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An Interview with T. N. Seshagopalan (Contd.) |
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Do you think your good looks have drawn crowds? How
important is personality for a kutcheri artist?
In my younger days, yes! How can I have that attraction now? But according to the gayaka gunas, stage appearance really matters. Even if all the characteristics according to saumudrika lakshana are not present, a pleasant face will definitely make a concert more beautiful. Another thing is mannerisms. If the mannerisms match with the singing it will be excellent. The face should not be made crooked. Now the boys play on the stage. We were taught how not to overdo actions onstage as apart of our practice. If the action comes beautifully and slowly it will be good and natural. But even while starting to sing if you bring the hand up, it looks as if the hand is going to sing. Now nobody seems to bother about it. Also, it should vibe with the age. If the music is extraordinary, then it will take prominence. Your favourite ragam? All ghana ragas. Truly I like Bhairavi very much. If on a particular day you are out of mood, will you sing this raga to enliven yourself? I have never been a moody person. If due to some other reason, like over-amplification or sweating or noise I feel disturbed, I just stop singing with the idea I can sing when it is over. Once you sit down to sing it is only happiness. Can I sing an extraordinary Shankarabaranam as I have won 2 crores in a lottery and am happy? Once the sruthi box is tuned and equilibrium set, what God gives that day it will come. Is carnatic music fading? It cannot. I do not know with what idea they are saying "It should be like this or like that". According to the times it will wear a different dress. Now everyone has an opportunity to learn music, no dearth of talents, sponsorship and patronage. When we were young we used to wonder if we could take it up as a profession. You cannot come and sit on stage just like that. Now how many boys and girls? Maybe the influence of the media. They think, "If we know the cinema song we will know the raga". It is an illusion. Can that cinema music be the real Kalyani and Kambhoji? Recordings maybe great but only its influence will be there, not that of music. What is heard through the ear remains intact. I always say nowadays, Guru Brahma Guru Vishnu Guru Tapo Namah (laughs). In a short kutcheri, artists try to sing a pallavi... what do you feel? Are they forced to do it? In this world they will say one thing and do another thing. They will scream "4 kalai pallavi is gone, without singing elaborately they are grazing". If we sing elaborately then the comment is "too much... took all the time". If it is sung short and crisp it can be sung in a 2 ½ hour concert. I was given a pallavi programme on TV. The lines were "naatai kurinji enbaar engal nattai kurinji enbaar". For this I sang ragam, tanam, in Nattai, Kurinji and Nattakkurinji, with separate chance for violin, pallavi with the 3 ragas, neraval, swaram, kuraippu, trikalam, tani avarthanam - all in 29 minutes! But if you see padhavinyasam it needs 1 ½ hours (laughs ) or at least 45 min. A concert without a pallavi loses its majesticity. For a 2-hour kutcheri they ask the performer to include a pallavi. They sing a ragam, neraval for name sake and ragamalika swaram. It becomes a pallavi ritual. Do you always sing a pallavi? If in a mood. Do you practice daily? No. It is not that I should sing for an hour in the morning, play Veena in the afternoon. Whenever I can. I only feel for the fact that I am not able to wholly give myself to music without other commitments. What are your other interests? Very interested in sports. I like cricket, tennis I love football. In school I used to play pole vault. Nobody will believe it (Laughs). I have a natural inclination for drawing, being a Botany graduate. Even now I have the habit of drawing while speaking on the phone. What do you do when you are not singing? Travelling, reading books , literature, thinking of music. I don't need company.
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