Century-plus Sri Ramanavami tradition

The finale of Sri Ramabhakta Sabha's Sri Ramanavami fest is this evening in Malleswaram.

The evening will feature a series by the Sabha's members and signal the end of the 109th edition of the celebration, one which was started by 'compounder' C V Subba Rao elsewhere and which then came to have its base in Malleswaram.

C V Venkatesh Rao, the founder's grandson now runs the Sabha, having been at its helm for about 22 years. It has hosted great artistes like Veena Seshanna, Ariyakudi Ramanuja and Chembai Vaidyanatha Bhagavathar.

This hoary history goes to enrich the histories of Bangalore's own Sri Ramanavami festival.

Sunday music in Jayanagar

The hall of Sri Jayarama Seva Mandali in Jayanagar's 8th Block is compact for a small community of rsikas to listen to music.

On Sunday evening, vocalist Amrutha Venlatesh is on stage - H M Smitha on violin and Tumkur Ravishankar on mridangam.

People visit the mandir at the street level, some make contributions at the mandali's office and then walk up to the concert space on the first floor.

For this quiet colony of the sprawling and ever-busy neighborhood, you would expect the concert attendance to be bigger. Perhaps 200 to 250 people.

The donors though are many. At this time of the year, the 'sevakarthas' support the religious as well as the arts. Their names are featured in the programme brochures and on stage.

This evening's funder is Percussive Arts Centre promoted by mridangist and engineering teacher V. Krishna.

One assumes this year's support has been good - many artistes from Chennai are featured here.

Dances in Malleswaram

Bangalore's classical arts scene is abuzz round the year now.  The Ramanavami Season may not rival the December Season of Madras but the music and dance on offer is aplenty.

We hop across to Malleswaram, wading through a Sunday traffic on Sampige Road and head to Seva Sadan on 14th Cross.

Dancer Padmini Ravi presents a 'margam' and then, neo-classicsal choreographies on Nauka Charitram with 8 young dancers -Preeti Bharadwaj, Gowri Sasgar, Adithi Sadashiva, Pruthvi, Sneha Devanan, K R Anjali, Arun Sreenivasan and Yogesh Kumar.

The music is by Ravichandra Kulur.

It is a full house. A given in Malleswaram. 

Dance seems to be getting more space in the city. Classical dance.

Aruna Sairam in full flow . . .

Aruna Sairam is in full-throated flow at the Big Tent in Chamarajpet on Sunday evening, March 29. The sides of the main and adjoining roads are packed with parked cars - police allow it since it is a Sunday.

This year, the canteen is better and bit bigger. And people having a cup of coffee also browse at the music albums stall.

Inside the tent, there must be over 4000 people. Among them are many young people, some from abroad visiting family here.

Sree Rama Seva Mandali prides itself in saying this is a national music fest. It also offers the best artistes. But in recent times, the funds crunch is hurting.

The hosts did hint that things would change if the BJP held Delhi. The latter has happened but the good news is yet to arrive. 

BJP's MP and union minister Ananth Kumar was the chief guest on Day One but there were Congressmen too as guests.

A place to be seen and heard. 

Quiet finale in Sripuram

The mandali in Sriramapuram brings its music and religious series to a quiet end on Sunday.

Homams start in the morning and the Sri Rama Pattabhishekam takes place around noontime.

The small community of this area takes part. 

This is the 86th edition of the celebrations - this year the host kept them simple to save funds for building a space for the temple priest.

The finale at Jayanagar East End

It is Sri Rama Pattabhishekam time at the mandali at Jayanagar East End.
The music concerts series closed on Friday evening and Sita Kalyanam followed.

The Association managers, all seniors and familiar faces now tell us that the audience was good for the concerts, mostly seniors.

If there was one hiccup they had to diplomatically handle it was a few plaints of the neighbors who did not seem to relish the music floating around at late evening!

Bangalore's newer neighborhoods are getting sandwiched as development continues and a community space for music and chantings seems too now impinge on the new neighbors.

Sri Ramanavami seems to bring the community together here. For none days, lunch is served to all who are ptresent and packets are also handed over to the local colony of less privileged people, the seniors tell us.

This Sunday afternoon, for the finale there is a simple and delicious lunch served on leaves. The semiya payasam tastes great.

Celebrating Anoor Anathakrishna Sharma; 50!

Today was Palm Sunday. For Christians, the start of the Holy Week. A time to reflect on the days that led to the death of Jesus and on the spiritual issues this presents.

We attended service at the magnificent St Francis Xaviers Church on Millars Road and rushed off to attend what must have been the biggest event in bangalore this Sunday.

The felicitation of guru Anoor Ananthakrishnna Sarma. Shivu to his legion of friends here and across the country.

