Passion for the pot
|
Personality Ghatam is very much within the reach of a woman’s delicate fingers, as Sukkanya Ramgopal has proved. Ranjani Govind
|
Sukkanya Ramgopal.
While most homes display clay artefacts to bring in an ethnic feel to the décor, here is a house, with the same brown sheen coming from 50 clay pots, giving that traditional look to the drawing room interior. That is the novelty of ghatam ar
tiste Sukkanya Ramgopal’s residence at Yeshwantpur in Bangalore, where her shelves are brimming with awards and accolades from sabhas and organisations from all over. Being noticeably different is what Sukkanya is known for, from the time the 10-year-old lass wanted to tap the mud pot to produce melody.
That it was a male domain hardly ever bothered the girl whose passion for the pot forced her guru T.H.Vikku Vinayakram to accept her as a student, storming the proverbial male bastion. Not only did Sukkanya add to the much-needed upa-pakkavadhya stage glam with her pot, but even strode the melodic world with leading artistes such as
S. Ramanathan, T.V.Gopalakrishnan, Kadri Gopalnath, M. Balamuralikrishna, R.K.Srikantan, A.K.Palanivel, M.S.Sheela and accompanied new generation artistes such as Mandolin Srinivas, Chitraveena Ravikiran, Flute Shashank, Sudha Raghunathan, Nithyashree and Sowmya in India and abroad.
Intricate variations
Born in Mayiladuthurai, Sukkanya, one of the youngest AIR A-Grade artistes, has made Bangalore her home for the past 30years. This Mathematics graduate from Chennai confesses that ‘calculations’ aren’t her forte! “Capturing the intricate variations of a tala comes with God’s grace,” is her candid reaction.
Known for her crisp sawaal-jawaab in thani avartanam sessions, Sukkanya’s speciality is bringing out the ‘gumukhi’ laya from the five-kg ghatam shaped in Manamadurai near Rameswaram (the deep sound generated from the mouth of the pot) generally handled by male artistes.
“With focus and practice we can weave wonderful rhythmic phrases, gender has nothing to do with creating melody,” says Sukkanya. Her brain child is Ghata Tarang where Sukkanya alone puts together six ghatams, each with a specific tone suited to the pentatonic raga scale, adding vibrancy to the rhythmic structure.
* * *
In her own words
My forefathers were musicians and my great grandfather was Dr.U.V.Swaminatha Iyer, Tamil scholar. Pongal used to be my favourite festival as I would wait to play on the small drums sold in the shandy. I started with vocal lessons and then switched o
ver to violin with T.H.Gurumurthy, brother of Vikku Vinayakram. But my heart was with the mridangam classes conducted in the next room by Harihara Sarma, Vikkuji’s father.
I mustered courage to ask the mridangam scholar to teach me, and that proved a turning point. I went on tours with Vikkuji to observe the nuances of percussion play. Mesmerised by Vinayakram’s creation of laya on his ghatam, I decided to learn the art. “Your delicate fingers aren’t meant for earthen pots, it will be painful,” he warned. But Vikkuji’s father told him that I had the potential. It took me just three years to take to the stage. The difficult
road…
Harihara Sharma and Vikku Vinayakram provided a strong foundation but what proved a struggle later was the reluctance of senior musicians to accept a female ghatam artiste on stage.
But I did have my share of wonderful concerts with several broadminded senior musicians recognising my hard work. After a roaring thani avartanam with Mannargudi Easwaran in one of the concerts in Bangalore, the vidwan raised my hand in appreciation to a deafening applause from the audience.
