Special season for Leela Samson

Dancer and guru Leela Samson is on a quick sabha-hopping spree this Sunday evening, her final destination being R K Swamy Hall in a school campus in Mylapore.

Now that she has moved away from all high profile posts, Leela says she is focussed on dance. Her Spanda dance company she says has some great talent - male and female dancers. The group just got back from a Singapore show and will perform on Tuesday ( Dec. 9) evening at Vani Mahal, where the sabha will decorate Leela Samson with an award along with a few other artistes.

Spanda will also perform at Sri Krishna Gana Sabha in T. Nagar this season.

In early January 2015, The Music Academy will honor Leela with its top award at the start of the Academy's dance fest.

Season Guides from KutcheriBuzz

The KutcheriBuzz Music Guide for the 2014 season ran out of our hands three days after it was delivered by the printers. It was circulated at 5 city sabhas and made available at the office too.
There are about 75 copies left at the KB office - at 77, C P Ramaswamy Rd., Alwarpet.
Come by to pick up a copy.

The KutcheriBuzz Dance Guide for 2014 has just been delivered. Copies will be available at the office. They will also be circulated this week at sabha dance events.

Both Guides are free.  To make life easy for rasikas who prefer online services, the Guides are also being made available online as easy reference of leading concerts at 12 sabhas.

Passionate promoter; SAFE Ramabhadran

Imagine heading to a hall at 4.30 p.m. for a function in Chennai. The December nip in the air makes it a pleasant task and when SAFE's annual music festival launch at Sastri Hall in Luz got going, the small hall was half-full.

This was a small but warm community. They were here to support arts promoter Ramabhadran, known more famous as the Music Triangle Ramabhadran during his Bombay days when he promoted  the arts.

The small-made man, now in his 80s enjoys his passion. He knows every artiste - senior and the young, is methodical in his programming and loves to give the stage to young talent.

At Monday's event guests and artistes had many warm words for Ramabhadran who went about his business of rewarding 11 artistes and then enjoying the music of Chitravina Ravi Kiran.

SAFE celebrates the life Ramabhadran lost - that of his daughter who died young. Her framed photo was kept alongside the vilakku that was lit on this occasion.

Special moment for Kamalakar Rao, mridangam vidwan

Senior mridangam vidwan V. Kamalakar Rao (78) was accompanying the Malladi Brothers at Tattvaloka Auditorium on Dec. 6

After the thani  Rao played along with  Udupi Sridhar on ghatam, vocalist Malladi Sriram Prasad told rasikas present that Kamalakar Rao is performing as an accompanist for 4 generations of sishya paramapara.

Starting from his days with Voleti Venkateswarulu Rao has accompanied Sripada Pinakapani, then Nedanoori Krishnamurthy and now Malladi Brothers.

Rao hails from Rajahmundry and his guru was the great Palghat Mani Iyer. He learnt in the gurukulam style from him.

V. Kamalakar Rao will be honored with   the title  'Vani Kala Sudhakara' given by Sri Thyaga Brahma Gana Sabha  at Vani Mahal in T. Nagar, Chennai tomorrow, the 9th December.

- Report and photo by V. Vasantha.

Another pedestrian sabha fest launch

We have given up on these festival launches. They are a 'gone case'.
There are three dozen people seated inside the Infosys Hall at the Ramakrishna Mission School on Bazullah Road, T Nagar where Mudhra holds its concerts and allied events.

The hall can seat about 1000 people. The atmosphere is dull though the hall is over-lit.

This is an evening ( Dec. 6) to honor dance guru Sudharani Raghupathy. A bunch of her students double up, late in reporting to await a turn to greet their guru after the award is given.

Senior dancer and guru Padma Subramanyam is here - she, Chitra Visweswaran and Sudharani are contemporaries and are often present at such events.

One more festival launch over, we choose to watch teens play badminton in the open courts in this campus. The canteen set up for the music fest offers hot tea and bonda free to all guests. Helps on a  chill Satrurday evening.

Applause in the driveway!

Walking around Mylapore's mada veedhis on Sunday evening, we came across a big crowd in the driveway of Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan. It was 6.10 p.m. and all these people were waiting to go inside the auditorium to get a seat for a musical discourse by Vishaka Hari.

Not many got in because the many more who were seated inside, stuck on! Vishaka arrived just on time, and got a warm ovation from the standees - rarely seem in sabha campuses. Yes, she does command a big audience and the evening at Bhavans was evidence of it.

"We must learn Sanskrit." she diverged at the top of her discourse. " It must not be seen just as a mere language. It is language, science, math, culture and more!".

Festivals begin in western side of the city . . .

Two music festivals have begun in the western side of this city. One at the campus of Meenakshi College in Kodambakkam and another in West K K Nagar.

The first is promoted by an arts body that is promoted by the college management and is run at a pretty large auditorium here.

The second is managed by a local sabha which hires a good auditorium of an engineering college.

These two spaces cater to local rasikas; the latter now caters to a large and dense neighbourhood of this city. But there are still some rasikas who can't do without attending concerts in the city's old and big sabhas. K K Nagar and Vadapalani rasikas head to Krishna Gana Sabha's campus or to the Vani Mahal hall, both in T. Nagar to soak in.