Held at a college in Jaya Nagar this was avery warm and colorful event indeed. The who is who of the music and arts world was present. And on stage some very celebrated people, from singer SPB to TAS Mani and Suma Sudhindra and Talwalker, percussionist and Bangalore MP, H N Ananth Kumar.

50 years of life was a cause to celebrate and Shivu's disciples made a great event this Sunday. The World Cup final was forgotten and some, skipped their dates at other concerts.

Shivu and his wife were garlanded, gifted and felicitated. And the docu-film  screened made the guru smile and chuckle - it had pictures of his childhood and it had stalwarts talking about his music.

Shivu has excelled as a percusionist - filk, classical, pop, film. He has done it all.

An early celebration of his life but very timely.

Two big artistes for Sunday

Two big artistes are on stage on Sunday evening, March 29.

Aruna Sairam performs at the Big Tent in Chamarajpet for Sree Rama Seva Mandali and T M Krishna at 6.30 pm for Sree Seshadripuram Rama Seva Mandali.

Expecting big turnout at both venues.

Percussive Arts Centre artistes of Bangalore are at Jaya Nagar 1st Block, for Jayarama Seva Mandali

My Stamp released; commemorating 75 years of Sree Rama Seva Mandali

A 'My Stamp' featuring the image of lord Hanuman against the backdrop of the Big Tent of Sree Rama Seva Mandali, Chamarajpet was released at the inauguration of the 77th Sri Ramanavami fest here on Saturday evening.

The postage stamp was released by union minister Ananth Kumar, Bangalore South Member of Parliament representing the BJP. Kumar was chief guest at the Mandali's music fest inauguration.

The stamp is priced at Rs.5 and it has been released to mark 75 years of the Mandali.

Chief Post Master Genl., M S Ramanujan who is based in Bangalore said that P&T could not consider  the Mandali's request for a postage stamp to mark 75 years and hence the My Stamp suggestion.

The stamp will be sold at the concerts venue from Monday but you will have to buy a sheet. The stamp has been funded by the Mandali and it is legally valid for use as postage.

At the event, the PMG said that the government could bring out postage stamps on the Hindu pantheon of gods and goddesses. " A few stamps on the gods have been brought out in the USA," he said.

Union minister Ananth Kumar was quick to pick up the hint of the CPMG. He said he would talk to prime minister Narendra Modi and effect the idea.

The postage stamp part of the launch event triggered much interest back stage.

Kaleesha and Bombay Jayashri; sharing time backstage

Sheik Mahaboob Shubani and Kaleeshabi Mahaboob and their artiste-colleagues performed the nagaswaram to open the festival of Sree Rama Seva Mandali at the Fort High School grounds, Chamarajpet on March 28 evening.

This husband-wife couple who hail from Andhra Pradesh and have made Srirangam their home are among the senormost nagaswaram vidwans and have performed on many stages and venues.

They still maintain a busy schedule. " I was in Chennai for social functions twice in a week recently," said Sheik Mahaboob who got his first big break at Thiruvaiyaru aradhana in Tanjore, Tamil Nadu when seniors invited him to perform at the aradhana, out of turn since the scheduled artiste could not be present.

Here at the mandali's white room for artistes, Kaleesha got the time to chat with Bombay Jayashri who was to present the evening's concert.

" She is special, " said Jayashri as the two artistes posed for the photo posted here.

Preparations for Opening Day

Rasikas queue to buy tickets for the first concert at Sree Rama Seva Mandali in Fort School, Chamrajpet, Bangalore ( photo 1).

Workers try to beat a deadline to get the stage set for the opening evening of the fest at Seshadripuram College ( photo 2).

The info board outside Vani School, Basaweshwara Nagar listing the month long concerts of Vani Kala Kendra. ( photo 3).

Violin duo's 'pure' music, no gimmicks

Vid V V Ravi and Vid B U Ganesh Prasad performed a violin duet for the mandali at Jaya Nagar East End.  And the audience felt it was blissful singing.  

Such was the classical stroke that they brought to the stage.  

The concert just had ‘pure’ music devoid of any gimmicks.  They started with the Navaragamalika Varna and continued to play some popular numbers like “Rama Bhakti Samrajya”, “Shobillu”, “Bantureethi”, “Gnanamusagarada”.  “Mari vere” in Ananda Bhairavi held the audience in spell bound.

Ravi and Ganesh chose Abheri as the raga for the day.  

Super gamakas along with meticulous ‘Jaaru’ swaras and ample 'Brighas' highlighted their raga rendering.  Their violins sang “Bhaja Re Re” and touched everyone in the crowd.  Their ‘Gayaki’ style of playing the instrument was just amazing.

Vid. Sudhindra and Vid. Shrishaila supported them on the Mridangam and Ghatam respectively. We had an interesting incident after the concert.  A little boy grabbed Sudhindra’s mridangam and started exploring it.  Something is in store.

