No-concert by T.M. Krishna

Finally the day arrived – 19.04.2014; the day on which I along with Ashok saar attended T.M. Krishna’s concert or concept of “no-concert”. Though I extensively listen to TMK’s cd’s, this concert was my first experience of live performance; had literally primed Ashok saar for this concert else he would happily spent the day with his kids. The venue was Boys Hostel, Indira Nagar, Adyar and was organized by Hamsadhwani. TMK was accompanied on violin by Dr. Hemalatha and not by Shriramkumar, on mridangam by Arun Prakash and on ghatam by Chandrsekara Sharma. I went expecting an auditorium but it was beneath a corrugated roof but the podium had fancy lights which certainly made TMK very uncomfortable so much so when electricity went for one phase, he gladly wished that ‘it need not come till the end’ and so it did not, while leaving the left side of the audience high and dry. I also expected a sales counter for cd’s and his book “A Southern Music – The Karnatik Story” and bingo, it was there. The book was priced at Rs. 799/-; I would have bought something but Ashok’s saar sagacious advice prevailed and I refrained from buying anything. To start with, the seating arrangement of the artists was contrary to what we see in our traditional concerts; it seemed that artists were on equal footing except for ghatam player. The organizer spoke few works about the release of the 2nd edition of the book and about ‘marveling on TMK’s music’. I was on tenterhooks as to how the concert would shape up, what krithis etc. TMK started with brief alaapanai of ragam Abhogi followed by “sabhapathikku vera” (with neraval) in an ultra slow tempo – never heard this piece at such a languid pace; could sense the difficulty for the mridangist. This was really a sedate start something akin to what Manoj Prabhakar used to give as an opener to Indian innings. And then came another alaapani which I thought was Janaranjani but Ashok saar corrected me and it was Purnachandrika; both the ragams are janya ragams of 29th melakartha (Dheerasankarabharanam). The alaapanai was a breezy affair and then came the tanam out of nowhere rendered superbly; TMK had to poke the mridangam vidhwan after finishing off the tanam fo action. Since this was the no-concert concept and hence, came thillana composed by Poochi Iyengar as a thunderbolt rendered without any flaw. Ashok saar sat dumb-founded – he is more of a tradionalist and could not digest the selection of ragam and then the thillana. Then came ragam aalapanai Useni followed by krithi “sri kalahasti” rendered with superb bhava again at chouka kalam. Another aalapanai followed in Suruti ragam; one maami seated behind me remarked “mudika porana (is he going to end?)”. Just when we were guessing which krithi would it be, then came another aalapanai in ragam Kalyani. At this point, TMK asked, “till what time can I sing?” I announced to Ashok saar that it would an unconnected krithi with the ragam and so came “Jagadhodharana” in ragam Kapi. And then came another aalapanai in ragam Khamas followed by krithi “sujana jeevana” followed by taniavarthanam in sankeerna jathi thriputa talam. After this krithi, followed the tukadas – virutham-hey govindan hey gopala, baro Krishna and mangalam. The accompanying artists fully utilized the opportunity given to them; I felt that the mirdangam and ghatam were under utilized. The concert, overall, was set up at slow pace and made the audience very restless; one maami dozed off very early and another senior person next to me was following the IPL score. One more thing which is patently noticeable is that - all the music concerts are attended by our senior citizens – maamis donning pattu sarees and jewels; this crowd at Adayar was more sober. The next gen is busy watching IPL or poking elsewhere. I personally liked the concept of ‘no-concert’; all these years our minds have been conditioned in terms of our expectation from a concert. TMK has changed the format or to put Ashok saar words ‘de-structured’ the elements; all the aspects are present but not presented in the manner we are used to. We, after all, are used to ‘the sheep behaviour’ – keep on following the earlier one. Kudos to TMK for trying to pave a path for another structure. This particular concert was dominated by ragam aalapanai and bhava laden krithis rendered impeccably and thus, was very sedate. TMK should have sensed the restlessness of the audience and ought to have shifted gears and sung krithis like ‘manavyalakin’, ‘nenarunchinanu’ to keep the audience interested.