The Deluge – Then The Season

by V. Kalidas
(vkalidas@gmail.com)

The deluge in early December in Chennai left the city in such a traumatic state that The Season due to start mid-December was almost deemed a “wash-out”. The resourceful heads of Sabha-s quickly put their heads together and announced that The Season – the biggest and most eagerly looked forward to music festival in this part of the world – would indeed get off the block as scheduled. Such a major event, they added, would at that critical juncture not only serve to placate the nerves of the public but also help economically the community of musicians, instrumentalists and technicians who depended on this major event to keep their home fires burning.

Announcements were also made that suitable contributions to the Chief Minister’s Relief Fund would be arranged at the conclusion of the Festival covering Music, Dance and Drama.

After a rather lukewarm start, balked by the announcement of absence of some senior vidwan-s and vidushi-s who had opted out of The Season for personal and other reasons, the momentum gathered steam, and, we understand, several international bookings which were on the verge of being cancelled were re-instated! After all, what is The Season without that extra dimension lent by the international visitors who came in search of music and entertainment after an eleven-month grind!

Earlier, the NRIs brought in tow their wards, having given them sufficient grounding in Carnatic Music through online teaching, which has since caught on, especially in the USA. The young aspirants came, thirsting for exposure to vindicate what they had learnt ‘back home’. Noticing the heavy competition that made it difficult even for the local young talent to find an exposure in this crowded season, the NRIs, with the active co-operation of the organisers in the USA, gradually began to run their own “global” festivals in Chennai. The parallel festival has taken firm roots and was quite assertive in establishing its own space. Apart from the USA (Carnatic Associations) which ran more than two mini-festivals, Singapore showcased its own local talent this year following in the footsteps of Malaysia which set the precedent last year.

A senior vidwan who has a large coterie of ‘online’ students based in the USA, organised a series of concerts for them which served as a big booster to their own dreams of making it big in Chennai one day.

It is interesting to observe that though some of the big-timers absented themselves from the concert platform, it did not throw cold water on the ongoing concerts which, in the process, provided a stage for many who have been languishing on the fringe eagerly awaiting a break. It was a blessing for them and they were not found wanting as could be seen from the feedback from the audiences.

No doubt, the Star of the Season was none other than Sangita Kalanidhi Sanjay Subramaniam who brought in a fresh wave of perspectives, especially when he presided over the lec-dems at the Music Academy during the morning sessions of the fortnight. His views and comments were modern, candid and laced with humour which served to lighten the discussions which were of a high order and, occasionally, rather pedantic and esoteric, as when Professor Manjul Bhargava of Princeton University dwelt at length on “Music and Mathematics”. One of the Sangita Kalanidhis present mentioned in humour that “much of it went over the head”!

Lec-dems at the Partha­swamy Swamy Sabha were equally interesting and some of them drew a tidy audience.
Apart from the morning concerts on December 25th and January 1st which are traditionally well-attended and flaunt top-drawer artistes, the thin attendance at the morning and afternoon concerts in many of the sabha halls would have demoralised many a performer. The mornings are diplomatically slotted for the ‘has-beens’ while the afternoon sessions provide a window for the up-and-coming performers to prove their mettle. It is a tough world and they need to work very hard to find a place in the sun.

There are some cases too where “many a flower is born to blush unseen and waste its sweetness in the desert air”.

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