- By Smirithi P Kumar

Bereavement . . .

Rasikas at the Vyalikaval festival will miss one man for a few more days.

Secretary Purushothaman lost his mother recently and has had to skip the events at the temple and in the music hall.

He is the busy bee of this local team - the Association is preparing for the golden jubilee next year.

Variety at Vyalikaval

Bhashyam is dedicated curator of kutcheri festivals. He has a list of artistes from across south India, he knows mots of them personally and he tries to mix up the schedule to give space to less known artistes.

So for the Ramanavami fest at Vyalikaval, he has invited artistes from Tirupathi and Vishakapatanam besides other places.

Chennai's great talent Ramakrishna Murthy is also scheduled.

Ct: Bhashyam - 9844497239

Shivu Sir pleases his fans

Ganakalasri Vid. Anantha Krishna Sharma for the formal address--but for thousands of shishyas and multiple thousands of fans like me - Shivu Sir. 

What an amazing artist he is.. Today, at Jaya Nagar East End he was on vocals….. along with a wonderful flautist Vid Rajkamal Nagaraj and gave an amazing VaNi- VeNu Jugalbandi concert at Sri Rama Mandali, Jayanagar 9th Block this evening. 

They were very ably and equally amazingly supported on percussions by Vid. Anuru Dattatreya Sharma, Vid. Vinod Shyam Anoor on Double Mridanga, Drums Mantrika Vid. Arun Kumar on Morsing and another young gem Vid. Sunaad Anoor on Khanjari.. What an evening the capacity audience including Vid. Indira Sharma, Vineetha Rajkamal, Sri Keshava Murthy had…

Chalamela Varna in Natakurinji – Adi was the opening item. Nata raga kriti in Khandachapu Vandisuvudaadiyali with Raga and Swara set the mood for the concert. The Bhakti filled Sujana Jeevana in Khamach- Roopaka invoking the Lord Rama was treat to listen. 

The Ragalapane by Vid. Rajkamal followed by Shivu Sir in Dharmavati was excellent.. This was for the main kriti of the evening Bhajanaseya Raada O Manasa with Nerval ans Swara at Niravadi Sukhadayukuni… This item itself was awesome and well received with huge rounds of applause at various points of time.

More was to follow though.. and yes, it was an amazing RTP in Nalinakanthi.   Yet another tuneful Ragalapane, excellent rendering of Taana and Pallavi – Rama Raghurama Jayarama with well presented swara kalpane (Ragamalike with Sriranjani, PantuvaraLi, Todi and Sahana) paved way for the much awaited Tani Avartane.  

Well, this Tani avartane really deserves special mention and three (err , 4 ) cheers.. Dattanna, Arun, Vinod and Sunaad gelled as a team and excelled in their individual NudisaaNike during the memorable tani.. Wonderful indeed. The 60 + minutes of RTP mesmerized the audience.

Krishna Nee Begane preceded by shloka Vasudevasutam Devam was the last item of the beautiful concert..

- Report by Subbu Krishna

Low profile in Sriramapuram . . .

The mandali at Sriramapuram in Bangalore is keeping a low profile this year. For good reason too - it is constructing a house for the temple's priest and will need to raise funds for this.

Mandali secretary Krishnamurthy says that though the music draws only a s all local community of rasikas the team has been curating the fest closely.

This year they have chosen to host local, young and talented artistes. Chennai based Bhargav, a student of late Mandolin U Srinivas will be the only 'outsider' on stage - his concert will be a tribute to his great guru who passed away last year.

Sri Rama Seva Bhaktha Mandali - Sriramapuram

Ct: 99010 41264 / 99000 45654 ( Secy. Krishnamurthy)

Trio on stage build nostalgia

Malathi Sharma, Rathnamala Prakash (daughter of Vid. R K Srikantan) and Indu Vishwanath gave a mellifluous performance to a packed audience on Day 3 of the festival here at Jaya Nagar East End.

They presented "Sugama Sangeetha" and rendered 'Bhava Geethe' of poets like K S Narasimhaswamy, Nisar Ahmed and several others.  It was a unique program for all the three to come together on a stage after several years.  The audience went nostalgic listening to the songs and the applause lasted for long.

They were accompanied on the keyboard by Krishna Udupa Nagara, on the tabla by Pradyumna and on the rhythm pads by Abhishek.

- Photo and report by Prashanth

- You too can mail short notes on Ramanavami concerts in Bangalore. To- kutcheribuzz@gmail.com

Platform for young artistes

The teens and the young also get a platform this Season. This is pronounced at the fest that Vani Kala Kendra hosts at a associate school campus in Basaweshwara Nagar, Bangalore.

Curator Keshav tells us that on certain days the top of the evening slots are set aside for young talent - in music and in dance. 30minutes on the stage.

