Earlier this year, I had a most delightful afternoon in the company of Keshav Desiraju, along with my brother and sister-in-law. We were distantly connected - a tenuous familial tie across several marital bridges, the kind that makes sense only in India. His book on the life and music of the great Carnatic musician MS Subbulakshmi, Of Gifted Voice, had just been published, and the time flew by as we discussed our favourite musicians and music and a good deal more. And less than two months back, I presented a review of his book to the Sunday book club of the Madras Club, a monthly get-together of a wonderful assortment of booklovers who talk about a book (or several) that they have read (one that is preferably in the Club’s library, an incentive for people to make more use of its fantastic collection). This meeting was to be a special one, as Keshav himself would be in attendance (all virtually, thanks to the pandemic). I was in equal parts excited and nervous, as you can well imagine.
This morning I received the shocking news that Keshav had passed away from a massive coronary attack. He was just 66. All day long my mind has been filled with the memories of my short time with this smiling, soft-spoken man whose gentle manner belied a razor-sharp mind and intellect.
Here is a rough draft of my review. Do read the book - you will be considerably enriched and it will be a worthy tribute to Keshav.
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We have all heard of MS Subbulakshmi. Whatever you might think of her and her music, it is undeniable that she was a major presence in the Carnatic music world.
We have many images of her, that individually do scant justice to this multifaceted person: the lady with the fantastic Kanchipuram saree collection; a woman of enormous devotion full of kindness and piety; the do-gooder who donated generously to charity; the MS who was involved with major figures in India’s freedom struggle like Gandhi; and locally and closer to home, her connection with the Tamil Isai Movement; the movie MS, most famous perhaps for her role in Meera; the gifted young girl who ran away from home and made her life with a married man with children - Sadasivam, of course; and of course, the remarkable partnership between her and Sadasivam that has excited all sorts of speculation. She lived at the tail-end of the Devadasi tradition and the birth of everything that evolved after that, and in that sense, she was really a trailblazer.
Towering above all of these, and the common thread running through all these many faces of MS, is the most important of all, the persona that made all the other personas possible: MS as a musician of the highest order, one who shone brightly in an era that was already filled with superstars like Ariyakudi, GNB, Madurai Mani Iyer, MLV, DKP, etc etc.
But really - what do so many of us think or talk about when MS’s name comes up? Mostly superficial stuff, right? What colour saree she wore, for instance. Her mallipoo and mookuthi, what a devotional person she was, etc etc. But there is not much of substance and depth about her actual music. Her musical career spanned half a century but rarely do we look back and scan that period to get an insight into how she evolved as a musician.
And that is the brilliance of Keshav’s book. He dives deep and ventures wide into many aspects of MS’s musical world and journey. A great deal of the book goes into details about her concerts and the songs and ragams she sang in them. Because whatever else she did and was, this was the main substance of her life!
He manages to eke out information about a woman who was paradoxically very much in the public eye but at the same time a very private person, who lived and worked in a time when it was not the norm for musicians to be quizzed about their musical journeys and inspirations. Add to this the fact that women musicians of the time did not engage with the public about the intricacies of their music; much of the discussions about them centered around their looks or clothes, or their family lives! The book mentions a tantalising might-have-been - MS’s letters and other writings that were destroyed after she died, words that might have given us some insight into the human behind the music.
The book tracks, with meticulous attention to detail, MS’s multiple journeys: from Madurai to Madras; from films to classical; her growth and rise to fame as one of the most renowned Carnatic musicians of her time - the UN concert and Sangeetha Kalanidhi are part of this period; she was the first woman to be awarded the Sangeetha Kalanidhi by the Music Academy; and then the move to the devotional recordings that are played in homes and temples around the world to this day; the slowing down and tapering off years, retirement and the sad end. At every stage, the book goes into details about the music that formed part of her life then and in reading through the book one gets an excellent sense of the evolution of her musical journey.
Her earlier moves were fuelled by a sense of adventure and ambition that we somehow think are unseemly and don’t like to associate with the later, pious image we have of her. But it cannot be denied. Just look at the cover of the book: that smile with a hint of mischief and impishness, maybe even a dash of daredevilry, that sideways glance, a photo that (to me) captures a moment of something unfettered, real.
One thing I found fascinating was the exhaustive study of so many of her concerts, and to see, from the perspective of stepping back and surveying the evidence, that there was a sameness, a predictability to so many of her concerts. There were certain ragams and kirtanams and thukkadas that regularly made an appearance at her concerts; even her alapanais, which are supposed to be improvised on the spot, had a certain standardised quality or stamp, and rather than make them stale and repetitive, it had the opposite effect - of feeding a need, a desire, for these very songs and ragams, because she had honed them to absolute perfection. Those songs reached their highest calling with her and one never ever tired of listening to them repeatedly. And more importantly, her enjoyment and involvement were always fresh; not once did one feel that she was sick and tired of a song, even if she was singing it for the 100th time. That was a very special kind of magic spell that MS cast.
