Mysore, May 29

Be it a temple in Halebeedu, Kailas Temple at Ellora, Krishna Temple in Dwaraka, Swami Vivekananda Centre in Kan-yakumari, Rajagopura of Virupaksha Temple in Hampi and Golden Tower at Tirupathi Temple, the pencil sketches of all these monuments can now be seen under one roof in city.

The venue is the Mysore Art Gallery where the young artist R.Veerendra Kumar has put up an exhibition of rare drawings which drive a common man through the annals of temple structures drawn with the help of pencils while the art of pencil art is facing extinction.

Veerendra Kumar, who has drawn these sketches, has dedicated the same to his guru —senior artist C.Kuppachar as Guru Kanike.

The sketches of temples at Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Mahabalipuram, Jalakante-shwara Temple, Siddeshwara Temple at Haveri, Sharada Devi Temple at Sringeri, Rama-Lakshmana Temple at Sripura and Jagganatha Temple at Puri, Bruhadeshwara Temple at Tanjore, Malagatti Temple at Badami, Kedarnath Temple, Meenakshi Temple at Madurai and Jain temples catches the attraction of each and everyone who enter the exhibition of pencil sketches in which more than 30 art works sketched by Veerendra Kumar for over three years are on display.

Veerendra Kumar has said that advancement in modern art, colour pictures with special effects had forced the pencil art to the backseat and claims that he undertook the mission to save the pencil art which was on the verge of extinction. He further said that only pencil art would ensure proper depiction of historical structures as colour paintings fail to project the intricate carvings in these structures.

Veerendra Kumar’s mentor Kuppachar inaugurated the expo in the presence of founder of Mysore Art Gallery S. Shivalingappa, Convenor Prabha Shivalingappa and others. The expo, which began on May 26, concludes today at 6 pm.

source: http://www.StarofMysore.com / General News / May 29th, 2012

Mysore:

In olden days, a student of music had to learn the art by staying in the house of his guru, according to Gurukula system. Thus their academic education took a back seat. But as they become proficient in music, they also would acquire the knowledge of Sanskrit, Kannada, Telugu, Tamil and other languages required for music. They would also become scholars in Philosophy, Veda, Tarka (logic) and such other ancient Shastras in Sanskrit.

There may be some exceptions here also, like Maharaja Jayachamaraja Wadiyar who was a post-graduate in philosophy from Mysore University and an alumni of Trinity College of London, who after graduating in music, balanced music and the responsibility of ruling his land magnificently; or T.V. Shankaranarayana, who was a lawyer, who left the law profession and became a full-fledged musician or the case of vocalist R.K. Pad-manabha, who left a well-paying Bank job and dedicated himself for the cause of music.

If the Maharaja managed both profession and music, the remaining two left the profession for the sake of music. There are a few others who fall in these categories, but they can be counted on fingertips.

It is interesting to note that in our time, many well-educated youth, in particular, are choosing music either as a profession or as a hobby. H.K. Venkata Ram, Manasa Nayana, Manasi Prasad, Pattabhi Rama Pandit, Saketh Raman are only a few names who are highly educated and acquired good status in music. Many even have a Ph.D in music.

Once again as we scan the list, we see the names of Dr. Udaya Kiran and Dr. Hamsini Nagendra (both visually impaired), Dr. Mysore M. Manju-nath, Dr. Sukanya Prabhakar, Dr. R.N. Srilatha, Dr. C.A. Sridhar, Dr. Jayanthi Kumaresh, Dr. S. Geetha, Dr. Meera Rajaram etc. This douses the fear that our culture is being neglected and instills confidence that the future of classical music is safe.

V. Bala Krishna, an Engineering graduate, working in an IT company in Bengaluru, is one among them, who has taken music as a hobby, balancing both the profession and the music. He is a disciple of Delhi Rama Murthy Bhagavatar. He had performed in Mysore once earlier, though it was a short kacheri. In fact I was curious to listen to his full concert. This young lad, bestowed with a rich voice, has tamed it superbly, with good training. His concert had been organised by NR Mohalla San-geetha Sabha on May 19. The accompaniments, violin (Adithi Krishna Prakash) and mrudanga (Sai Shiva Lakshmi Ke-shava) were the same as that of his previous short kacheri at Bidaram Rama Mandira during March, which may be a pure coincidence. In any case, the impressive presentation proved that he is a promising singer.

Bala Krishna set the tone of the concert with a Thodi Varna Eraa Naapai of Patnam Subramanya Iyer, serenely in two speeds. This was embellished with a brief Swara. The next number, a piece on Lord Ganapathi, was the Siddhi Vinayakam Seveham (Mohana Kalyani-Adi-Muthaiah Bhagavatar), which was prefixed with a brief Alapane and a not-so-brief, but leisurely Swara Prasthara.

The subsequent Padmavathi Ramanam (Purvi Kalyani-Mishra Chapu-Ootthukkadu Venkata Kavi) also contained a good Alapane and a Swara Prasthara.

