Birds of the same feather
SUJATHA VIJAYARAGHAVAN
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Singers, dancers, instrumentalists — talent is aplenty here.
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Photo: K.V. Srinivasan.
FROM AFAR: (From left) Rohan, Ramya Ramnarayan, Yamini Ramesh, R.Ramachandran, Bragha Bessel and Jayalakshmi Sekhar.
"Oh to be in Chennai Now it's December there," sings this flock of migratory birds which visits Chennai every December.
These are the performers of Carnatic music and Bharatanatyam living abroad, looking forward to their annual pilgrimage to the art capital of their homeland, hoping to perform there during "the season." Some of them gathered one sunny morning along with their mentor Ramachandran, the secretary of Hamsadhwani, the first sabha to hold an NRI festival in December. What started with four or five NRI artists during a December season a few years ago has blown into an exclusive NRI festival featuring senior musicians and young talents.
The NRI artistes fall broadly into two categories, namely those who were born and trained in their art in India and then migrated to other countries and the second generation Indians born and trained abroad, often continuing their learning in India.
Jayalakshmi Sekhar, the veena artist, settled in Malaysia for nearly three decades, is a native of Chennai. She visits her hometown at least twice or thrice a year, both to perform and to learn. In the case of the brothers Keshav and Govind Raghavan, violinists in their teens, born and trained in US, their teacher travels from India and stays with them for months. All the artists have a threefold purpose to their home visits, to learn, to observe and to perform.
Bragha Bessel, the Bharatanatyam artist, living in Saudi Arabia, is perhaps the most art-starved of them all, as she can neither perform, nor teach, nor get to watch dance or listen to music where she lives. To her the annual visit is like the rush to oasis after journeying through the barren desert.
"At the first performance I attend tears start coursing down my cheeks the moment I hear the Melaprapti and the cymbals," says she.
Yamini Ramesh, the vocalist from New Zealand says that her passion to perform in Chennai motivates her visits. Ramya Ramnarayan, the dancer gushes "Chennai is a dream for me. Coming here keeps me connected with the Chennai scene. I feel enriched and recharged every year." While the local artistes find it extremely difficult to obtain performance opportunities, how do these off shore artistes fare? Rohan Krishnamurthy, the young mridangam artist agrees with the others that the process is difficult, very complicated because "merit alone does not seem to translate into concert opportunities." Rajeswari Satish,vocalist from the U.S. explains, "First of all, reaching the secretaries is not easy since most of them do not use email." After applying in March they are told in Oct/Nov that the slots are full.
The reluctance of the sabhas is partly due to the fact that the organisers often have no idea of the quality of the performers and dare not risk offering the platform to unknown, unheard and unseen artistes. Jayalakshmi Sekhar and Rohan Krishnamurthy were spotted by N.Ramani, the flute maestro, who heard them on his visits abroad and recommended their names to Chennai sabhas. A few accompanists help the NRIs to get performance slots. Some of them are in charge of drawing up the programme schedule for the sabhas and they try to fit in a few NRIs.
No direct demands
There have been allegations of demands made by some of the organisers. The assembled group says that there have been no direct demands.
One of them was once approached by a sabha, which offered to honour her with an award. Happiness at such a recognition soon turned to dismay and indignation when she found out that she was expected to sponsor her award. Needless to add that she called it off.
That brings to mind the newcomer who made a splash some years ago in many newspapers and vernacular magazines with colour photographs and laudatory reviews, one of which at least was by a leading critic. The one season wonder was reportedly a mediocre performer not seen in these parts since.
Ramachandran says he selects his artists by checking out their bio data and making enquiries about their quality. The guru is an important factor in ensuring the standard of the applicant. "It was our sabha which gave Rohan Krishnamurthy his first performance opportunity when he was barely ten years old. Since then he has played for us consecutively for the past ten years" he says with pride.
Another problem for the NRIs is attracting and sustaining an audience. They depend on the press to turn the spotlight on them. Rajeswari Satish says, "I think the press covers only certain time slots and certain prominent sabhas. Except at Hamsadhwani, the time slots given to NRIs are usually ignored." Rohan, recipient of the `Yuva Kala Bharathi' title from Bharath Kalachar feels that there is a glass ceiling when it comes to NRI artists, a barrier which prevents them from reaching the higher performance slots. He is perplexed that even artists whom he regularly accompanies in the US opt for local accompanists for their concerts in Chennai.
Beset with these problems on one hand and the allegations of using dollar power on the other, their self esteem as an artist and a person is undermined and they start wondering at times whether it is worth their effort and sacrifice to go on.
The overwhelming passion for their art says "Yes."
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