TM Krishna: Singing Victimhood On A Stage That Never Denied Him

Irony was doing ragam, tanam, and pallavi as T M Krishna staged a theatrical performance of Perumal Murugan's lines: “sundhadhiram vendum, ethaiyum pesa, ethaiyum ezhutha, ethaiyum paada, ethaiyum padika, ethaiyum ketka” (freedom is needed to speak, write, sing, read, and hear anything).

The discourse that followed made it seem that this was a powerful show of dissent against forces that were trying to curtail Krishna.

But, as it happens, nothing can be farther from the truth.

In fact, the uproar over Krishna receiving the Sangita Kalanidhi is relatively minor. The real controversy, and the court case, concerns the mirror award in cash named after Sangita Kalanidhi MS Subbulakshmi. Significantly, the late singer’s family feels that Krishna has cast aspersions on her through his writings and speeches over time. They believe it is not appropriate for him to receive an award in her name.

We may all have opinions about what Krishna wrote and spoke, but those are irrelevant here. When a family — one that has upheld high standards of probity and decency in public — feels deeply hurt, the sensible course is to pause and step back. Basic civility demands it. You don't ride roughshod over their tattered feelings. No harm would have come from presenting the mirror award without MS Subbulakshmi’s name attached. It would have spared everyone the unseemly ballyhoo, avoided court cases, and prevented the exchange of angry, impassioned words from both sides.

But Krishna and the Academy’s high priests, who often lecture on showing grace, chose the path of disrespect. Now, with the court staying the award in MS Subbulakshmi’s name, they are playing politics on the musical stage. While Krishna has a large stage to blare his opinions from, MS’s family is left without one to voice theirs.

Double-faced act

But look who took to the stage and to dirge out verses on the need for freedom to speak? The irony that we alluded to is in the fact that Tamil Nadu has slapped the highest number of cases on social media posts and speeches, arresting many, including high-profile figures like Savukku Shankar, actress Kasthuri, and publisher Badri Seshadri, in the past year. Yet, Krishna has barely made a squeak against the state affairs in TN. But if we point this out, we are the ones threatening his freedom of expression. Huh!    

Make no mistake, Krishna has always had the space to say, speak, or sing anything he wants. So, what is he really complaining about? Why this false narrative of being a victim, a target of fascist forces?

The Music Academy, the newspaper group, Krishna and his team are making a brouhaha about the packed auditorium his concert elicited yesterday. A free concert on a public holiday was always going to get you that. Academy old-timers would recall that the Christmas morning concerts were once the stage for violin maestro TN Krishnan, who would end his performance with a carol or two, much to the audience's excitement and applause. 

So, the crowds at Krishna's show yesterday were always on the cards. And his singing of Perumal Murugan's lines was also not novel, considering that the same stage had once echoed with carols, without the artist feeling the need to draw attention to himself with, 'Look ma, how revolutionary I am for bringing Christian songs to a Hindu setting!'

Why no honour for Yesudas?

It is another sobering matter that the Academy never deemed it fit to honour an actual Christian whose singing has taken Carnatic music to places Krishna could never even imagine. We’re talking about the great K J Yesudas, who has still not received the Sangita Kalanidhi, despite him (and Ilaiyaraaja) being major reasons for Carnatic music reaching the masses through their cinematic contributions. 

Now it is a small industry in itself to research and perform Ilaiyaraaja's Caranatic-ragas-filled numbers. Raja and Yesudas have done more to sustain and popularize Carnatic music for a wide audience than the entire Carnatic music establishment, including Krishna, could ever dare to attempt. 

The Academy has mostly treated Yesudas and his Carnatic music with snooty indifference. But why Yesudas and two of the greatest exponents of Carnatic music — the nagaswaram maestros Tiruvarur Rajarathinam Pillai and Karaikurichi Arunachalam were never recognised by the commissars of the Academy? The former, in particular, tried valiantly for the Sangita Kalanidhi, regularly writing to the Academy, but the Academy folks never deigned to step down from the lofty cocoons they had ensconced themselves in.

The nagaswaram, as a musical instrument, is closest to the common public as it is played at every temple festival and wedding. By definition, nagaswaram players are the ones who bring Carnatic music to the real grassroots. For the record, since 1942, only three nagaswaram vidwans have been bestowed with the Sangita Kalanidhi. So much for rewarding artistic excellence.

In any case, Rajarathinam Pillai and Arunachalam took the unpardonable slight in their stride, never climbing onto the stage to cry wolf over it time and again. The ‘Yesudases’ and ‘Arunachalams’ never lost their dignity or poise, as they never played the victims. Their social activism was reflected in their music, not in their posturing.