News - Views - Reviews
A TRIP DOWN MEMORY LANE - REPORT ON THE MLV DAY CELEBRATIONS
After the rejuvenating World Music Day celebrations at Vasanth Vihar in Chennai, Carnatica marched on to celebrate MLV Day. It was held at the Narada Gana Sabha Mini Hall, Chennai, on July 3, 2002. The evening started with a concert by one of the earliest and staunch disciples of Dr. M L Vasantakumari, T M Prabhavati. Smt. Prabhavati has the distinction of having provided vocal support for MLV in numerous concerts.
This concert was followed by the audio-video presentation on MLV. Titled "Ellam Inba Mayam", after MLV's hit song, this presentation was produced and presented by Carnatica.com. As expected, the presentation began with that very song in raga Simhendramadhyamam, sung with great flair and elegance by MLV in her own inimitable style. Not surprisingly, the rasikas who were present on the occasion were quite nostalgic when they saw and heard MLV on video, more than 10 years after her demise.
The next part of the presentation contained excerpts from MLV's concerts. These had Sudha Raghunathan in the role of support vocalist. It was evident that the Carnatica team which put together this presentation had given a lot of thought to what should go in. There was enough variety in the choice of items, which in turn highlighted MLV's own versatality as a vocalist par excellence. There was a Varnam, Endaro mahanubhavulu, a Ragam Tanam Pallavi, a Bhajan, Abhang and Tillana. In addition, there were excepts from one of her dance concerts and of course, several more clippings from her film career.
MLV was an expert in sruti-bhedam. The ease with which she could, in a flash, give a different perspective or colour to the raga was simply mind-boggling! Carnatica once again showed great thoughtfulness in including MLV's gift for this aspect. The clipping was an alapana of Kharaharapriya from which she showed Chenchuruti.
Another highlight of the presentation was a special 2-minute speech by MLV at Sri Krishna Gana Sabha several years ago. The occasion was a dance program in which she had lent her voice. The speech was basically a vote of thanks to the audience present at Krishna Gana Sabha then, but the audience at Narada Gana Sabha were immensely moved as though MLV were addressing them directly. Several of them had tears in their eyes!
Finally, MLV's popularity and reach as an outstanding woman vocalist of all times was highlighted. That she had fans in national figures like Pandit Nehru, Indira Gandhi and Dr. S Radhakrishnan was brought out in a short video clipping. The entire presentation was almost 2 hours long, but it was amply evident that the audience couldn't get enough of it and yearned for more!
The evening ended with a short speech by Mr. R Krishanswami, the Seceratary of Narada Gana Sabha. He especially lauded K N Shashikiran for taking pains to bring out such a presentation and making the event unforgettable.
A word about the audience. They were mostly from the older generation, fans and fanatics of MLV. Thanks to today's technology, their cherished memories were once again available in visual form. And from the chuckles and sighs that one could hear, it was clear that they were on a trip down memory lane! Such was the intensity of their regard and love for MLV and her music!
Sunanda Rangarajan
Posted on June 12, 2002
