Vidushi Sowmya

[kvchellappa]

Vidushi Sowmya at Sri Rama Lalitha Kala Mandira, Bengaluru. Accompanied by Ranjani Ramakrishnan, Sudhindra H S & BS Purushotham.
Sowmya gave a brief talk prefatory to the concert. She was happy to open 2018 with this concert on the Thyagaraja aradhana day dedicating it to her guru Dr. S Ramanathan whose centenary year celebration is in progress. She planned to sing krithis popularised by him.
She started with ninne bhajana in Nattai.
Next came Teliyaleru Rama in Dhenuka. She explained that Dr SR would take up this song to explain how the sangathis for this song convey the mood of pleading with Rama in successively higher tone of the plea.
Then she made alapana of Yadukula kambodhi and sang Chelimini from Prahlada Bhakti Vijayam. She said that the opera depicts Prahladas bhakti to Rama (who is the same as Vishnu for Thyagaraja) and that in the opera neither the protagonist (Narasimha) or the antagonist (Hiranyakasipu) figure. She embelliehed it with swaras.
Varanarada in Vijayasri followed with neraval at prakatambuka and interesting swara patterns.
Kanukonu sowkhyamu in Nayaki continued with her leisurely sowkhyam.
She sang one more number straight – sudhamadhurya in Sindhuramakriya.
She started on alapana of Shanmukhapriya mentioning that she covered rare ragas so far, but would now take up a familiar raga, but a rare krithi. Vaddanevaru she embarked upon.
She confined herself within what her voice would essay and what the raga would allow. Her voice was alright, relieved from the strain that was in evidence in MU concert that was telecast. The percussion duo let the voice be heard. They decisively played thirmanam for every piece, as a warm up to the tani that must have succeeded Vaddane varu.

[HarishankarK]

Sowmya's voice was much better in MMU than Sudha Raghunathan's. But Sowmya is having issues in higher octaVes for past few years
Same with the speech - Sudha always recites in sennthamil and its so artificial and with no expression. Sowmya speaks so spontaneously and with superb involvement

[kvchellappa]

I agree.

[sureshvv]

Same with the speech - Sudha always recites in sennthamil and its so artificial and with no expression.

Sometimes it is "convent" English also. Happened to catch a bit of her lec-dem. Pretty terrible!

[Vocalist]

Was Sowmya reading lyrics from the book like in the Jaya TV MU telecast?

[kvchellappa]

No.

[HarishankarK]

Was Sowmya reading lyrics from the book like in the Jaya TV MU telecast?

No - she didn't in what was shown on tv - not sure about the whole concert though. Even if she did - nothing wrong to read out because his poetry is quite tough - but I'm sure she did not sing refering to book/notes.

[gajaa]

Sowmya's voice was much better in MMU than Sudha Raghunathan's. But Sowmya is having issues in higher octaVes for past few years
Same with the speech - Sudha always recites in sennthamil and its so artificial and with no expression. Sowmya speaks so spontaneously and with superb involvement

I couldn’t agree more at all. Sowmya sounds very informal & she really wants to have a conversation with the audience. Yes, she has been having voice issues but she is not condescending on stage, looks very amiable & often shares great camaraderie with the accompanists. The topic of ‘Bharathiar songs’ to me, was a bit of a bummer. And that was the only reason she was periodically referring to notes IMHO.
Let me come to Sudha. Please, what I watched yesterday on MU was ************ - don’t know how to describe it. Topic was Sangeetha Samrajyam. Completely 200% looking-at-notes & “oppichufying”. Ok folks- I understand that she’s trying to innovate (!) by singing not-so-often heard songs and all that. But still, such blatant dis-regard for was too much to take. And please, it doesn’t get compensated by spontaneous creativity, blah blah. I have really admired her as a performer but what I watched today was quite disappointing. I understand SR’s latest strategy. “Focus & over-deliver at the ticketed concerts only in the key 4 Sabhas - MA, KGS, NGS maybe sometimes BVB”. In these Sabhas, there’s a clear distinction in her performance which is several notches higher than the rest. I was there at the IFAS concert on Dec 17th which didn’t get reviewed here. It was very uninspiring to say the least. Apologies for the rant, apologies to hardcore SR fans. Guess expectations are quite high from an artiste with a Sangita kalanidi title. Sanjay comes to mind (awesomeness unparalleled & doesn’t take the audience for granted) but let me stop comparisons at that

P.S : come on now, show me your anger ... am bali aadu sitting now, after writing the above.

