More about Madurai Mani
The article, “The Mani magic” (FR, June 13), has met with a warm response from readers. A few observations are published here.
“Those were the golden days when every year Mani Iyer used to present a performance at Gokhale Hall for Kalaniketan,” recalls sabha secretary S. Balasubramanian. He never demanded high remuneration but once remarked in a lighter vein that musicians must be given annual increments a la the salaried sector, observes Kalaniketan Balu, who supplied the photographs that accompanied the article published on June 13.
Kalaniketan also honoured Madurai Mani Iyer and Lalgudi Jayaraman for the innumerable awards they received. Simple and sweet-mannered the association with Mani Iyer has left unforgettable memories, says Balu.
Excerpts from letters:
‘The Mani magic,’ written by Sriram Venkatkrishnan, was one of the finest tributes to Madurai Mani Iyer (MMI). I am proud to be the son of ‘Chitti’ Sundararjan of Manikkodi and I was one of the fortunate listeners of Mani Mandapam concerts as a growing child.
MMI was known in his friends’ circle as Gandhi because of his noble qualities as a man. He never used to sing ‘Nidhi Chala Sukama’ as a principle since music was his livelihood.
Chitti was known in the group as Rajaji while a few others were nicknamed after the great Indian Freedom fighters.
Madurai Mani Iyer used to sing at the Kapali temple during Navaratri festivals in the 1950s and 1960s. He would start singing ‘Kaana Kan Kodi’ of Papanasam Sivan at 12 midnight and audience would be spellbound and the crowd of rasikas would disperse only after the rendering of mangalam.
Even rickshaw-pullers refused ‘savari’ while Madurai Mani was singing. He was like Sachin Tendulkar of Carnatic Music.
It was really a great pleasure to read the excellent piece.
We are not just fans of Madurai Mani Iyer. We want to be identified as fanatics of Madurai Mani Iyer!
S.Venugopalan, Chennai.
Cherished memories
The mention about Mani Mandapam has revived memories of the good old days when we had the good fortune of listening to Madurai Mani Iyer and other stalwarts during Sri Rama Navami Festival. Mani Iyer indeed excelled himself in the Mandapam concerts.
Thiruvalangadu Sundaresa Iyer used to forget himself when the vocalist was in fine form.
During one such concert in Mani Mandapam, Iyer was so much immersed in the raga alapana of Shanmukhapriya by Alathur Sivasubramania Iyer that he forgot that he was the accompanying artist.
At the end of the alapana, he mentioned that it was the ‘pazhaya’ (old) Shanmukhapriya.
Sivasubramania Iyer fondly prodded him to play his version of the raga. Reading this article, I was moved to tears.
R. Somasundaram, Chennai.
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