Month: November 2021

M M Dandapani Desigar

Introduction

Last week, my friend Ganapathy Vibhu from Chennai sent me Sanjay’s Short Notes on Rathipathipriya. As soon as I began to hear it, I felt that Sanjay was nudging me towards the song Jagat Janani of Dandapani Desigar (DD) that I had enjoyed during my college days. I was quite fond of DD, particularly the Tamil songs and his own compositions. I decided that I will devote this blog to write about his music and also a little bit about the man.

DD – His Life

The biographical facts first. DD was born in 1908 in a traditional Oduvaar family in a village near Tiruvarur. Initially, he was taught by his father. His later gurus included Kumbakonam Rajamanikkam Pillai, the famous violinist. He started as a teacher in a Thevara Patashalai at the age of eighteen and went on to become Professor and Head of the Department of Music at the Annamalai University for fifteen years. According to the Tamilnation.org website, DD was a multi-talented musician, composer, teacher and movie actor who “… appeared on the music scene when Thamizh Isai was having a renaissance in the 1940s, and contributed much to it.” He passed away in 1972. The era was not without its share of controversies, disagreements and altercations. For those interested in digging into these aspects a little more, I can do no better than provide the link to a 2010 blog by Sriram V. (https://sriramv.wordpress.com/ 2010/11/17/the-tamil-isai-movement/).  

DD – His Music

In writing about DD’s music, I will not strictly follow chronology either of his life or even of mine. I propose to pick and choose among his very rich body of work, taken as a whole.

  1. Agara Mudhal Ezhuthellam (Hamsadhwani)

I cannot vouchsafe for the veracity of Wikipedia’s claim that DD had given full-fledged Thirukkural concerts. But I can safely say that this was the first Thirukkural-based composition that I listened to. Here, DD makes use of four of Thiruvalluvar’s couplets to compose this song in Hamsadhwani. The first Adhikaram or Chapter of Thirukkural is Kadavul Vaazhthu or the Praise of God. It has ten couplets out of which Kurals 1, 8, 10 and 6 are used in this song. After years of the obligatory opening pieces Vatapi or Vinayaka in the same raga, it was refreshing to hear an invocatory song in Tamil. That I had learnt the first and third couplets at school also added to the enjoyment.

I heard this song for the first time in my post-retired life, when my parents were watching an afternoon concert on DD Podhigai. I was in the adjacent room and by the time I joined them, I had missed the credits. Curious, I asked my go-to music guru, the late  Raji Mami whose composition it was. She was not sure but said “Vaartheyellam paartha DDnu Thonaradhu”. A little more digging and asking around and sure enough, it was DD’s own composition. I love the clear-cut advice the song conveys in simple, everyday Tamil. The choice of Bahudhari sounds very apt.

This is an exquisite Padam by K S Krishnamurthy. As a genre, Padams express the love of a maiden through a friend to her lover who is often portrayed in divine form. At a more subtle level, they are about the longing of the Jeevaathma for the Paramaathma. This song is about the dream of a lady about her lover/god Murugan, the Lord of Pazhani. The Pallavi and Anupallavi are set to Shuddha Dhanyasi while the four Charanams are in Charukesi, Malayamarudham, Shivaranjani and Saranga. The transition from one raga to the other is managed beautifully through an instrumental interlude.

This is a composition of Ghanam Krishnayyar on Goddess Meenakshi. The lyricist addresses the Goddess by her many names before asking her point blank whether she does not have the mind yet to grant him the boon he is asking for. DD sings it effortlessly, aided by the beautiful background instrumental score.

This is a well-known song by Trichy G Thyagarajan in praise of Thamizh. The poet creates the imagery of a pond full of lotus flowers that never dries up set in an orchard of poetry. The pond is ever full with the showers of poetry and in turn the nectar that flows out of it inspires the poets. The song is set to Hindustani Gandhari aka Sindhu Bhairavi. I had heard this song for the first time some sixty years ago played on the clarinet by A K C Natarajan. The vocal version by DD is even more evocative, with the instrumental score at the start and in between transporting you to the idyllic world that the poet is talking about.

Karnatik.com lists some 52 compositions of DD in a range of ragams. Of the lot, I have chosen the above piece as rendered by Sanjay. DD has written this song and set it to Hindolam with a beauty that Sanjay brings out brilliantly by just playing with the second and third words of the Pallavi – Mighundha and Thaaye. It is a great tribute by Sanjay as well as proof of the high esteem he holds DD in.  

I conclude with the above Bharathidasan song that was tuned by DD and immortalised by him in his own voice to be revived and re-popularised by Sanjay in the last two decades or so. I can easily believe that this song has had over a million views on YouTube!

Today is Thanksgiving in the USA and Canada. Vilasini and I are in Shillong as guests of her colleagues and partners, Joanna and Ralph Budelmann of Chillibreeze Solutions (Pvt.) Ltd. While Vilasini is busy with her work, I have taken time to complete this blog that I had begun in Bangalore last week. I thank my immediate and extended family and wide circle of friends for having been such an enriching part of my life all these years. May we have many more years together and occasions to thank each other!   