[sureshvv]

Her presentation also betrays the fact that the material has been compiled by someone else (students?) and she has had a cursory glance before presenting it.

[gajaa]

Her presentation also betrays the fact that the material has been compiled by someone else (students?) and she has had a cursory glance before presenting it.

Absolutely! 1. She’s reading out of some sheets that she’s probably seeing for the first time. 2. Even that, she’s pausing at all the wrong places. Sample: “Naam antha yaanai (pause) mugathaanai vanangi (pause) vanangi-na pinnar, seyyum kaariyangal vetri perum.

Artificial & indifference galore.

[sureshvv]

Sowmya's presentation at the MMU was also a bit of a let down. Took too long to come to the most important aspects of the theme (Thyagaraja Ramayanam) and then ran out of time. Don't think it will reflect on the hour long TV relay though.

[kssr]

Admin can probably change title to Sudha Raghunathan. Hardly any comment on the SRLKM concert under review

[Vocalist]

Was Sowmya reading lyrics from the book like in the Jaya TV MU telecast?

No - she didn't in what was shown on tv - not sure about the whole concert though. Even if she did - nothing wrong to read out because his poetry is quite tough - but I'm sure she did not sing refering to book/notes.

She was most certainly reading while she was singing the final item (Vazhiya Senthamizh) as shown on TV. I remember this musician making an inordinate public fuss about reading while singing, both in previous Q&A sessions through MMU and in reality shows. I accept that reading while learning or performing is not ideal and should be avoided as much as possible, and I happen to hold the view that there times where it is just not practically possible without having lyrics or notations. That said, when professional musicians who take it a step further to make it sound as if it is prohibited without exception, I wonder if there is any reason why they should not be reminded of (or held to) the same standard that they holds others to?

As for the topic being difficult or boring, I do not accept that at all. Bharathiyar was a central theme that Sowmya, Sudha, and Nithyashree performed for MMU previously when it was telecast on Jaya TV - the issue was that many of the compositions Sowmya presented for Jaya TV's MU this year were the same as her previous concert or recycled from the Bharathiyar thematic concert that featured as Carnatica's recording and her other commercial recordings (such as Oi Tilakare, Kala (Chakravakam), Veera Sudhanthiram (Yaman), Thedi Unnai (Nadanamakriya), Ninnaiye (Sindhubhairavi), and so forth). Of course there are many evergreen favourites which might make the topic seem limited. That said, I have no doubt that she could have made the topic innovative and fresh if she wanted for this concert if she had taken the time to undertake further preparation, research, and learning of at least a few of Bharathiyar's other verses/compositions for that matter in other ragas.

[Vocalist]

...deliver at the ticketed concerts only in the key 4 Sabhas - MA, KGS, NGS maybe sometimes BVB”. In these Sabhas, there’s a clear distinction in her performance which is several notches higher than the rest.

Whether to describe the aadu as bali or muttaal is the question. If that was Sudha's strategy, which I don't believe it is, she would not have cancelled the NGS concert this season in favour of the concert that was scheduled to follow. She was not well is the simple reality. Excerpts of her Chennaiyil Thiruvaiyyaru concert were telecast on Zee Tamil on the morning of New Year's Day - I thought the Behag varnam she presented was one of her better performances (I can't remember listening to her perform this item previously), while Mokshamu and Jagadhodharana (which she has done to death on probably every stage) were not so much. That said, I admit I have not seen her performance for MU and MMU this year as yet.

[shankarabharanam]

I am now questioning the purpose of this forum and review. Wasn’t it suppose to be Smt Sowmya’s Bangalore concert review? Where did Smt Sudha Ragunathan bashing come up, which I presume is the best possible job many of the forumites do. I want to sincerely ask, do you guys derive a sadistic pleausre in bashing a musician who has been performing for 40 years.

I don’t want to make this Sanjay vs Sudha vs Sowmya or for that matter any other musician. But unfortunately I need to bring some concerts of the above said musician to back my point.

What do you mean by not Sangita Kalanidhi standard? She doesn’t need to prove it you Mr Gajaa. Were you even present at her Academy concert this year? Are you guys unable to digest that people raved about it. What was the necessity for rasika members to point four concerts of Sudha Ragunathan here. If she would have taken only the ticketed concert seriously, then she wouldn’t be where she is today. Her IFAS was also ticketed. Except MMU, MU and BVB, all the concerts are ticketed.