They even get a mention in the Kendra's promos. "If you can please write on them," suggests Keshav.

These are talented to be watched and some have been groomed at one of the Vani campuses in this part of Bangalore.

Sree Ramaseva Mandali in Chamarajpet also reserves its 5pm slot to young artistes. There may be a dozen people in the audience in the Big Top but it doesn't matter. The teens do their best.

Carnatic vocal jugalbandhi

Pavandeep and Vrinda Acharya performed a Carnatic vocal jugalbandhi for the community at Jaya Nagar East End on Day 2 of the festival.

They were accompanied on the violin by Achuta Rao, on the mridangam by Adamya and on the khanjira by Bhargava Haalambi.  Bringing in two vocalists from different banis (styles) was well received by the audience.


- Report and pic by Prashanth Kumar

Fest opens at Jaya Nagar East End

The 47th Ramothsava at the mandali at Jaya Nagar East End began on March 21. The inauguration was by Vedanta Ratna, Mahamahopadhyaya Vid. Dr. K G Subraya Sharma


The disciples of Pandit Shankar Narayan performed on the tabla and demonstrated various styles of gharanas (Delhi, Purab and Benaras). It was an evening for the teens to showcase their talent.

- Report, pictures by Prashanth Kumar

<< You too can report on the festival music concerts. Mail - kutcheribuzz@gmail.com

"Chennai's leading artistes charge the earth"

Sing free for the lord or charge a rate that befits stature?

This is a question that is thrown at leading artistes of the day. Many organizers have begun to say that Chennai-based top rankers now "charge the earth" even if the concerts are for a religious cause.

Many such leading artistes do no deny this fact. Their argument has been that they need to earn and need to be paid for their art and that their performing span is for a limited time.

The fee debate has been raging off and on for some time but leading artistes are getting what they ask for at social events.

T M Krishna triggered a debate when he chose to offer his December season concerts free at sabhas willing to host him. Others though have not followed him in this.

Clearly, not many stars are slated at all the mandalis though rasikas may want them over.

What are your thoughts on this issue? 

The fest at Jayanagar East End begins

The Mandali at Jayanagar's East End starts its religious and music celebrations on March 21.  This is one venue which is driven by close community participation.

And one of its busy bees, Prashanth shared a curtain raiser of thisfest -

The highlight of this year's event is that all the concerts are duets and jugal-bandhis.  

Pavandeep and Vrinda are coming together for a Jugalbandhi.  Both are from different bani.  Pavandeep is a direct disciple of TVG.

Ratnamala and Malathi are one of leading light music singers.  They have sung in several films and still carry the same yesteryear glory.

Ananthakrishna Sharma is a leading percussionist.  For the first time he's performing (vocal) along with Rajkamal (flute) again a confluence of 2 great artists.

For the first time we have artistes from Chennai performing at our Sabha (VV Ravi and Ganesh Prasad).  

The father son duo of Venkat Narayan and Krishnaprasad will be performing a unique program where the son will be singing and father will provide a glimpse of the importance and background.

The last day we'll be seeing the husband & wife performing together.  Suchetan is a famed singer (trained under P Unnikrishnan).  He will be performing a jugal-bandhi with his wife (Sindhu Suchetan) on the violin.

Steep costs of staging big music fests

If there is one issue that big mandalis face today is that of funding.

The big daddy at Chamrajpet has made it very open that the mandali is still to garner 50% of funds required to run the mammoth fest - for over 30 days and featuring some of India's best and Bangalore's brightest.

Sree Rama Seva Mandali has been ambitious and played it that way - some though may ask if they need to put up such  huge pandal as most concerts draw about 300/500 rasikas and that a pandal can be extended on the evenings when the stars perform.

But the Mandali goes by its own standards. Its promoters say some artistes charge very high rates today - though they sing for the lord! Budget for artistes pay - Rs.25 lakhs.

One supposes that the bigger a organization and its profile, the higher an artiste will tend to ask for. And artistes will argue that they too need to earn.

On the other hand, community driven mandalis do not seem to face a big problem. And Bangalore has more of them today as the city sprawl keeps expanding.

Welcome to Season 2015!

Welcome back to yet another year of music at Sri Ramanavami time. We at KutcheriBuzz have found it quite interesting to cover this unique fest closely, hopping from one venue to another, battling Bangalore's still booming traffic.

Moving from Chamrajpet to Seshadripuram can be daunting. But we do it because the fest calls for reportage - enabling rasikas who cannot be present to gets  whiff of the music, the artistes and the moods and color.

Over the next four weeks, we hope to bring you this close reportage.

We invite you too to join us - share your photos and notes on the concerts. Mail to - kutcheribuzz@gmail.com. Share your web links too.

This is after all a community driven reportage.

Welcome.