S. Krishna Kumar

25th November

Shillong

Blog # 25 

Why Bet Against the Tatas?

Introduction

On 9th October, Tata Sons was declared winner of the competitive bid to acquire Air India (AI). The news received extensive coverage, including in the print media. Much of the writing has tended to be pessimistic about the ability of the Tatas to revive AI, let alone make a success of it. In this blog, I argue that it may be premature to write-off the Tatas even before AI has been handed over to them, which is expected only by end-December 2021.   

The Tatas, Then and Now   

How AI was set up and JRD’s unique, hands-on contribution to the building up of the AI brand against stiff international competition is well-known. However, the concerns of many sceptics of the privatisation deal springs from the fact that the aviation world today is very different from what it was in the JRD era, that two other airlines which the Tata group is invested in are losing cash and that except for Ratan Tata who was mentored by JRD himself, other leaders of the Tata group were not there to dip into and draw from the experience of the JRD-led AI. Rather than frame the debate in terms of these limited concerns, I want to focus on the opportunities that the entry of the Tatas may open up for the Indian civil aviation sector as a whole.

The Air India – Indigo Matchup

Among domestic carriers, Indigo is clearly the most daunting challenge that AI will face. Indigo is sitting pretty as the largest airline in India by fleet size and passengers carried, leaving its competitors far behind. It had 277 aircraft as of August 2021 against the combined fleet size of 252 of AI, Vistara and Air Asia. Coming to passenger traffic, Indigo had a dominant market share of 57% as of August 2021. AI, along with Air Asia and Vistara, had a market share of 26.7%. Going forward, we can expect Tatas to rationalize routes and offer better connectivity options to passengers and grow to about a third of the market. At that stage, the dynamics of the market will change as it transitions from a monopoly to a duopoly. We have already seen this happening in the cell phone market in India where contrary to initial expectations, Airtel has survived to challenge Jio, to the benefit of subscribers.

The numbers-game apart, the entry of Tatas may usher in far-reaching, qualitative changes in the Indian aviation market encompassing at least three important aspects.

De-commodification of Passenger Seats

The rise of private carriers like Indigo over the last twenty years and more was, in no small measure, aided by the rise in the perception that aircraft passenger seats were ‘commodities’ that need to be ‘sold’ with the highest margin. Practices such as dynamic and peak pricing crept in. This may change now. With the Tatas coming in, more people may regain their trust in brands and the ‘commodification’ of seats of the last two decades may be gradually be rolled back. Discerning groups of flyers such as students, women and senior citizens may become picky and choosy about the airline they want to fly in, rather than ‘grab’ the nearest deal from MakeMyTrip or Gobibo.

Corporate Governance

The next favourable impact may be in the area of corporate governance. The Tata group is justly proud of the values its companies espouse and seek to uphold in practice. The dynamism of Indian civil aviation in the last two decades through new players has not been matched by a commensurate growth in transparency and best practices. Ownership is often routed through off-shore entities. Among stakeholders, employees have been treated less than fairly by Kingfisher and Jet Airways, for example. All this will change for the better with a significant player like AI setting the standards and challenging the rest of the field to match them.

The Strategic Play

The Tatas may well bring in the strategic dimension into the Indian civil aviation sector that is currently used to seeing airlines and airports as unrelated entities. The Tata group has always looked at them as a ‘twin play’ and has seen opportunities for mutual leverage. To cite an example, along with their investment in India’s first International Tech Park (ITPL) (partner Jurong Town Corporation, Singapore) at Whitefield, Bangalore in 1994, the Tatas looked to improve the air connectivity of Bangalore by bidding for the new, greenfield airport near Devanahalli with Raytheon and Changi Airport as partners and by roping in Singapore Airlines to start a domestic airline in India. Such strategic thinking is conspicuously absent in India even after 30 years of so-called liberalization and opening up.

The Tata Pedigree

The pessimism of many columnists about the present senior leadership in the Tata group reminds me of the lack of enthusiasm that Titan faced at its launch in 1984. Xerxes Desai was an unknown name in those days, perhaps even within the group. Yet, in thirty years, Titan together with, Tanishq, has become the most iconic brand in the Tata group after TCS. If JRD could locate a Xerxes Desai to ‘create’ a Titan brand that would eventually deliver great quality watches and branded gold jewelry – both unfamiliar segments – then surely, there is reason for cautious optimism about Tatas and AI. It’s good to recall that JRD was 80 years old when Titan was born and Ratan is 84 now. ‘Age’ is only a number after all!

