The False Superiority complex

Just because she has a good voice, she has no business to render great compositions such as "Nagumomu", "Sarasasamadhana" and other Tamil songs and even Meera bhajans in Michael Jackson style, ridiculing their sanctity and a classical tradition ridiculing their sanctity and a classical tradition which has been preserved for so many hundreds of years by devoted classical musicians. Read here..

I found the above review in the Hindu metro section. First and fore most I did not hear the songs or go to the concert hence I really don’t know how bad this show was, I don’t want comment on the show. May be it really misfired. This happens in many so called fusion shows. However I was surprised to see people nose crying.

You Don’t like You Don’t go.

In my opinion an artist has every freedom to experiment, if a majority likes it they are welcome to continue it, if not they will find it soon and change their experimentation. The above review seems to have bluntly and blindly discounted the musical and art experimentation freedom. And in this process reviewer has poorly compared the so called “Michael Jackson style”, this apart from proving that she has very poor knowledge on popular music, she hits the wrong note on Jackson fans. For his fans his music is good Right? Like you enjoy “Nagumo” in its purest form, hey there are people who enjoy “the way you make me feel” or “black or white”. First stop thinking that popular music is poor in music sense while Carnatic music is the divine sent pure sweet nectar.

Carnatic or Western - Music is divine for the musicians.

It seems the reviewer says it is time for someone to start protecting “the sanctity”, the reviewer has taken the rights to call for such protection, yes good idea, but first who owns it? That in itself is an unknown issue for now, hey! My point is if you don’t like experimentations and allergic to hear “nagumo” on modern grooves, you are welcome to walk out of it or stay home. Period.

Tell me this, where were you then? Recently I heard some old recordings of popular Carnatic singer with all respects due to him, I learnt one new thing, Lord Krishna was born in the "Nayar kulam" rather than "Ayar kulam", he sang thaye yesodha, where this was captured quite well. I feel first step will be to make sure every Carnatic musician pronounce the words properly instead of swallowing, twisting, pulling, splitting at their will, dragging and munching words. Another example is the Bharathi song, theeradha vilaiyatu pillai, 9 out 10 singers sing it as pengaluku “Koyatha” thollai, there is no word in Tamil called “koyadha”. What the hell is this all about? Now Can the so called “Tamil sanctity keepers” sue Carnatic musicians for these blunders? I have never seen any comment from the so called above mentioned self appointed guardian for Carnatic music. Ask our Telugu speaking friends, they will vouch tons for pronunciation goof ups.

I really don’t care what Susheela Raman did on the stage but I am little upset to see the reviewer spewing generalized and discriminate opinions on a different form of music in order to justify the form she loves. You are welcome to call Carnatic music to be pure, your opinion, but do not insult musicians from other form in this process. You don’t have the right. Curtail your Superiority complex.
And for The Hindu, if they really stand in the middle, they should have at least edited some lines.