He Took Classical Music to the Masses Vamanan

COVER STORY M.K. TYAGARAJA BHAGAVATAR He took classical music to the masses Vamanan KT Bhagavatar – his was the story of south India’s greatest singing star in the infant decades of Tamil cinema. “Bhagavatar,” says Prof. P. Sambamoorthy in his Dictionary of South Indian Music M MANIAM SELVAN and Musicians, ‘‘is the name given to performers of katha kalakshepam or religious discourses to the accompaniment of music. In Malabar, music teachers and professional musicians are called Bhagavatars”. That explains why in Tamil Nadu we have a Soolamangalam Vaidyanatha Bhagavatar and a Mangudi Chidambara Bhagavatar, both masters in musical discourse, and from Kerala a Chembai Vaidyanatha Bhagavatar. But how did a film star come to be called Tyagaraja Bhagavatar or just Bhagavatar? The Tamil lexicon explains that the word primarily refers either to worshippers of Vishnu or those who expound religious stories to the accompaniment of music. It adds that in its secondary signification, the word may refer to those proficient in music, as well as to music teachers and singers. This could explain why the title ‘Bhagavatar’ stuck to Tyagaraja in the drama and film world. Music was the most powerful expression of his art, and even though his stage and cinematic presence was stunning, it was his song that the world looked up to. On his part, Bhagavatar too had sought to hone his music from a very young age. He befriended musicians and benefited from their art. From the drama stage, on district, would assemble near cinema halls to savour his the concert platform and from his celluloid peak, his songs they fancied. This was at a time when the southern musical art took the power, beauty and fragrance of pipers were the touchstone of the best of Carnatic music. Carnatic raga to millions of people. That was why ‘Bhagavatar’ became his very name and a byword for the There were numerous bhagavatars, but there was only one best of music. at the peak, and it was from him that the springs of living music flowed to the plains. Bhagavatar came to signal the From Papanasam Sivan, whom he venerated and whose musical pinnacle of a period in Tamil cinema. musical art he closely studied and made his own, to his musical tutors, Alathur Venkatesa Iyer and the great Alathur Muthuveera Achari Krishnamurthy Thyagaraja Brothers – Srinivasan and Sivasubramaniam, with whom he Bhagavathar (MKT Bhagavatar) let loose an abundance had an association till the end of his life, from Vilathikulam of musical wealth inundating the masses. Swinging them Sami a little known musical figure with a passion for raga to the crests of classical music, he became not just the alapana to G. Ramanatha Iyer, a powerful music composer musical icon of the times, but the celluloid idol adored by who kept the flag of southern raga flying in Tamil cinema, star-struck fans, both male and female. This would prove Bhagavatar cultivated the best of musicians and mined his undoing in more ways than one. The pent up energy their genius. Such was the magic of Bhagavatar’s muse of adulation and hero worship would be too much for the that the cream of nagaswara players in music-rich Tanjavur man to contain. But all that was in the years to come. 13 l SRUTI April 2010.

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