Sri Lalgudi baani

BY CHITRA SUDARSHAN

Recently, despite it being a wet and cold day in Melbourne, many gathered at the Kel Watson theatre in Burwood to pay tribute to legendary musician, virtuoso violinist and vaggeyakara, Padma Bhushan Sri Lalgudi G Jayaraman who passed away on April 22 this year. The renowned maestro was such a multi-faceted musician, composer and musicologist that he created his own ‘baani’ or musical style, which will be perpetuated by his many sishyas who live in the far corners of the globe.

Two musicians from the Lalgudi tradition in Melbourne, Narmatha Ravichandhira and Uthra Vijayaraghavan organised the tribute jointly to pay homage to the doyen and founder of that great tradition. Two visiting artistes from India and the UK, who had come to attend the twoday Mummoorthigal Festival, were also present at the event. Veena artiste Sri Vasantha Kumar and violin vidwan Sri Gnanasundaram put together the tribute with the help of friends resulting in a rich collage of music, dance, documentary, video, audio visuals and talks, that collectively brought to life the genius that was Lalgudi.

The evening began with a prayer by Chaitanyaraman Gnanasundaram - aptly, a composition of Lalgudi. Uthra Vijayaraghavan and her students presented a couple of Lalgudi’s varnams, followed by a violin rendition of another one by Smt Narmatha’s students. In the latter half, they presented

Lalgudi’s tillanas, including a dance - a madhuvanti tillana Lalgudi was renowned for the melodious varnams and tillanas that he had composed - so it was a fitting tribute to his memory. They were accompanied on the violin by Chaitanyaraman and Sri Gnanasundaram, and on the mridangam by Sri Ravichandhira and Sai Nivaethan Ravichandhira.

AGA Gnansundaram, a disciple of Lalgudi G Jeyaraman paid an emotional and rich tribute to his guru, sharing memories of his long association with Lalgudi and how he had been enriched by it. Sri Vasantha Kumar, for his part, recalled several memorable encounters with the violin legend.

The Iyer Brothers of Melbourne recounted the close relationship forged between them and the maestro and his children, during their visits to Australia over the past two decades.

The documentary, publicly available and produced by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, and the special Powerpoint presentation put together by Jothin Vallathol and Nagasundaram, provided wonderful snippets from the life and music of a great Carnatic music genius.