Artistes today are willing to perform at such spaces.

Later today, Friday evening another arts body run by women will launch its music fest in Chetpet.

A different dance production at Kalakshetra this Saturday

If you are a dance rasika we would encourage you to watch the production at Kalakshetra on Saturday evening , December 6, 6 p.m.

Fire and Ash is  JustUs Repertory production and features three people - writer-researcher Gowri Ramnarayan, dancer Anjana Anand and vocalist Savita Narasimhan.

The theme revolves around lord Shiva and of a few strands of philosophy that he embodies. Gowri uses little anecdotes and tales, texts and thoughts to weave the production while Savita sings live and Anjana performs a few pieces. A few props are used as well a few works of painting by Savita herself.

The show premiered at Bhavans in Chennai some 3 weeks ago and had a full house. Engaging. Quiet-paced.

Open to all.

Dancer Priyadarshini Govind not performing this season

If you are a dance rasika then you will not get to see senior dancer and Kalakshetra director Priyadarshini Govind perform this 'season'.

She is not on stage because she has injured her hand. This was disclosed by actor A R Srinivasan when he spoke after he was, along with Trichur V. Ramachandran, Priyadarshini and mridangist Thanjavur Ramamurthy, given awards by Brahma Gana Sabha.

Priyadarshini smiled at the remark and did not elaborate on it when it was her time to speak.

She has just returned from Delhi where the Kalakshetra repertory presented five dance dramas - staged after a long time there, they got a big audience.

Family Counts

Family counts. That was the message that two young artistes, Saketharaman and Anwesha Dass who were decorated with awards by Kartik Fine Arts at the sabha's opening evening on December 1 shared when it was their turn to speak.

Young Saketharaman said that his parents have sacrificed and supported the careers of his sister Vishaka Hari, well known for her musical discourses and himself. He said he also owed it to his wife and his in-laws. "There were times when I wondered if I could continue solely with music," shared the young vocalist.

He also acknowledged the presence of violinist GJR Krishnan in the audience - Saketharaman and his sister were students of late Lalgudi Jayaraman.

Dancer Anwesha Dass said that besides her guru and her parents, her husband also supported her. The couple have had a baby and Dass has taken a break from her passion. 

Jottings from Luz Church Road . . .

A good many people must be saying by now that all these awards functions seem to be a tad pedestrian. No wonder not many people care to attend them.

Smt. Sivagami Petachi Auditorium is a great space for a more intimate experience for a concert or a play. Located inside the campus of the M. Ct. M Muthiah Chettyar School on Luz Church Road, this was the venue for the launch of Brahma Gana Sabha's festival on Wednesday evening ( Dec.3).

Five minutes to opening time and there were more people chatting on the lawns than inside the hall. Workers were still hammering nails into display boards and the makeshift canteen staff had only hot cups of coffee to offer; tiffin would take time.

And when the awards were given by chief guest Justice Kaul of the Madras High Court, there was a big battery of media photographers, a rare sight at sabha events.

Seniors of the Tamil drama fraternity make it a point to be present when one of their own is decorated. So after actor ARS ( A R Srinivasan ) had received his award on stage, many theatre-people got up to felicitate him and were around him in the lobby after the formal event was done with. Even the 83-year-old Koothapiran was here as was Kathadi Ramamurthy and others.

We chanced on a small stall selling packed idli-s. The Idli Factory is a start-up venture of a young entrepreneur who has re-designed the idli and sells them in small, smart packs. Try them!

Notes at Bharat Kalachar's festival launch

Notes at the inauguration of the music fest at Bharat Kalachar. Nov.30, 2014 evening.

- Kalpathi Suresh, CEO of the Kalpathi which among investments and projects also produces films under the AGS banner was the chief guest. But it appeared him mind was elsewhere this evening! Ms YGP, the grand lady of this place said Suresh was a PSBB school alumni ( the school is Ms YGP's baby) and that she was happy Suresh was supporting education and the arts. Suresh though was not to be seen midway through the awards event; his chair remained unoccupied for some time before a volunteer took it away. We weren't told what happened to the guest!

- Bharat Kalachar's events are all family! Ms YGP's folks are involved and a lot of back-slapping and light talk and informality runs through events like Sunday evening's launch and awards. With actor Y G Mahendra around, his wisecracks and bagful of anecdotes keeps guests and audience rolling in some laughter. Guests are either amused, taken aback or laugh it off.

- Actors Radhika Sarat Kumar and Suhasini Mani Ratnam got all the attention film stars always hold.  Ms YGP recalled the occasion when she watched the media show of Radhika's ' Kizhakku Pogum Rail' film', wrote a review for The Hindu and mentioned that this was an actor to watch out for. Others hailed Radhika's current position as an entertainment entrepreneur ( her company now produces many TV serials ).

- Two people always get their due attention at Bharat Kalachar events. Mr YGP and Semmangudi Srinivasaiyer - for their role in founding the organization and the life in the early days. (This is the 28th edition of the margazhi fest by Kalachar). The duo's portraits are painted in the auditorium which is named after the late YGP.