I did listen to most of them in the season and it would be fair to say Sanjay wasn’t the best in all his concert Mr Gajaa. I was there in his IFAS which also wasn’t reviewed and it was a total noshow. But does that mean I have the right to ridicule him. A Big NO. Simply because it is unfair to expect a musician to be at their best in all the 10-12 concerts they perform during the season. He sang a ragam that ain’t fit for RTP simply in terms of scope and he just sang the scale without any bhavam or musical element. But hey, we have the fanatics here who will like everything he does and outrightly ridicule other musicians efforts. His NGS concert again was passable. Here we have someone singing all new songs, but confused the audience by singing Khamas in Kamboji. For a long time many in the audience weren’t sure what he was going to sing. And yes of course in such cases you have Mr Varadarajan pulling him out of it. Shall I say given his voice issues, any other violinist apart from Varadharajan can’t cover him. At Karthik Fine Arts, if I remember we had a young violinist playing for him and Sanjay was unable to reach the lower Shadjamam. But how many of you would dare to mention it. It is a sacrilege to do it.

I personally felt his MA was also a passable concert. Just because someone sings all new songs, doesn’t qualify being great. What really matters is how much of it is good enough. I can claim to learn 100 new krithis and present it on the concert platform but if it doesn’t appeal then whats the use. I understand most of the members just go by the face of the song sung. How much of musical element was there. In his BGS concert in December, a review says he is known to sing new varnams and that is a welcome change. Sir yes it is a welcome change, but was it rendered well is my question and my answer is a plain NO.

Coming to Sowmya’s MMU. I know what she was going to sing when the brochure was printed and her MU concert was also oppiaduchifying (if I can use that word). Let me come to MMU. MMU was an offshoot of her US tour this year and I attended that in Cleveland and New Jersey and I found the whole presentation passable bearing some good alapanas by Vidya Kalyanaraman and Ashwath. So shall I say she did a whole tour just by doing Katha Kalapshemam. Is it right on my part to say and ah yes we had Chandrasekhara Sarma on vocals too. The less said the better about his performance. But here people would rave why because she speaks well. Coming to her Margazhi Utasavam concert, it was almost a similar presentation she did couple of years ago in MMU at the same venue. So why would she need a paper to talk about songs that she already has sung. So was she innovative in that sense. A big NO but was she innovative musically is something that can be discussed.

Let me point out Smt Sudha is an excellent orator and can write really well. If any of you have read her Hindu pieces or even read her poems that she has written, you wouldn’t question here. Oh yeah anything she does is always unacceptable in this forum. But if it is done by Sanjay then it is god’s creation. I am in no way disrespecting Sanjay or Sowmya here. I have high regard for their vidwat. But this fanaticism is going beyond a limit.

I don’t have issues with constructive criticism and factual representation of the concert. But bringing down a musician who is way too senior to all the musician I mentioned is simply unacceptable. Let us not forget, as a performer ages, there is a change in the timbre of their voice and Sowmya too has been facing voice issues for sometime now. But does that mean we can question her vidwat. Sanjay goofed up his Sangita Kalanidhi concert. But no we had the current secretary of MA shouting outside the auditorium that it was a success. Why would someone do this? Shall I question his intentions. Is it right for someone who holds an office at the academy be biased to a particular musician just because he is his friend. I would say he should keep his opinions to himself. I don’t want to get into that. I am not bothered. He likes him and talks.

Coming to notes and talking from written pointers, it is something that a musician can work on and that is not their job. Their job is to sing. And I saw MMU. It was no mean a performace to be ridiculed like the way it is being done here. I think the forum moderators need to lay out rules on not to divert from the said topic. I had to write a long post, because there is a limit to bash a musician. Also only few songs of MMU are shown, so it is difficult to pass judgement on the whole concert. And these telecasts shouldn't be a yardstick for judging them. Also let me add, the sound quality of MU concert was pathetic. I could hardly hear the Mridangam and the upapakvadyam. When asked my friends who attended it, they clarified saying in the auditorium the balance was good. And they accepted the telecast quality was poor.

