Can you expect anything but the best when two aficionados in their own right come together in conversation about the greatest of the great and unparalleled creative genius? Prince Rama Varma and Sreenivasa murthy took us on a musical journey: ’Murali ganam :Remembering Balamuralikrishna’ at the Hindu Lit for Life festival 2017.
During their interaction which lasted over an hour Prince Varma gave an insight into the musician’s mind and his personality interspersing with a few quotes he recalled which gave us a complete perspective of the musical genius, that was Balamurali Krishna. Elaborating on this point, he said as a young boy, this child prodigy while travelling in a bucket seat of a cycle, heard a record of Dwaram Venkatataswamy naidu being played in a cart that happened to pass by and soon after reaching his Guru’s house, asked him to given a violin and played the entire krithi. His Guru said it was Dwaram’s song that he played and there was nothing of Balamurali in it!
Balamurali’s uniqueness lay in his voice which mesmerized people and the other aspect was the importance he gave for sahityam and he sang to the manner born irrespective of the language which was other than his mother tongue.
On the lighter side, Varma said modesty was not Balamurali’s virtue as he would claim to be the ‘fisht’ to give short breaks during concerts, and use the expression ‘better than the best’ which is the slogan of some advertisers.
During the q and a I asked why the media and his critics didn’t do justice to Balamurali’s creative genius and Varma thought perhaps it was for two reasons-jealousy and ignorance of the art and added Balamurali couldn’t care less, infact he reveled in it!
N Meera Raghavendra Rao
Just Li'Es 