Speaking the common man's tongue
SUGANTHY KRISHNAMACHARI
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Interspersed with jokes and songs, Subbu Arumugham's Villupaattu was riveting.
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SWEET AND SIMPLE: Subbu Arumugham and his troupe. PHOTO: R. Shivaji Rao.
There is a clash of cymbals, a jangle of bells, and the story telling session begins. The occasion is Krishna Jayanthi (August 26) and Srimad Bhagavatham is presented in the form of villupattu by Subbu Arumugam at the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan auditorium.
Villupattu is the art of story telling where narration is interspersed with music. There are other art forms too that interweave narration and music. But as Subbu Arumugam himself points out, villupattu is more folksy. Simple tunes and simple verses make instant recall of facts easy.
Memory
Practitioners of Siddha medicine used to remember the names of medicines and diseases for which they were prescribed by putting all the names of the medicines in verse and setting the verses to folksy tunes.
The programme begins with an invocation, and with a pledge that we will treasure the multiculturalism and pluralism we have inherited.
Subbu Arumugam uses jokes to help fix facts in our minds. Serious messages buttressed by jokes go down well with the audience. He has a dig at our penchant for fault finding, and for blaming others for our shortcomings. He speaks of a man who mutilated Bharatiar's song and came out with `Tea-kul Viralai Vaithal' and who then nonchalantly said that the book he had read had this spelling!
Our ancient literature is full of moral prescriptions. But both Tamil and Sanskrit texts are in terse language, putting them beyond the reach of all but the scholar.
Subbu Arumugam says that villupattu distils the essence of these literary masterpieces and helps the common man see their beauty.
Response
It was heartening to note the response of the audience, especially of the teenagers in the audience.
The highlight of the evening was the rendering of a Tamil translation of Raghavendraswamy's verses composed in praise of Rajagopalaswamy, presiding deity of the Mannargudi temple. Subbu Arumugam said that he was singing the song for the first time. He was given an English translation of the Sanskrit verses by Justice K. S. Bhakthavathsalam.
Subbulakshmi, elder daughter of Subbu Arumugham has translated the song and Bharati, another daughter, who set it to tune, rendered it beautifully in a clear, resonant voice.
Subbu Arumugham says that the advantage of villupattu is that when the narration begins to sag, the performers resort to singing, and when audience interest in the songs begins to wane, the narration takes over. But the narration and the singing are in fact so good that the audience tires of neither.
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