Saga of conviction
GOWRI RAMNARAYAN
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A student of the Dhanammal School, Rama Ravi has not changed her style to attract more listeners.
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Hearing Rama sing padams, Balasaraswati said to mother Tulasi, ``Make sure that marriage does not lead to a waste of her talent.''
Rama Ravi.
``She sang `Poosadaramu' better than those who learnt it directly from me,'' said the redoubtable T.Brinda, when she heard the girl render the padam absorbed from her own radio lesson. Rama Ravi is moved to recall such cherished memories of encouragement.
In Kalakshetra, Rukmini Devi put the child in the seniors' class. T.Viswanathan (Viswa) persuaded her to join his department in the Madras University rather than the Central College of Music. Hearing her in a competition, D.K.Jayaraman gave her lessons for three years. M.S.Subbulakshmi came to her concert. Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer remembered her Khambodi 20 years after hearing her ``Adiyoka yugamu.''
Grandmother Kamakshi was the child's first music teacher. Trained by Parur Sundaram Iyer to sing and play the violin, mother Tulasi came first in a competition, ahead of D.K.Pattammal who won second prize. Barred from stage performance by the social restrictions of those times, she coached her child to reach for the best. A votary of Veena Dhanammal, Sundaram Iyer ensured that Tulasi attended the veteran's famous Friday home concerts. Close association with Brinda, Mukta and Abhiramasundari of the same family, fostered in Rama a taste for their distinctive school of music. The child also relished her dance classes in Dhanamanikam's school.
Dancing continued in sylvan Kalakshetra, along with music. Budalur Krishnamurti Sastrigal gave her a thorough grounding in the basics, with swara patterns for akaram in six speeds. M.D.Ramanathan's fertile imagination could not be disciplined into standard moulds. ``It was not easy to learn from him. But Rukmini Devi would tell us to observe how his lower shadja was as resonant as the higher." Sighting the girl under the banyan tree, Mysore Vasudevachar would teach her his own compositions in the shade. In class, he made us sing the 12 swarasthanas in succession, and `jump' across the sthayis — from lower rishabha through nishada to the higher, and sing the 12 swarasthanas.''
Despite Rukmini Devi's remonstration, Rama was stopped from dancing after playing Lava in Kalakshetra's first Ramayana production. But music continued in college. Focussing on gamakas for her M.Litt was to wonder, ``How to say in words what can be best demonstrated in singing.'' But the research led to a discovery.
Intellectual approach
Straight swara-based laya dominant styles were recognised as intellectual in approach. But few realised that the Dhanammal style demanded a deep grasp of laya, and the intelligence to know every microtone. It could not be notated, but passed directly from guru to sishya.
Musicologist T.Sankaran, another scion of the Dhanammal family, not only taught her his favourites, but got Muktamma to teach the girl. Finicky Brindamma not only taught the girl some special songs, but took her to lecdems. Once, when Rama sang padams for Balasaraswati, she expressed approval and warned mother Tulasi, ``Make sure that marriage does not lead to a waste of her talent.'' After a brief stint as head of the department at Sitalakshmi Ramaswamy College, Tiruchi, Rama returned to complete her M.Litt in Madras, where she also began to perform. The reviews were excellent, the audience was small. But it included artistes like K.V. Narayanaswami, P.S.Narayanaswami, Kedaranathan, Vellore Ramabhadran. ``I had to maintain high standards to satisfy them."
Marriage to uncle Ravi took her to Lucknow, Delhi, Calcutta and Zaire, Africa. ``I didn't miss concert singing. But I did yearn to learn more, listen more." Back in Chennai after husband's retirement in 1995 Rama finds few takers for her brand of music, where the emphasis is on the honing, not performance. ``That teacher taught 10 songs, we are still with our fifth here," say some. Others are unable to match her patience in the polishing process. ``Some want to pick up a padam or two. How to explain to them that padam is a part of a whole aesthetics, it cannot be learnt unless you soak yourself in the style, learning varnams and kritis first? ''
Did Semmangudi really tell her to avoid going too much into laya? ``Yes, and I know why. Some styles have that aggressive charge for laya displays. Ours is based on microtones and glides. And sowkhyam is not what you expect from pallavi singing.'' She adds, ``My voice could easily render brigas. But a critic asked me if I had the conviction not to change my style to attract more listeners. I did.''
Will Rama Ravi's treasures be passed on? Daughter Nandita is steeped in the mother's style. She did her MCA but gave up teaching computer science to become a singer. She finds little recognition. Is Rama herself content with four chamber concerts a year? Her smiling answer is a surprise. ``So many years have passed. I should be reconciled. I loved dancing... Had to give it up..."
(A fortnightly spotlight on music gurus, musicologists and representatives of different schools, who have enriched Carnatic music.)
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