FROM THE ARCHIVES
Genius Matched against Genius
At the Indian Fine Arts Society's annual conference at Vani Mahal on Wednesday, the listeners were exchanging anxious enquiries whether "he" would come. "He has come to the City. He will come. He is on his way". The news spread to the music lovers on the open quadrangle. It can refer to none else but Flute Mahalingam. He did come at 7 p.m. after keeping his admirers doubting for nearly an hour. He struck the first long note and the audience forgot their earlier irritations of agony and suspense. The first half of the concert was intriguing leaving the listeners perplexed as to what raga he was building up. It was after the Suddha Saveri raga alapana followed by the Kriti "Dharini" and arithmetical swaraprasthara that the concert really got into stride. Though in Mali's concerts the violinist has not much to do, Krishnan asserted his stature when given the chance. It was really a dialogue between Mali and Palghat Mani, genius matched against genius. The listeners left satisfied with his mellifluous music and with his pranks as well.
On the inauguration day, Anita Ratnam and Pritha Ratnam gave a dance recital, modest by professional standards, but full of promise. Of the two Anita Ratnam was more expressive as was to be seen in her exposition of the Dhanyasi Varnam "Nee Inda Mayam" by Sri Papanasam Sivan and of the Madhyamavati piece of Sri Ramanathapuram Srinivasa Iyengar "Parthasarathy".
(An extract from a review published in The Hindu on December 26, 1969)
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