The singer’s control over his voice came to fore in the unhurried rendering of Sujana Jeevana (Khamach-Rupaka-Tyagaraja). He chose Latangi for the Madh-yma Kala Kruti in between two Vilamba Kala Krutis, with Apara-dhamulanni (Latangi-Adi-Patnam Subramanya Iyer), with a Neraval at the Sahitya line Krupajesi Naa Manavyaala, in the same speed.

Mangalampalli Balamurali Krishna has composed a good number of krutis. Though some of them are in popular ragas, the composition of the sahitya and the original sangathis, with which he has composed, pose difficulty to emulate. Bala Krishna chose one such Kruti Kaavave Kanya Kumaari in Shahana. The difficulty comes in inter-mixing the pieces of sahitya in Vilamba and Madhyama Kalas, which this singer successfully executed.

Kalyani was his main melody of the concert. He leisurely went through all the subtle nuances in its delineation. The raga expansion is worth mentioning, as it turned out to be a well-patterned essay in all the three octaves. The use of Akaras, interlacing with Birkas and judiciously using Gamakas was the highlight of the Alapane. He then chose to render the popular number Kamalambaam Bhajare (Vilamba Adi-Muthu Swamy Dikshitar). His lucidity of sahitya is appreciable.

After some interesting san-gathis, he took up a Neraval with the Pallavi line itself Kamalaam-baam Bhajare Re Manasa. Even here, he used the technique of inter-mixing some phrases in Vilamba and Madhyama Kala appealingly. The Swara Prasthara was with superb smoothness and in pleasing progressions, based on pure Manodharma.

The concert concluded with three more numbers, Vanchato-nunaa (Karna Ranjani-Trishra Nade Adi-Muthaiah Bhagavatar), Sada Enna Hrudayadalli (Behag-Rupaka-Vijaya Vittala Dasa) and a Lalgudi Tillana in Brundavani.

The violinist Adithi was a well match for this singer. Both her follow-up and the Tani were superb. Sai Shiva expressed his versatility through his media, mrudanga. The Tani Avartana by him was a clear rhythmic affair.

I may add here that Adithi will be moving to Bengaluru in a few days, as this engineering graduate got a job there.

Mysore will be poorer by one more established violinist. All the best to her.

—S.R. Krishna Murthy

source: http://www.StarofMysore.com / Feature Article / May 30th, 2012

Bangalore:

Brutal, insane, heavy, melodic, loud, energising, powerful and talented, these are few words to describe a local band ‘Desat’. In order to give a platform and encourage young artists and musicians, Avaroha organised a gig for the metal heads and music lovers to promote local bands in the city. It was a truly head bangers paradise on Sunday at Italia, when Desat played their hearts out and kept the crowd wanting for more.

The band played over 12 songs among which they had few heavy covers from bands like Lamb of God, Children of Bodom and Cradle of Filth, and with their original compositions they brought the roof down.

The band’s own compositions have lyrics based on humanitarianism and love. The band proved to be so good that, even Santa Clause who came to distribute sweets ended up head banging with few others from the gathering.

There is a perception that metal is just noise or drug addicts playing the so-called music. But, this band tells a different story. Their metal is unlike any other metal bands in our city. Apart from playing heavy riffs and double bass beats, the band also has flautist, who is a major at Carnatic classical. It’s a perfect balance of heavy distortion, soft melodies and to add the magical touch, the band also has a keyboardist.

The band Desat is a seven-piece band, which was formed two years back. They have played a number of shows around the city and spread the message of metal and power to the crowd.

The band was formed in an unusual way as well. Victory who had a jam room used to rent it out for bands to practice, that’s when he met Sunil and Sri Kiran.

They soon started to jam for fun, this led to introducing new member in the band, and before they set of for their first performance, they had seven people in the band contributing their talents in creating good music.

Victory, one of the founding members of the band says, “We formed this band with an idea to free the world from all the civic and political issues. We all want a change in this world, we feel that, we can achieve that through our music and that is what we are doing.”

The band has one more element that isn’t found in so many bands.

They have an element of experiential metal in their music, along with heavy vocals, they also have soft vocals which is sung by two different people.

Avinash says, “Victory plays the lead guitar and sings as well, but he sings in a softer tone. I growl in the band. This makes our genre experimental progressive metal.”

Even if one doesn’t like metal, seeing the band having fun on stage will automatically put a smile on your face, that is if your not heading banging to their music.

The band wouldn’t be complete if it wasn’t for the keyboardist. Even though the drummer and the guitarists do a good job, the keyboardist adds a special touch the their music with leads and rhythm and vocals just takes it all out.

Victory says, “I think our secret element is, we record all our jamming sessions, we just get a rough sketch about how our song should sound like and we start working on it. While we are jamming we come up across, few notes which turn out to be brilliant. With the recordings, we also correct our mistakes and work on our timing.”

He adds, “Be there, be metal. Support local band in the city, not all of us can be like Justin Bieber, for us metal is just more than music, it is our doorway to happiness.”

source: http://www.ibnlive.in.com / South> Southern News> Bangalore / by Jaikishan Janardhan / The New Indian Express / March 28th, 2012