The main purpose of this forum seems to have been lost due to such unwarranted discussions. I have been in this place since Sangeetham days and people know me as someone who has high regard for all the musicians. Yes I might like Smt Sudha Ragunathan a bit more than others, but that is my personal choice but that doesn’t mean I have the right to demean other musicians like RaGa, Sanjay, Bombay Jayashree or Sowmya.

[kvchellappa]

Do you perhaps fail the very standard you are arguing for?
It is not in good order (or taste) to bring in another artiste while reviewing the performance of one artiste. It is however not acceptable that we cannot criticise an artiste because of the long period of her association in the art or some superlative performance elsewhere. Of course, there is no place for 'h'arsh comments that are derogatory, sweeping and personal.

[shankarabharanam]

Do you perhaps fail the very standard you are arguing for?
It is not in good order (or taste) to bring in another artiste while reviewing the performance of one artiste. It is however not acceptable that we cannot criticise an artiste because of the long period of her association in the art or some superlative performance elsewhere. Of course, there is no place for 'h'arsh comments that are derogatory, sweeping and personal.

KVC sir if you read my post I start by saying my intention is not to compare the performances of artists and I am forced to do this in this post just to show case the one sided argument of reviewers in this forum. I have utmost regard for all. I repeatedly say I am no one to question the vidwat of Shri Sanjay Subrahmanyam or Smt Sowmya. I attend everyone's concert with the sole purpose of enjoying music and learn some aspect of carnatic music from a students perspective. My whole write up is argued on the only point of why is Smt Sudha nitpicked always when there is no need to.

Coming to the point of seniority, my whole point was to showcase the number of years she has been singing. For someone like her, it is but natural to have few off days. My intention wasn't to showcase just her seniority, but to point out to others it is unfair to compare all musicians at the same level.

[kvchellappa]

Thanks, Shankarabharanam sir.
We get trapped like that. It is something like Russell's paradox.

[Madras-Talkies]

I don’t understand why does a thread talking about Smt Sowmya’s specific concert gets diverted to another artist. We don’t need moral policing at this stage. We are all connoisseurs of ‘music’.

Since a bunch of musicians are referred here, let me try present to my analysis on those musicians. It’s good to refresh memory lane of so many here or at the least I can try to be unbiased.

Like Shankarabharanam has mentioned I have high regards to all performing musicians. We are all just listeners and we don’t know what it takes to become a musician and what it takes for a musician to perform 10+ concerts in a month. Some might have extreme knowledge in music, yet we aren’t blessed to get on stage and perform.

Smt. Sowmya:
Sowmya has been out of form for almost 3+ plus years now. I’ve attended several concerts of Sowmya where sowmya had voice issues and the violinist came to the rescue in the higher octaves. If I were to present to you a rough estimate on her performance standards, 5/10 concerts are appealing to listeners. Her vocal chord issues does not let her explore the entire voice range.

Sowmya renders Varana radana composition very often. Infact, she has rendered this rendition with very very similar Swara pattern at Music Academy for two years in a row. Nothing surprises me at all. Why don’t we analyse Sowmya’s performance in this manner? In her academy concert she didn’t do the gruha bedham properly and again reattempted but managed to somehow wrap the whole thing.

She doesn’t encourage learner’s or singers have notes while singing. Back from good old days of Carnatica days. “You are insulting composers when cant remember the lyrics. If you can’t memorise the lyrics, don’t sing that song’. This is like ‘Preaching Hinduism to the world and practising something else at home.

I don’t want to nitpick on Mr. Sanjay just because someone else chose to do other musician here. But as already mentioned on various occassions he has slipped on sruthi owing to the nature of his voice and I was present in his NGS concert. Usually if the concert isn’t upto the mark I just tend to move on, accepting that it just wasn’t the day for the performer. But that is never acceptable to his harcore fanatic. I am sure to get brickbats for mentioning this. But the sole purpose is, if I have to nitpick on any aritst, there are enough and more opportunities to do. But one needs to respect the stage and the efforts that go behind the concert. Even criticism has to be both positive and negative. But that isn’t the case here.

I would expect seasoned listeners to evaluate every artists presentation in a unbiased manner. Such aspects of other performers are never brought up in this forum. Why?

A genius like TNS also has voice issue, but we are willing to overlook that because of his vidhwath. It happens to most musicians, and we rasikas have to embrace the fact our favourite musician cannot be in right form always to captivate our moods.

