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IN FIRST PERSON   • Semmangudi     Sreenivasa Iyer   • Kunnakudi R     Vaidyanathan   • Soumya   • Nityashree     Mahadevan   • Unnikrishnan

Rajkumar Bharati

Rajkumar is the grandson of the legendary Tamil poet, Subramanya Bharati. It was his love for Carnatic music that made him quit his job as an engineer to concentrate fully on music.

My parents used to attend the Margazhi festival regularly and I would accompany them occasionally. By attending the concerts, I was introduced to our culture in a different way. I must say I was fortunate to have listened to great Carnatic musicians like Chembai Vaidhyanatha Bhagavathar!

I can honestly say I enjoyed the concerts as boy. But never did I, even in my wildest dreams, imagine I would sing in the Margazhi festival one day.

It was in 1974 or 1975, when I was barely 17, that I first participated in the festival. This was because of the prize I won at a a competition conducted for youngsters by the Indian Fine Arts Society. If you won, you were given a chance to perform in the festival.

All my friends from college and all those who participated in competitions were there to listen to me. It was an exciting experience but, as I grew older, I reached a stage when I had to choose between my music and my job. I decided to leave my job as an engineer and devote myself completely to music.

Although there is no difference in the way you perform during Margazhi and the rest of the season, this is one period that both musicians and rasikas look forward to.

The communication revolution that I see today is something I didn’t expect in 1974. As a result, Margazhi has become a widely publicized event. Earlier, only All India Radio relayed the concerts. I still remember how I used to wait for the clock to strike 8.30 pm, as that was the time AIR relayed the concerts. Later on, television channels started telecasting major concerts. Now you hear and see it on the Internet too. I was amazed when a friend of mine in the US told me he knew my whole itinerary for this season! This is the major change that I see today. More and more people are getting interested in the season.

Because of the over-enthusiasm, you see around 2000 concerts in a month which, I feel, is a bit too much for the rasikas as well. But you can’t help it. When I first started singing, there were only four or five sabhas in Chennai. People took the pains to go to these sabhas to listen to the concerts. Now, you have a sabha in every area and almost all the artistes perform in all these sabhas. So people wait for an artiste to come to their area and sing. I will not say that music has suffered because of this. In fact, I feel music has only benefited. There is no deterioration in the standards.

I also don't agree with the view that only the elderly go to the concerts. So many youngsters come to my concerts. In fact, the number of youngsters has increased over the years. See, you have to look at it this way: Is it not amazing that, despite so many distractions, youngsters still come to concerts and take to music as a profession?

Also in first person:
Semmangudi Sreenivasa Iyer
Kunnakudi R Vaidyanathan
Soumya
Nityashree Mahadevan
Unnikrishnan
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