I loved that the book includes the stories of many of MS’s fellow women musicians and performers. There are the well-known ones like Brinda, DKP and MLV and also Balasaraswathi with whom she shared a special friendship, but others who were probably as gifted as MS, but whose star never shone quite as brightly as it should, or could have. There were a bunch of other Subbulakshmis of which only our MS’s name remains in public memory. One interesting personality is Rajam Pushpavanam who started out with a great deal of promise, yet almost nobody knows her name. It is very likely that she and MS shared the same father, and the book points out many striking resemblances between the two women, in their appearance, and even the timbre of their voices. MS herself claimed that her father was a Madurai lawyer called Subramania Iyer, but according to the book, it is widely believed that her biological father was the hugely gifted vocalist Madurai Pushpavanam Iyer - father of Rajam Pushpavanam - whose brother was the father of the great Madurai Mani Iyer. If this is indeed true, MS and Madurai Mani Iyer were first cousins.
Fifteen chapters long, it begins with a superb 1st chapter that explores the many strands that contributed to the fabric of Carnatic music. We see it has not been a linear development, and it has had influences from much further afield than a narrow geographic boundary. He covers its path from the Vedas, and includes the bhakthi movement of the 7th - 8th centuries, the various empires like Chola, Vijayanagar, Maratha, etc and how their courts and ethos influenced the music; obviously, the great trinity of Muthuswami Dikshithar, Thyagaraja and Shyama Sastri.
Then follows a chronological journey through MS’s life, but throughout, the text is made richer with a wealth of information that complements and supplements her story. There is historical, political, cultural and social context, there are the people and institutions who were part of both her immediate ecosystem as well as the larger world who made an impact on her and on whom she made an impact. It’s a fascinating period she lived through, times of great turmoil and upheaval in India, with so much going on - radio, gramophone, the freedom movement, the identity politics of the Tamil Isai movement, etc etc. Her mother, Shanmukhavadivu’s story, MS’s childhood, he famous trip to Madras are all covered wonderfully; her relationship with the great GNB, the movie Shakuntalam.
On to the Fifties when the MS name grew in stature. These were her peak years - a peak that lasted a long time! Certain songs became imprinted with the MS aura - Rama rama gunaseema in Simhendramadhyamam, Tiruvadicharanam in Kambhoji, Maha Vaidyanatha Iyer’s Melakarta Ragamalika. And, as Desiraju writes - an astute image change took place starting in the mid - 1950s. This is when the MS of the bun with jasmine flowers, the jewel-toned Kanchipuram sarees, the diamond mookuthi... MS showed you could be a Maami and be fashionable too! There is exhaustive detail about her concert repertoire, and interspersed with all this is information on the contemporary kutcheri format and how it came about, and family life updates. The book moves on in time and notes how her concert repertoire solidified, identifying certain key songs and ragas that became her trademark. All the while there is information on the other musicians of the period., their quirks, strengths and weaknesses.
The book then follows her journey through the path of devotion - the chants, the bhajans, the suprabhathams, etc. Through it all the hectic concert schedule continued and MS prepared meticulously for each and every one, every detail attended to. And then, the long drawn out retirement, the slowing down and scaling back, from the mid-1970s. The death of Sadasivam. The financial struggles. Through it all, the charity. Her Bharat Ratna, what the book poignantly calls her “last great moment”, in 1998, for which she travelled to Delhi, and where she met Ravi Shankar. There is a delightful little anecdote recounted here - you should read the book to find out what it is! (pg 273).
I loved the last chapter - A Life, which is devoted to her music, How she made even the most difficult songs seem easy, how she honed each and every piece to shining perfection. How her music was special because of the influence of the vina and nadaswaram. How, for the vast repertoire of songs she had, she fell back on a chosen few, time and time again. It is impossible to do justice to all he has covered here; you have to read the book. The chapter ends with a homage to 5 women musicians, her contemporaries, who were the Voice for their country, their culture, their tradition just like MS was for Carnatic music and India.. Umm Kulthum of Egypt; Edith Piaf of France; Ella Fitzgerald of the United States, Maria Callas of Greece and America and Joan Sutherland of Australia. They were vastly different in many ways, but there was a strong common core that binds them together.
A nice little touch that I really liked was a line from a song that accompanied every chapter heading. For instance - for the chapter on Sadasivam, there is a line from Muthuswami Dikshithar’s Sadasivam Upasmahe. Just another indication of the enormous attention to detail that enhances and enriches this book.
There is a lovely section of photographs, many of which I had never seen before. Actually, MY favorite is one of a teenaged MLV with her mother Lalithangi!
There are extensive notes and a fantastic Appendix of her best-known songs.
The book’s greatest strength - that it unabashedly places MUSIC front and center - can also be seen as its weakness - IF you are someone not particularly immersed in, or knowledgeable about, Carnatic music. I feel this is not a book that just anybody can pick off the shelf and read; some knowledge of and interest in Carnatic music is a must. My opinion.
QUESTIONS: WHY? WHAT ARE YOUR MEMORIES OF HER?
IMPACT - IS IT STILL THERE?
AGENCY - DO YOU THINK SHE HAD ANY IN HER LIFE?
THE LETTERS - SHOULD THEY HAVE BEEN MADE PUBLIC?
I think many of us have been given to believe, or have chosen to believe, that MS had little or no agency in the choices she made - or were made for her - and the actions she took. The book argues otherwise, that many of the actions and choices were hers, with a particular outcome in mind. Her running away from home in Madurai and moving in with a married man, he says, was a deliberate move on her part. What she sought above all was to be a wife and mother and the security and respectability that came with it (Radha, Sadasivam’s daughter, said this). Of course, there is a glaring contradiction here, which is that that was not the life she ended up living at all!