In case of Smt Sudha Ragunathan, she used her notes to drive the thematic concert. So what? Does it have an impact on concert? No. Why do we discuss that?

I managed to attend several concerts this season. And I managed to attend few concerts of Sudha Ragunathan. I found no issues in her voice. She was very comfortable reaching mandara and tara stayi. Allegations on her voice or speaking about what yo hear from others in canteen is not worth presenting here. Her voice is in perfect state to perform concerts. Like someone mentioned, she was unwell for NGS concert, it got cancelled. Musicians are also humans and they can fall sick. That’s what happened to Sudha Ragunathan before NGS and she had to cancel.

And for people questioning her vidwath or her voice standards, please do your home work. Take some time, visit tag centre and listen to her this year academy concert, starting from Mandari Varnam till the end of the concert, it was too good. After having attend 5+ plus concerts of Sudha Ragunathan this season. I can comfortably mention that comments on her voice ‘baseless allegation’

I try to listen to many musicians and not follow one specific musicians. Though I have my own wish lists (Sudha, Sanjay, Sowmya, TMK, Pantula Rama, Ramakrishna Murthy, Prasanna and BMK). I attended concerts of several musicians such as Sowmya, Sudha, Sanjay, Malladi brothers, Trichur bothers, As Murali, Bharat Sundar, Ramakrishnamurthy, Sriranjani, Ranjani & Gayatri, Trichur Brothers, Pantula Rama, Sangeetha Swaminathan, Rthwik Raja, Vishnudev Nambuthri, Mandha Sudha Rani, Prof. Balasubramanian, Sandeep Narayanan, Prasanna Venkatraman, etc

I loved only 9/20 concerts I attended at Music Academy (in no order - Ramakrishnamurthy, Amrutha Venkatesh, Amrita Murali, Sangeetha Swaminathan, Aishwarya Shankar, Vani Ramamurthy, Apoorva and Anahita, Sudha Ragunathan and Prasanna Venkatraman). I just wanted to bring the last two pointers to highlight that I am a unbiased listener. I don’t blindly follow a particular musician.

Art form is much bigger than a performer. We shouldn’t idealise musicians over music. Sadly, rasikas have started worshipping musicians over music. I don’t think this is good for us to act like this. Perhaps, bunch of responsible rasikas should put their thoughts together and author a book title ‘Responsible Rasika’.

[sureshvv]

The criticism was mostly about lecdem delivery style with over dependence on notes which appears robotic and lifeless.

[shankarabharanam]

The criticism was mostly about lecdem delivery style with over dependence on notes which appears robotic and lifeless.

You are again taking it away from the argument. I was there at the lec dem. Her initial description about the history of varnam and the types of varnams was read but when it came to describing the musical aspect of those varnam she demonstrated it very well. If I recollect it she demonstrated one swaram from a varnam in ganga tarangini by Ramaswamy Diskhithar which had the anuloma viloma feature and the lyrical structure had a palandrome feature. This was seen even in swarams for the lyrics. She mentioned how the etukada swaras has its architecture.

She had her disciple to support her during the demonstration. Suresh post the lec dem, Sangita Kalanidhi Shri Ravikiran in his closing statement did mention that some of the composition presented that day brought out the importance of varnams. I don't want to harp on what I said earlier but why is she always the point of criticism. Don't other artists refer notes. I have seen Malladi Brothers, Ranjani Gayatri etc do it. Aren't we getting too microscopic with the performers these days. What is more important to me is that looking at the notes shouldn't affect their musical deliverables and in case of Smt Sudha it doesn't. So what is the issue if she refers to notes. May be she wants to be sure and doesn't want to go wrong on stage. Given the demanding audience these days, artists are expected to outperform in each concert and their repertoire is lot more than yesteryear musicians. If yesteryear musicians gave 3-4 concerts a month, even during non december months, we have them give at least 7-10 concerts depending on the festive season.

Let me point out an incident that was shared to me by my guru and also by my parents. I had attended this concert of Shri Maharajapuram Santhanam. I don't remember this since I was too young and this was told to me by them. Santhanam mama was performing at Shanmukhananda Sabha in MUmbai in the late 80s and he sang his sivaranjani thillana. In between he forgot the charanam and kept repeating it again and again till someone from the front row figured it out and somehow showed him through signs what those words were. And mind you this was his own thillana. So it is natural for humans to forget lyrics and there is nothing wrong in referring to notes.

