Music is her religion
VIKRAM SAMPATH
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Bombay Jayashri's speech is as lucid and profound as her music
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PHOTO: K. ANANTHAN
UNCERTAIN BEGINNINGS Bombay Jayashri: `I was almost certain that I would never be a performer'
Art is considered to be an extension of an artist's personality. Any work of art has an indelible stamp of its creator's traits. No one could personify this thought more than eminent Carnatic vocalist Bombay Jayashri Ramnath.
Quite like her, the magical music that she weaves, is deeply introspective and devoid of external fireworks and shallow displays of mastery. Her eyes close automatically as she internalises her music and the sublime experience is easily transmitted to the listener. "I was almost certain that I would never be a performer" — for someone not used to the natural self-deprecating nature of Jayashri, this would come as a shocking revelation. "Unlike teenagers of today who are sure of what they would want to do with their lives, as a girl of 15, I hardly dreamt of being a performing artist. I learnt the art because that was my mother's dream. The atmosphere at home was filled with music and all my gurus were tough taskmasters."
Jayashri takes you back on a nostalgic trip to her childhood days in suburban Mumbai. While her father, a musician and teacher, was firmly against public performances, her mother did all she could to ensure that her daughter climbed the concert stage. Her life revolved around music. Everything, including academics, became secondary. Bombay's cosmopolitan nature had its impact on her art, as she was exposed to and trained in a variety of genres ranging from Hindustani classical to bhajans, ghazals of Mehdi Hasan and Ghulam Ali, Marathi geet and the ubiquitous film music of Lata, Kishore and Rafi. "While I would feel terribly impoverished if I had not been exposed to all these beautiful genres, I saw each of these through the eyes of Carnatic music; everything was translated from there. Being a quintessential South Indian, I knew that I could never feel at home with Hindustani music, though I draw much inspiration from it."
T.R. Balamani was one of her earliest gurus in Bombay. "Balamani maami made learning music so interesting. It was not just learning a krithi or a raga. It was delving into the lyrics, learning about bhava and laya."
But it was an incident in a Chembur maidan that proved to be the inflexion point in her life. The concert of violin maestro Lalgudi Jayaraman was like opening the very gates of paradise for young Jayashri. "I was wonderstruck; I felt I was witnessing divinity in the true sense of the word. It was my fortune he heard me sing at the Music Academy concert in Chennai and invited me to learn under him. I still feel I was born for that day and my life wouldn't be what it is if not for Lalgudi Sir," she exclaims with reverence. She thereafter shifted to Chennai — the veritable Carnatic music capital of India.
Jayashri describes her guru's approach to music as being holistic: "He was orthodox, very South Indian, but international in mind. The Lalgudi bani believes in learning the art for the love of the art, not for agendas that I was used to — like practicing only to perform in a concert or win an award. The divinity he created on stage, he could also recreate in a class as he would go threadbare into the nuances. My entire perspective of the art changed and I was now willing to give it a serious shot, not because someone else forced me to, but my own belief was strengthened."
After a sabbatical of three to four years, the break came with the Spirit of Unity concerts of 1992 and from then on there was no looking back. She has the rare privilege of being the first Carnatic classical performer in the Opera House in Durban and the Russian Opera House in Helsinki, Finland. Her brilliance shone in her indulgences with film music as well with the popular film number "Vaseegara".
The quintessence of Jayashri's musical personality comes to the fore with an interesting anecdote she narrates about a concert in Melbourne: "After I sang `Krishna Nee Begane Baro', a lady in the audience came up and commented that my favourite deity would have to be Krishna; there was no other explanation for the way the song touched her heart. But I wasn't thinking of Him. I was thinking about Yaman Kalyani, about the way the raga is styled in the composition, about the way I was presenting it. I don't love God more than I love music, as I do not come from a very ritualistic or religious background. The song may be about the composer's love for Krishna, but my love is for the raga. If that were not the case, why would a European , who doesn't know the difference between Krishna and Rama, listen to this music for two hours? " This is the new and excitingly refreshing perspective that Jayashri brings to the world of Carnatic music.
Quiz her more about her many accomplishments and with her characteristic straightforwardness: "I am just a traveller, one more musician who will do her bit for as many years as is destined and then, there will be another one to take my place. What is bigger than all of us and will stay on is the Art. " That's Bombay Jayashri for you.
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