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The song of the heart

ARUNA CHANDARAJU

Reputed Carnatic vocalist K.N. Shashikiran says it's a long journey before the song on the lip becomes a spontaneous expression

A distinguished lineage, recognition as a child prodigy followed by 2,500 successful concerts worldwide, widespread critical acclaim, and renowned for his scholarship and teaching skills, that's vocalist K.N. Shashikiran for you. Like every mature artiste, Shashikiran's noted not only for his composition-renditions but also his rich manodharma — the true test of a musician's creativity. His ragalapanas, tanams, pallavis, neraval, swarakalpana testify his depth and fertility of imagination.

"Though manodharma is popularly explained as `what comes to the mind', it does entail adherence to certain values and codes. First it needs rigorous grounding in music fundamentals. Then you should've listened to a lot of music. Have an open mind. Seek knowledge from all sides," he says about the tendency of the audience to attend concerts of only big names, thereby missing out on the talent of a lot of unknown youngsters or obscure veterans and the lessons inherent in their performances. Manodharma, he insists, is not only about exercises and fixed-duration practice sessions. "The more you meditate on a particular raga, the more its facets will be revealed to you. Start visualising it, and it slowly acquires a form, almost a human form to you. Manodharma is about passion for a raga. Slowly, all its nuances will become apparent to you, you'll begin to sense the emotions it evokes, understand that certain notes bond more with the other and so on...."

In that sense he says the "raga becomes a canvas on which you paint your manodharma. To the given scale of a raga you add flesh and blood with your neraval, kalpanaswaras... There are certain basic standards already set by the great past masters you can follow — for instance, certain phrases they all repeated — but the packaging, the unique creative input has to be yours. We must emulate the greats, not imitate them." He also insists on voice culture everyday, on akaara sadhana in different ragas to improve raagalapana and kriti renditions. Practising saraliswaras or alankaras in three kaalas should remain a daily exercise even after reaching advanced levels. He says books give only existent patterns for the alankaras, jantas or dhatus but the students have to evolve their own. In the olden days, teachers would throw challenges at students asking them to sing allied ragas like Darbari and Nayaki; or Sri and Manirangu one after the other. Or give a situation for a pallavi and ask them to come up with an RTP for it; or a limited range of three to four swaras and ask them to sing 20 neraval patterns without repetition. Thus challenged, the student would rack his brains, use his imagination and come out with original, unique inputs. Or they'd be given different points in the same kriti say, "Vataapi", and asked to produce kalpanaswaras at each point. So, once the student turned performer, he'd sound different every time he sang even the same kriti — his concerts would never be predictable.

"Today, with the short-duration programmes we have, one gets just 15 to 20 minutes to elaborate a raga and thus even manodharma-adept performers are getting restricted." When you remind him of pallavi durbars, he says: "Even here, many participants come with prepared pallavis." The spontaneity and extempore element are thus missing, he feels, adding: "Ideal tanam and neraval singing standards too have dropped considerably." Any solutions? "We must have a panel of experts which audition anyone wanting to take to the stage by throwing challenges at them. Only those who pass this test should be permitted a professional platform. And even of those who've made it, there should be constant expert evaluation, like the ATP rankings in tennis." Doesn't the critic perform that function? He surprises you with his candidness: "Well, not all critics give honest opinion, simply because they are afraid of the repercussions. If the review is negative, the offended performer might call up and question the reviewer's erudition itself.

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