The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Failing to strike the right cord

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Nov 13, 2006
ePaper

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Failing to strike the right cord

Swahilya

The veena is gradually losing popularity in the city due to several reasons

FADING ART: A file photo of the mass veena recital during the Navaratri festival at the Meenakshi Sundareswarar temple in Madurai this year.

CHENNAI: It is the national instrument of India and has a number of famous patrons including President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam.

The veena is more popular at concerts in Europe, United States, Singapore and Malaysia, but not in Chennai.

Padmavathy Ananthagopalan, who has been teaching veena since 1951 in Chennai, Malaysia, Singapore, London, United States, Paris, Switzerland and Japan, says people abroad flock to Veena concerts as they are attracted by its novelty and melody. "They listen intently and do not walk away in between a concert."

However, she sees a change in the trend with an increase in the number of students from five to 35. To promote the instrument, she sponsors a veena concert from 5 p.m. to 6 p.m., before the main vocal concert as part of the Anna Nagar Music Circle every month.

While many students come forward to learn vocal music at the Sathguru Sangeetha Vidyalaya music school she has been running for the past 18 years, the cost of the instrument and repairs, the space it occupies and difficulties in transportation by train and flight is a limiting factor, she says.

Musicians agree that Sabhas are not forthcoming in giving more opportunities for veena concerts. In the absence of star performers such as Veena Balachander, Chittibabu and Emani Sankar Sastri, fewer people attend such concerts.

Jayanthi Kumaresh has completed her Ph.D. thesis on Analytical Techniques of Different Playing Techniques of the Saraswati Veena from the Mysore University. She says the demand for learning the veena is phenomenal in Bangalore.

Limited scope

Compatible for playing of Michael Jackson songs to ghazals, the aura of divinity and spirituality takes the instrument far from the youth and limits its scope, she says.

Kalpakam Swaminathan, a vainika in her mid eighties, shares the opinion that there is not much encouragement from Sabhas due to a limited audience.

Abaswaram Ramji, who has organised 115 concerts for students of `Ramji's Issai Mazhalai,' this season, managed to get two slots "after much begging." While Revathy Krishna's film songs on the veena and Rajesh Vaidya's fusions attract large crowds, the same is not the case with traditional veena concerts.

B. Kannan, a veena artiste and founder-president of the Youth Association For Classical Music, says it calls for a six-pronged strategy involving the artiste, Sabhas, media, parents, children and the rasikas. "It is an uphill task for the time being, but we have to make the concert interesting," he says.

K.N. Shashikiran, Director, Carnatica, says last year, out of 2,800 concerts in the season, the share of veena concerts was only two to three per cent — around 75 to 100. The Veena Foundation from New Delhi, which had organised a special programme last year, plans to repeat it this season too, he says, calling for a need to cultivate rasikas. "With less interest shown by people, practitioners have also reduced," he says.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Tamil Nadu

News Update

Stories in this Section