Lost in the moment

The three tamburas that occupied a prominent place in the drawing room of Nithyasree Mahadevan’s home spoke volumes of their own personal histories in a cultural context — a young tambura, an adolescent, and a mature one, I said to myself! The smallest was easily the most unassuming one and I discovered it had the longest history — a personal companion to her maternal grandfather, the legendary Palghat Mani Iyer. The one in the centre belonged to her paternal grandmother, the celebrated Carnatic vocalist, D K Pattammal (DKP). The tallest of the trio is Nithya’s personal friend, barely 25 years old. In another corner of the room is a beautiful black and white photograph of her famous grandmother receiving an award from Dr S Radhakrishnan.

Music in her genes

It was against such an illustrious backdrop that Nithya began her musical journey – if I could rephrase Tennyson, it was an environment where she found “music to the left of her/ music to the right of her/music in front of her...” They “volleyed and thundered” around her at all times. She recalls how she first began attending kutcheris as a young two-and-a-half-year-old, sitting on her grandfather’s lap in the audience. When she was a little older, she was allowed to sit on the platform — but the instructions were the same: she had to sit quietly and simply listen. Music was thus allowed to enter into her system and her early lessons were of unconscious assimilation.

Then began the process of miming which happens when an idea or a lesson begins to take root. Slowly, the family members began noticing, especially her mother Lalitha who felt the six-year-old was ready to be tutored by the grandest guru, her own grandmother, provided she felt that way too! Lalitha taught her daughter to never take her music lessons for granted because of easy accessibility; on the contrary, she taught her to appreciate every moment of it. Thus grew up Nithya understanding the place of privilege, prominence and an extraordinary blessing.

When she was invited by YACM at the age of 13 for her very first kutcheri , her father was very critical of her performance, and it was DKP who reminded her son about the age of the young girl. But she won the award for the very same concert!

Nithya realised that music was like a well-tried-out recipe — the more you try, the more you perfect it. She then understood that she could never allow her music to stagnate. She was fortunate to have criticism within the house, but even if she was criticised by her critics, she made it a point to see the worth of the criticism.

She narrates an anecdote: in one of her concerts, she had once announced that she would sing ‘Thirumurai Padalgal’ (Thevaram). But she was so engrossed in her alaap, swaram and manodharma that she could include only a few of the aforementioned thevaram in her repertoire. There was praise all around. But one rasika voiced his disapproval publicly. But, besides apologising, there was little much that she could do. She spent a sleepless night but soon got into her musical exercise.

A year later, a similar-themed concert found Nithya singing, and this time rendering the thevaram. At the end of the concert, she was surprised to see a familiar-looking rasika, who on an earlier occasion, had gone home disappointed. Only this time, he was beaming as he told Nithya how much he enjoyed the concert.

She understands that audiences have changed and they are diverse in their tastes and understanding. There are some who will nod or tap in joy only when a familiar song is sung, others if it is a vernacular one, some others if it a new raga, some others if there is a tukda — a musician has a tough job of catering to different palates, which she has successfully managed to do till date.

On the big screen

A sudden foray into film singing catapulted her big time and she was able to reach out to a wider audience. Because she had consolidated her position in the classical arena by then, she was welcomed with open arms by the masses, and the purists also did not grudge her success. It was Providence that played a role — A R Rahman invited her to sing the number ‘Kannodu Kanbathellam’ (Jeans), which became an instant hit. She went on to sing several other numbers including the ‘Ra Ra’ number for the Kannada version of the film Chandramukhi.

Recently, she was awarded the Sangeeta Choodamani from Sri Krishna Gana Sabha. Talking about it, she says, “ Every award is important to me, and yet when I receive an award from a sabha that is 62 years old, it becomes even more special to me.” As we were leaving, she strummed the three tamburas — the melodic shruti of a rich legacy!