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When Melody Divine graced Vizag... .
M.S. Subbulakshmi --Photo: S.Thanthoni
There may be many an artiste, past and present, who stand hailed born for song, most of them born to sing and perform as well, but all of them could neither be called a genius of the art nor get universal acclaim to go into the books of history to be remembered for ever. As the general observation, especially by the philomathic cognocenti goes, the genre of supreme genius of any art is born only once in a couple of generations. All of us hear and know about one such unique genius, Saint Thyagaraja today, but have not seen him.
Bharat Ratna M.S. Subbulakshmi, born about two centuries after him and soulfully lived the life of a musician till recently, was not a vaggeyakara like him. But, no exaggeration, she stood exceptionally comparable to the genius of the saint singer as a devout exponent of Carnatic music which she considered the sole means of expression of bhakti for ultimate salvation like him, and was the first to have achieved acclaim abroad as well for it. This could be possible because she as well uniquely stood comparable to the pietistic upholder of the Aarsha Samskrithi and Sanathana Dharma along with the moral, ethical and above all the human values ordained in them like the vaggeyakara non pareil. Thyagaraja stands considered a God-sent exemplar of unstinted bhakti that could alone carve a composer and exponent of imperial melody out of him, a tool of achieving self-realisation and ultimate liberation of soul. M.S. pietistically exemplified the angelic part of him. The divine gift of a bonanza of song of universal appeal indeed, she was to the mankind of the 20th century what Thyagaraja was to the people two centuries earlier.
Blessed were the thousands who had an occasion to hear her in person and the people of the port city, the elders of the recent past and present were distinctly fortunate enough to be a part of that distinguished lot. The elated elite of the yesteryears, Vinnakota Durga Rao Setty (proprietor of the VRC Press), his brother Jagannadham Gupta, the first elected member of the Central Assembly from Visakhapatnam, Parankusam Maastaru (English lecturer of Mrs. AVN College), the then Rajasaheb of Bobbili, the great Tenneti and the likes started and ran an association of music lovers called `Vizagapatam Gaanasabha' for about a decade from the early 1930s. Understandably and tastefully enough, they persuaded MS to sing for their sabha and she graciously obliged in the late 1930s (she was not yet married then). The entrancing concert went on for full three hours in the Town Hall, the only venue of all social and cultural activity in those days in Visakhapatnam.
Thanks to the initiative of the then District Collector, P.L. Sivaram, MS was here again in 1967 to render a concert to raise funds for the establishment of Sri Sankara Matham. The 2000-odd capacity convocation theatre of Andhra University and its surroundings seemed to be in heavy floods with people from all walks of life and age groups thronging in and outside the venue.
The noted Visakha Music Academy tirelessly and consistently made efforts to make her accept adorn its title `Sangeetha Kalaa Saagara' from the beginning of 1970s. Thanks to the good offices of Vedam (one of the founder committee members of the academy), she finally accepted the proposal in 1979 and the title was conferred on her during its decennial celebrations, about almost one year before the Madras Music Academy awarded its prestigious title Sangeetha Kalaanidhi to her. She poured out her heart and soul in the form of an ever-memorable melody on the occasion at Vivekananda Hall. The last time she came here was in May 1991 to render the inaugural concert of Visakha Music and Dance Academy to mark the occasion of its full-fledged AC auditorium, Kalabharati, being declared open. Today, Kalabharati stands recognised as the sole rendezvous of culture of the steel city. No exaggeration and no wonder, too, it is the effect of the auspiciousness of divine purity with which she sang to mark the occasion.
A. RAMALINGA SASTRY
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