Restoring the National Carrier

India is in the fortunate position that privatisation of AI, apart from kick-starting stalled privatisation initiatives, may well yield spin-offs for the entire aviation sector, thanks to the pedigree and the track record of the group that has won the bid fair and square. A National Carrier is an “airline owned or strongly identified with a nation”. Divested of government ownership, the nation may want to bid TATA to Air India as a PSU and   once more proudly identify with the new ‘Tata AI’! Let’s not squander that opportunity with our “Yeh Nahi Hoga” attitude. As Henry Ford reminded us, whether you think you can, or you think you can’t, you’ll be right!

Conclusion

I had written this a few weeks ago but was wondering how appropriate it would be to publish it as a blog. In this period, numerous pieces on Air India privatisation have appeared in the media. The one that appealed to me most was a wide-ranging interview with Ronojoy Dutta of Indigo, CEO, Indigo. I conclude with the link to a report in ET based on the interview.

S. Krishna Kumar

19th November,

Bengaluru

Blog # 24

Mohanakalayani

Introduction

Today (2nd November 2021), Arangamonline aired a concert by MLV and party. There, MLV sang Adinaye Kanna, an Ambujam Krishna composition that I had not heard earlier. Mohanakalyani is a very melodious ragam that combines the best of Mohanam and Kalyani. In this blog, I present a few songs based on the raga that I have enjoyed over the years.

Siddhi Vinayakam

Though it was not the first Mohanakalyani song I heard, let me begin with a proper ‘pullaiyar suzhi’ and present Siddhi Vinayakam, a composition of Harikesanallur Muthaiah Bhagavathar (HMB).  It is quite popular now and many artists present it as the opening piece in preference to the tried and tested Vatapi or Vinayaka in Hamsadhwani. I have included here a vocal rendition of the song by Chinmaya Sisters for a DD Podhigai concert.  

Bhuvaneshwariya

The first Mohanakalyani kriti that I recall having heard during my school days is Bhuvaneshwariya sung by Madurai Mani Iyer (MMI). It is the most popular composition of HMB.  It has been sung by Sankaranarayanan, Santhanam and Sudha among numerous others. As a listener, it has been among my favourites too. In 1980, when I was Deputy Commissioner, Mysore, I was part of the effort to revive the Mysore Dasara in all its erstwhile glory, a pet project of the then Chief Minister Gundu Rao. Lalgudi Jayaraman was one of the leading artists who performed that year in the Darbar Hall of the Mysore Palace. I requested him to play Mohanakalyani. ‘Vasichutta Pochu’, he agreed and went on to give us a memorable ‘Bhuvaneshwariya’. Here, I have included a rendition of the song by MMI for an AIR concert. The swaraprasthara at the end using the ‘ta ta’, ‘tu tu’, ‘ti ti’ and ‘la la’ sounds apart from his unique ‘oui oui’ is vintage MMI.

Seve Srikantham

I had happened to hear this Swati Tirunal composition in 1979 at the Bellary Music Club in a concert by Trichur V Ramachandran (TVR). It was a new composition for me and he sang it so well that it has stayed with me all these years. I was lucky to find a recent upload of the song by TVR himself. I am including it here.

Senthamizh Nadennum Podhinile

Senthamizh Nadennum Podhinile, a composition of Mahakavi Bharatiyar, was already being sung in the Kavadi Chindhu tune. Santhanam seems to have re-tuned it in Mohanakalyani and started singing it in his concerts. It became an instant hit. At the end of his concerts, he would often get audience requests for that number. In the 1980s, Santhanam was getting into the heights of his prowess and popularity. So, this song too became very popular. I have included a YouTube audio of the song here.

Thamadham Thagadhayya

Thamadham Thagadhayya

I came to listen to this less known composition of Lalgudi Gopala Iyer only in the last twenty years or less. I heard it first in a concert by Abhishek. Here he is singing it in his own express style! I have also included a track of the same song by Sankaranarayanan in a more leisurely style. You take your time to decide which version you like more.   

Thaka Thajanu Dhimitha (Thillana)

Thaka Thajanu Dhimitha (Thillana)

Apart from the kritis, Mohanakalyani was undoubtedly popularized by the Thillana composed and played by Lalgudi in his Dance of Sound album. The album contains eight Thillanas, one better than the other. I am happy to include an audio link to the rendering by the violin maestro himself as also a vocal rendition by a young vocalist Pruthviraj to let you appreciate what a beautiful composition it is.

Aadinaye Kanna

Let me conclude with this song of Ambujam Krishna sung by the one-and-only MLV which triggered this blog in the first place. There are multiple versions of the song on YouTube. I have chosen the one that also has a picture of the composer along side the singer!

Conclusion

This blog is short on words but long on music – in fact, over 110 minutes of mostly vocal numbers in the raga Mohanakalyani. Please read it and listen to the music at your convenience and in instalments. And let me know if you liked it or not, particularly the latter. This was not a blog that was planned. It just grew out of Aadinaye Kanna that I happened to listen to only this morning. And the blog is out in less than fifteen hours. Is that opportunism or a quick turnaround? You be the judge!

S. Krishna Kumar

2nd November, 2021

Bengaluru

Blog # 23