The genial genius
ANJANA RAJAN
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Whoever thought accompanists don't make it to the limelight reckoned without Vikku Vinayakram. Meet the diminutive giant in this ongoing series.
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PHOTO: V. GANESHAN
DOYEN OF RHYTHM Vikku Vinayakram inherited the love of ghatam from his musician family.
Mention Vikku Vinayakram to fans of fusion music and they swoon at the thought of his rhythms that sweep them off their feet, his brilliant audience rapport that finds them following his lead in clapping out catchy patterns, his mesmerising recitation of syllables into the mike. There's no denying it, this diminutive, smiling, amazingly talented and immensely likeable doyen of rhythm is a star. The man whose name is synonymous with the ghatam started his career as perhaps any other musician from a traditional family. One of six brothers, Vinayakram trained under his father, the well-known percussionist T.R. Harihara Sharma. Though the guru was adept at the mridangam and morsing as well as the gathuvadyam, a rare percussion instrument, he chose the ghatam for Vinayakram.
"He wanted me to take it to great heights," recalls the vidwan, who has played with the greatest musicians of the Carnatic genre - M.D. Ramanathan, G.N. Balasubramaniam, Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer, Madurai Mani Iyer, M.S. Subbulakshmi, Maharajapuram Santhanam and others.
Vinayakram feels the blessings of his father as well as of the late Paramacharyiar of Kanchi have helped him reach the point he has, despite devoting himself to an instrument that is considered, in the traditional concert hierarchy, secondary to the mridangam in importance.
Not that hard work and risk taking have not played their part. "If you work sincerely, whether you are the first, second or third accompaniment is immaterial. And then, when your time comes, you will shine. Till then, work hard, and whatever experiments you take up, take them up with complete seriousness," advises the maestro.
A special dignity
As for risks, he points out, "If I had continued to be an accompanying percussionist to a mridangam, I might have remained just another accompanist. But I started playing the ghatam along with the tabla and other instruments. When John McLaughlin asked me to join the group Shakti, he wanted to do something completely new. Shakti put rhythm as the base and made melody the accompaniment. It was 1976. The experiment could have been a failure. But its success brought a special dignity to the ghatam."
The Shakti members, who included Zakir Hussain on the tabla, were particular about including the ghatam and not the mridangam, since combining a leather-topped drum with a clay one enabled both to contrast and emphasise their differing characteristics.
Entering the arena professionally at 13, Vinayakram has seen the Carnatic music scene, indeed the world scene, change gradually over the years. Today he plays his ghatam with a pickup mike, to give it the volume to be heard alongside the electronic instruments he plays with in the numerous fusion experiments he is willing to give a try to, with both young and old musicians. "In the days before I started performing, there were no mikes. There would be pin-drop silence in the hall and complete concentration and devotion. In fusion, the mikes become necessary, though with the pickup mike, you can't expect the original tone to come through. Yet it is fusion that has given the ghatam pride of place. I get called as a special guest artiste, whereas in the old days, the tani avartanam (percussion solo) in a music concert used to be treated by audiences as the tea break!"
Vinayakram, who runs a school in Chennai, counts Ghatam Kartik, Sukanya Ram Gopal and his son Uma Shankar among the good ghatam players of the next generation. His other son Selva Ganesh has already made a name in the kanjira. The extended family comes together in Vinayakram's group Sabdakshara, which features konnakol (rhythmic recitation), the gathuvadyam (a unique stringed percussion instrument), the ghatam and other drums.
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