Classic treat

NADAMADHURI, ON ASIANET, is a programme that is popular among lovers of Carnatic music. The weekly half-hour, (5 p.m, Tuesdays) is a "must-watch" for students and connoisseurs. It is basically a teaching session with eminent vocalist Neyyatinkara Vasudevan explaining and demonstrating the nuances of a raga to a group of well-trained students. When Nadamadhuri was first aired, the sessions were conducted by none other than Damodaran Namboodiri, who was responsible for building the tremendous popularity that the programme enjoys among viewers. Today, he has gone on to become a much sought-after character actor on the Malayalam screen.

Back to Nadamadhuri and Neyyatinkara Vasudevan... The guru selects a particular raga, expounds the scale and then explains further with kritis by various composers. A particular kriti is then selected and elaborated upon. It is taught step by step and, if need be, continued into the next slot. A group of students of differing ages comprises the team each week — their singing speaks volumes of the sound training imparted to them by their guru. It is worth mentioning here that Kerala has, in recent times, trained and nurtured several eminent musicians. The songs chosen for Nadamadhuri are in Telugu, Kannada, Tamil and Malayalam and are fluently rendered. The setting is aesthetic and uncluttered.

With the start of Asianet Global's Tamil channel "Bharati", Carnatic music buffs can look forward to an even bigger treat each week by way of the Gurukulam show. Conducted on Saturdays, by Neyveli Santhanagopalan, it still has a long way to go to meet the standard set by its Malayalam counterpart. Nevertheless, it also has students of various ages singing along with the guru. Here, more often than not, the guru's voice drowns that of the students. The result, it is an assured half-hour concert by Santhanagopalan, interspersed, of course, with a few witticisms and explanations.

There is no dearth of good and talented singers but a dedicated teacher is not easy to come by. Asianet, must be congratulated for putting together a programme that tries in a unique way to keep tradition alive.

RUPA GOPAL

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