[Sachi_R]

Madras-Talkies,

Art form is much bigger than a performer. We shouldn’t idealise musicians over music. Sadly, rasikas have started worshipping musicians over music. I don’t think this is good for us to act like this. Perhaps, bunch of responsible rasikas should put their thoughts together and author a book title ‘Responsible Rasika’.

I agree 100%. In fact I went so far as to write something 15 years ago. What makes a musical experience great? It is not only the musician, it is even the listener, occasion, plus an indefinable "divine" presence. Call it inspiration, creativity, or blessing. These intangibles that create that magic cannot be copied, reproduced or recorded. That is why the same song heard from the same musician by the same listener a second time will NOT be the same.

That is why "song requests" don't work.

[ram1999]

She started on alapana of Shanmukhapriya mentioning that she covered rare ragas so far, but would now take up a familiar raga, but a rare krithi. Vaddanevaru she embarked upon.

The one & only kriti of Thyagaraja in Shanmugapriya.

[kvchellappa]

There was a doctor in the bank who talked for 45 minutes on the phone how he was busy and had no time. I was languishing in the room for my turn. Here we have very detailed posts covering unrelated issues to emphasise that such issues should not be brought in.

[kvchellappa]

ram1999:
Smt. Sowmya was aware and mentioned it, adding that it is the only kriti in that raga of those that have survived.

[sureshvv]

The criticism was mostly about lecdem delivery style with over dependence on notes which appears robotic and lifeless.

You are again taking it away from the argument

I hope not. I have nothing against consulting notes as long as it doesn't take away focus from the presentation. I have not found that an issue in her musical performances. But in lectures, I think a person of her stature will be better off if she speaks conversationally from her heart. She does reasonably well in speeches (tends to use some hackneyed phrases but I may be nitpicking), so I don't see why she can't do it in lecdems. It may just be a question of lightening up a bit & lowering the formality in the language.

[Vocalist]

Smt. Sowmya:

She doesn’t encourage learner’s or singers have notes while singing. Back from good old days of Carnatica days. “You are insulting composers when cant remember the lyrics. If you can’t memorise the lyrics, don’t sing that song’. This is like ‘Preaching Hinduism to the world and practising something else at home.

That is precisely what I remembered on watching her MU concert; not so much the voice strain noted in the review.

Art form is much bigger than a performer. We shouldn’t idealise musicians over music. Sadly, rasikas have started worshipping musicians over music. I don’t think this is good for us to act like this.

I have been thinking the same.

[kvchellappa]

Are the remarks only for 'vocalists'?

[Vocalist]

The criticism was mostly about lecdem delivery style with over dependence on notes which appears robotic and lifeless.

You are again taking it away from the argument

I hope not. I have nothing against consulting notes as long as it doesn't take away focus from the presentation. I have not found that an issue in her musical performances. But in lectures, I think a person of her stature will be better off if she speaks conversationally from her heart. She does reasonably well in speeches (tends to use some hackneyed phrases but I may be nitpicking), so I don't see why she can't do it in lecdems. It may just be a question of lightening up a bit & lowering the formality in the language.

There are concerts where Sowmya has IMO miserably failed to deliver due to informality in her speech - but there are also concerts where Sowmya has effectively delivered because she kept it "light". The same can be said about the formality of Sudha, or any other style or artist really. The simple fact is that each artist has their own identity and style of presentation. As far as formality during lectures (particularly for thematic concerts), I think it is the artist, the topic, and its content on the day which determines whether formality is more effective or whether more informal conversation is more effective. A generally sweeping comment about a single artist or a single style (or an assumption that they can't do something just because you have not attended when they have) is too subjective to have meaningful relevance I think.

[Vocalist]

Are the remarks only for 'vocalists'?

Definitely not; it extends to instrumentalists too.

[arasi]

This thread is painful. We not only drift away from the title, but show no respect to someone we call a vidushi. We dUshi-chufy (complain about umpteen things relevant or otherwise). Did it to Nityashri, Ra-gA, Aruna, and now Sowmya? They don't happen to be musicians in RasikAs' kingdom.
As a woman (I'm sure other women do too) I feel bad. As a fellow human being too. We don't need to pile this much of complaints against them. Decorum (not mere lip-service but respect) is more in place, in my view...

[Vagadeeshwari]

shankarabharanam and Madras-Talkies,

Thanks for your insightful posts. About time...