Registered with the Registrar of Newspapers for India under R.N.I 53640/91

Vol. XXVI No. 11, September 16-31, 2016

A concert that led to a loss

by S. Viswanathan

Remembering MS

It was a grand concept: to commemorate the centenary of M.S. Subbbulakshmi, to set up a chair in her name at an American university and also to raise resources for expanding the charitable activities of Sankara Nethralaya (SN). But poor execution resulted, unfortunately in a substantial deficit.

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The music icon A.R. Rah­man was presented as the second Indian music maestro to perform at the UN. He graciously offered to perform free of cost. But his omnibus orchestra cost the sponsors a huge sum.

On August 15th, as part of the 70th Independence Day celebrations, they performed at the United Nations’ sprawling auditorium. Thanks to the Indian Mission at the UN, around 1600 enjoyed the performance of this Oscar-winning musical icon of India. Sankara Nethra­laya (SN) jointly presented the concert with the UN. Rahman rendered several of his popular songs from Tamil and Hindi films, his evocative Vande Mataram, Jai Ho and also a few Sufi music compositions. The immortal compositions of the Kanchi Paramacharya, Mait­reem Bajatha, and Rajaji’s Kurai Onrum Illai were rendered by the grand-niece of Dr S.S. Badrinath, Chairman-Emeritus, Sankara Nethralaya, who conceived this grand programme to commemorate the centenary of music maestro M.S. Subbu­lak­shmi (MS) as well as her landmark concert at the UN 50 years ago in 1966.

During my visit to the US in June I heard impressive plans about this celebration. The Sankara Nethralaya Ophthalmic Mission Trust (SN OM Trust), headed by Dr. K.S. Vasan and based in Houston, had ambitious plans: to present, apart from Rahman, musicians Sudha Raghunathan and Bombay Jayashree for a series of concerts spread across six cities culminating at the UN on October 2nd (Jayashree later withdrew and the UN would not present Sudha at a UN-sponsored concert) and Zubin Mehta with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra at the Lincoln Centre in New York on November 5th.

The objective was to reach out to the prosperous Indian diaspora in the US, providing the NRIs soulful music as well as to raise resources for SN. Letters were sent to prospective donors requesting sponsorships of eye surgeries at SN. The good work of SN has been known in the US. SN OM Trust has already been raising resources from the NRIs.

The prospect of a second musician from India presenting a concert at UN after 50 years was, of course, exciting. However, sadly, there was a stark contrast between the two. For the MS concert, the initiative was taken by the then UN Chef de Cabinet, C V Narasimhan, ics. It was sponsored by the UN with its full involvement. Narasimhan was well-versed in music, an ardent fan of MS and learnt it under maestros like Musiri Subramania Iyer and MS. He ensured the presence of UN Secretary General U Thant as well as that of hundreds of other luminaries.
The other plus factor was the brilliant leadership of MS’s husband T. Sadasivam in planning, publicising and presenting the concert with elan. With meticulous care TS-MS planned the concert with a rich repertoire of compositions. The Kanchi Paramacharya specially composed Maitreem Bajatha on world peace. This became an hit and a household song in the South. Rajaji composed another English song in Western music set to tune by that maestro Handel Manuel. There was a rich variety of compositions including those from the great composers of Carnatic music – Thyagarajar, Muthuswami Dik­shi­thar, Shyama Sastri and Puran­dara Dasar, besides a Meera Bhajan in Hindi.
The team at Kalki and musicologists worked diligently to produce rich background material on the compositions, their composers and on MS and her music accompanists, down to the minutest detail.

Media in the US and in India provided extensive publicity to this landmark event. The concert was broadcast extensively and received wide ­acclaim.

I was struck by the stark contrast: Rahman’s concert was jointly presented by the UN and SN. There was the absence of senior bureaucrats from South India at the UN or the Indian Embassy, familiar with Carnatic music or MS’s works. Surprisingly, communication with the numerous Tamil Sangams, Telu­gu Associations and Kan­nada Koota were poor. These South Indian communities are prosperous sections of the US society, educationally and culturally strong and their members occupy senior positions and leadership in industry, government, academe and professions. They form the creamy layer of American society.

The UN programme precluded pricing tickets for admission. The seating provided for 2000, half of these reserved for the UN. Rahman required a large stage, specially built with hi-tech gizmos that demanded extra space and considerable cost. This devoured in the process some 400 seats. The 800 seats made available to SN needed to go to traditional ­donors which further curtailed the scope for fresh donations.

Rahman may have offered his services free. But there was heavy expenditure incurred on his 80-strong orchestra and singers by way of cost of airfare, stay in star hotels for four nights, local transportation and food. The large stage, lighting, acoustics and other paraphernalia demanded another large sum.

There was also the absence of prominent NRIs who are glittering business icons in the US, many of them from South India, familiar with MS and Rahman: Indira Nooyi, Chandrika Tan­don, Sundar Pichai, Satya Nadella and scores of celebrities in academe and the medical profession. Leaders like Bill Gates and Bill Clinton with vast interests in India, friendly Senators and Congressmen could have lent their weight. The UN Secretary General Ban-ki-Moon was absent. All this led to less being collected and more spent.

I also felt disappointed that a great opportunity to present Rahman to thousands of music lovers in and around New York should have been missed. Like presenting Rahman in another concert at a prominent public place like Central Park in New York, offering his music thousands of music lovers.

Another thought: I remember MS and Sadasivam providing hundreds of benefit performances to support a vast range of social causes. It used to be a standard feature in the Tamil weekly Kalki (promoted by Sada­si­vasm, MS and R Krishna­murthy) the notices mentioning MS udavum sangeetha kutcheri (MS rendering a benefit performance) to help raise fund for numerous social causes. Rah­man can emulate MS in such an udavum sangeetha kutcheri for SN.

(Courtesy: Industrial Eco­no­mist)

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