and make it a territorial thing For a performer, it's not easy either. How to judge the audience? Am I under-estimating or over-estimating them? Do I resort to popular singing so as to please them? Sing an RTP or not? These may be the questions they have when singing for a suburban or provincial audience.
Nice to have your review, kaarubaaru, but it's easier to read reviews which aren't part texting!

Sivakami,
I do not know why many musicians take you big city dwellers to be inferior to Chennai rasikAs. I do know that you lot have been treated lightly. I gather this from comments from a few of you over the years. I would feel cheated too, if I came a long distance (in a city which is a spread out as yours) to listen to music.
I suppose it isn't a bad idea that when you arrange concerts, you assure the musicians that you are very good rasikAs and want the best from them with some serious stuff. An RTP too, perhaps? Surely, there are a few performers who do not take you lightly but offer you a solid fare, I hope.

[narayan]

As a Mumbaikar, have no complaints of how artistes 'treat' us folks. A suggestion. Send in chits to artistes asking for Dhyaname varamaina in Dhanyasi or Mosaboku vinave in Goulipantu repeatedly and that should do the trick in some time. Kaarubaaru may succeed in just signing his/her name on a "clean chit" to establish seriousness of purpose!

At least in Mumbai, concerts are usually three hours long and the audience really doesn't go anywhere, except to the canteen and back, because there's nothing else going on down the road. Also, we get to hear TMK or anyone else once or twice in a year, so we make sure we make the most of it. The security that the audience is with you for a couple of hours at least, is quite good and the artiste can actually relax and give her best.

[csuresh]

Dear Kaaru Baaru,
Can you post the full song list of this Sri.TMK concert?
Where this concert was held in nanganallur?
Thanks.
C.Suresh

[matterwaves]

Nedanuri Krishnamurthy once did almost light concert in Mysore and the next day, the late physicist/science writer GT Narayana Rao wrote a devastating critique in one of the newspapers. From the next time on, I'm told that mysoreans got to hear a more 'classical' Nedanuri

[kaarubaaru]

Song list
Upacharamulanu - bhairavi
tulyasemma - devagandari
kalavathy kamalasanayuvathi - kalavathy
chede buddhi maanura - atana
naajee vadara - bilahari ( ragam n swaram )
kaapi - RTN ( no "P" ) - forgot d pallavi , since i was annoyed d way he set the pallavi on stage
vruttham
Followed by alakalella - madhyamavathi
geetharthamu - suruti

The concert was held at a place called Ranjani Sabha ( nanganallur sri thyagaraja sangeetha samajam ).
The concert was actually enjoyable for a most of the nanaganallur residents who prefer such light stuff , rather than a heavy raga. and TM krishna is not d one to disrespect rasikas since i remember one of his concert in 2007 , when due to very heavy rain , hardly 50 people turned up at bharat Kalachar, but he gave a scintillating performance , which was one of his bests of that season.
what i meant was , a knowledgeable rasika wud have certainly left dissappointed n i was really surprised since i had jus heard his KGS concert a week back. the gap between "mylapore" n "nanganallur" was hard to digest and was realy there to see.

[csuresh]

Sir,
Thank you for posting the song list.
Ranjani sabha is one of the oldest sabha in nanganallur and they conduct music festival/concerts frequently.But the sabha doesent have a proper auditorium,the concerts are held in asbestos roof auditorium constructed in front side of a house.
As it is a open auditorium there will be always disturbance.but they invite all leading vidhwans/vidushis atleast once in a year.
We can not expect a Music acadamy/NGS atmoshere ,but nanganallur also has lots of genuine/knowledgable rasikas.

[rajumds]

@ kaarubaaru

Luckily you didn't over hear the so called "light rasikas" blasting TMK for his performance and comparing his poor show with the scintillating performances by Abishek, Sanjay and Neyveli earlier in the series.

I am not a big fan of TMK, but his performance that day was well below par. Going by the review of his Bangalore concert in the forum, may be he is out of form.

[narayan]

kaarubaaru, I would give a lot to hear Naa Jeevadhara, which I believe is the most elaborate song of Tyagaraja's that we know about. Making allowances for Cat on Hot Asbestos Roof, at least the song list was not for the casual rasika. Looks pretty solid to me. But then, you were there and I wasn't.

[saptataalam]

Have Not heard this concert, but in general over the last two years there is a feeling of indescribable emptiness after TMK' s concert. To me one Kamboji I heard him sing as a young singer 'pre-popularity' days in the Academy in the afternoon slot,( I think it was 1999), is still the best and I can't find that now!

[kaarubaaru]

@csuresh .. actually the atmosphere was really electric, crowd on all corners, not a single rasika leaving d auditorium durin thani.. there was nothing wrong it d performance too.. it was jus below par considering krishna sings only 2 concerts in nanganallur in a year n its a sort of passionate crowd

@rajumds..TMk s not definitely out of form.. to be honest, this was my 6th concert of TMK since jan1 and each n evry concert he gave something new , unheard of and some stunning stuff but at "OUR" home ground , it jus proved to be a damp squib..

@narayan.. yeah i agree song list was solid but he is a 20 minute ragam singer , n 2 hear him sing around 5 minutes of ragam , neraval at only 1 place , and a nothing pallavi took the sting out of performance..

[Sabaash]

@ saptataalam

i agree 100% with you sir. I think you have got it spot on.
Being a hardcore fan of TMK, i should say the last 2 years have been quite disappointing.
I am no longer able to leave the concert hall with the same ecstasy and joy as 3 or 4 years back.
May be not amused by his out of the way innovations
However i couldnt attend this concert, but from the reviews i guess it was yet another one added to that list.

It cannot be held as a Flop, But could have been a lot better.

And my personal view is that : TMK never compromises anything for the galleries. May be this concert he could have decided to give an off beat one. ( i mean one of a genre that is different from what he gave during the season)

And hopefully he had not taken the Nanganallur crowd lightly.