Don't be scared of tala, says Sriram Parasuram

Mridangists feel dismayed when the audience walks out en masse when the tani begins, quite justifiably so. T M Krishna has often asked the mridangist to cease playing till such time as those who want to go, are out of the hall, as a sign of protest against such a practice.

I remember an incident. Once, T K Murthy was playing (for OST, if I remember right). This was in the Shastri hall, Mylapore. The tani began and a man began to walk out. Murthy stopped him.

"You are going away! Aren't we playing for you?"

To which the man said, rather sheepishly, "Sir, I don't understand laya much."

Murthy's reply was like the crack of a whip. I provide that in the original Tamil, for the effect is lost in translation.

"Ivar paadinadu mattum ungalukku purinjuducha?" ("As if you understood everything the vocalist sang!")

One can understand the chagrin of the percussionist, who is treated as though he is something to be put up with. But scratch the surface a little, it is easy to realize that rather than find fault with the rasika, there is a need to tweak the system a little.

Rasikas need to be made to understand the nuance of laya a bit. Perhaps it would help if the vocalist would give his running commentary on what the mridangist-ghatam-kanjira artistes are doing.

T M Krishna, since he is so concerned, should try something like this, rather than berate the audience.

The reason why rasikas leave at the beginning of the tani is the "fear of tala" says violinist-vocalist, Sriram Parasuram. He spoke on the nuances of laya in a lec-dem for the Chennai chapter of Music Forum, on Tuesday, January 2, 2016.  The lecture touched upon various features of tala, such as laghu, drutham, anu drutham, maatra, akshara etc, and eduppus, and gatis etc, and was quite interesting, but regrettably, due to paucity of time, Sriram could not demonstrate those essential aspects that would help one appreciate a tani better--thisram, misram, kantham etc. Sriram has promised to do so on another occasion, and I looked forward to it.

The Music Forum meets on the first Tuesday of every month to discuss, in the words of Mr R Thyagarajan, Founder of the Shriram group, "how to influence the environment" towards betterment of carnatic music.

The Forum meetings are followed by a lec-dem by Sriram.

In the question-answer session, I asked Sriram if accompanying violinists get flummoxed when the main artiste picks up a rare or complex tala.

"Oh, absolutely. It happens all the time," came the answer, without a moment's hesitation.

"But we don't see you guys in trouble at all. You seem to manage to carry on," said I.

"We are also good actors," said Sriram.