Broken bottles, mended heart, the right prescription
ANJANA RAJAN
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Continuing the series on accompanying artistes, meet Odissi vocalist Satyanarayan Maharana.
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Photo: S. Subramanium
WINDING ROAD TO SUCCESS Satyanarayan Maharana followed his heart.
In the village of Naraharipura in Orissa lived an accomplished homeopath. Acquiring a good practice, he initiated his son into the task. It was the era of the 1970s, and professions like medicine, engineering, teaching and government service were held in high esteem. Lines like information technology had not made their advent yet, and films or performing arts dared not knock on the doors of respectable middle class houses. No wonder Dr. Gour Hari Maharana took it amiss that his son Satyanarayan was more than casually interested in music and theatre performances, instead of seriously pursuing his apprenticeship.
"I would hear my mother, a Bengali, singing Rabindra Sangeet and baul songs, and I would accompany her by tapping out rhythms on brass or copper vessels," recounts Satyanarayan Maharana, an Odissi vocalist who has accompanied many of the leading dancers of the Capital since 1982. "I would sneak off to see the jatra performances that lasted all night, then come back to bed early in the morning. My mother supported me but my father was against this, as he felt performing artistes were repositories of vices."
Not that his father was averse to music as such. "He too used to sing kirtans on Kartik Purnima in the temple. My dadaji played the khol during kirtans, and I learnt to play the khol from him. I joined the temple mandali and played the khol and manjira." As a school child Satyanarayan composed music for village theatre productions on festive occasions.
Turning point
His evenings were devoted to helping his father in the homeopathic practice. "But my heart was just not in it. I broke a lot of bottles!" he recounts. "Finally my father saw it was no use trying to force me and asked Guru Tarani Ranjan Jena, a vocalist and brother of Guru Ramani Ranjan Jena (the Odissi exponent) to teach me music."
One day, Guru Ramani Ranjan Jena suggested he join the Utkal Sangeet Mahavidyalaya in Bhubaneswar for formal training, and Satyanarayan joined the institute that has produced so many artistes. "I was there from 1976 to '82. Then when Guru Harekrishna Behera wrote asking for a vocalist who could also compose, my gurus decided to send me. They told me to try it out for a few months and come back if I didn't like it," he recounts, amused.
"It was Guru Harekrishna Behera who helped me find my feet in Delhi," says Satyanarayan, who later joined Guru Mayadhar Raut and accompanied his students, as well as those of Gurus Srinath Raut and Surendranath Jena. There are few Odissi dancers he would not have accompanied in his career. Since 1985 he has been primarily associated with veteran dancer Kiran Segal, for whom he has created a number of musical scores. "The composition Talangya is one of my significant works. I used a rare tala, Kuduka of 12 matras in it," he says.
"My first foreign tour was with Guru Mayadhar Raut. We went to Europe and Africa. I blew all my money. I am a spendthrift anyway, and I was excited because from my childhood I had wanted to go abroad, like Guru Ramani Ranjan Jena."
On a serious note, Satyanarayan notes that acceptability of dance as a career even now is limited in the villages of Orissa. "Guru Ramani Ranjan Jena organises a festival in villages nowadays, to spread awareness. My own father accepted my profession only late in my career."
Happy with his success so far, the soft-spoken singer remarks, "I only wish there were schemes for accompanying artistes so their financial future could be assured in old age."
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