Madurai Murlidharan : A musical Genious

What got you in dance and music? Please share your musical journey with us.

I never wanted to become a dancer, it pretty accidental; I never wanted to be in music field as i do not belong to a musical family. I didn't have plan to get into music industry. My elder sister used to go to dance class and my father used to take me to her dance class with the purpose of picking her up. I have a younger sister as well. Initially I was forced to go for a dance class and I never showed interest till I became 17. Under my guru i performed for a government program organised for foreign delegates, it was there that I realized the value of Our Indian classical dance and Music. Everybody was praised my dance and from thereon my interest peaked and my real journey in this field started.

Tell us about your guru and what do you think about guru shishya parampara? Do you think it is important for our generation?

Of course yes, Guru Shishya Parampara is important. our culture we say, “Mata, Pita, Guru, Devam” and in Tamil we say it as, “Annayum, Pithavum, Munnari, Devam” in both the saying Devam comes last that is the importance of Guru.

I strongly believe that guru is definitely one who enlighten us with knowledge. In my life, without my guru like my dance guru, my vocal guru, my mridangam guru i wouldn't have been anything and you wouldn't be taking my interview today. Even when I am composing a small korvai, I think about my guru and I pray; then only I start my composition. Without knowing alphabets, without knowing grammar, you can not write a poem, you can not write a story, you can not write a novel not even write a proper sentence. It is Guru one and only who shows the way the marga. My dance guru is Kalaimamani Smt Chamundeswari Pani, she is a senior disciple of Padmashree Karaikal Natesa Dhandayudhapani Pillai, my vocal guru is Madurai T.Sethuraman and my mrindangam guru is Madurai T. Shrinivasan. During my childhood I did'nt have any fun as I was always involved in my dance class vocal class mridanagam class etc. it was not until I reached 32 years of age I realized I had missed so much fun during childhood.

So we have to understand this before we keep our leg on the floor. Without understanding Jati, how can we do justice to our music and dance. 99% of those in the field don’t want to learn about them but basically in music and dance they say “mata laya pita” and today it stands to remain true only in paper. Most of the dancers don’t care about it They leave it to their mrindangam accompanist and nattuvanar. They don’t want to go deep into it. at many occassions I saw mridangist playing the big role of a conductor and even as a nattuvanar. But dancer should take the lead. Hence I am trying to teach all the dancers the magic of tala. I conducted almost 25 weeks 3 nattuvangam class so almost all over the globe 3000 dancers they learned. So I am trying to educate whatever I know I used to tell my daughter that at the end of my life I will tell the god that you have given everything and I have given everything to this world I don’t have anything in my hand so like that I will leave.

Do you feel criticism is important for an artist? What is your thought about it?

You are welcome to do healthy criticism. You should not take pen to the program and say to self "Ok, today I will be finding only the fault" and go on to write “that this girl's hand is not proper, this is not right, this was wrong”. a healthy criticism and balanced review helps the artist grow , correct themselves and open door for growth.

Artist also have a life of their own. For example, a dancer might be facing lot of problem it be personal , social emotional physical anything; and on the same day he/she might be having a program, dancer may forget something. Mistakes may happen. to understand and rate the dancer one has to see multiple performance. Dancers are like birds and bird fly only when the bird want to fly. how is it possible to ask a peacock to start dancing at at 6:30 today and finish by 6:45. dance comes from the core of the heart.

What message would like like to give to someone who wants to learn music or dance?

Music and dance will keep you young forever because it's a meditation. Everything of dance and music will keep your mind, body, soul young.