The singer TM Krishna is well known in the cultural world of South Indian traditional Carnatic Music as an “enfant terrible”. He made his name in his early years as a wonderful highly gifted young singer.
After many years of being counted amongst the top-tier rankers of the Carnatic music “kutcheri circuit”, TMK suddenly plunged into political activism of a specious sort. He wrote books , addressed public rallies and began to project himself as some kind of rebel whose principal cause was to break what he called the “Brahmin stranglehold” over the whole world of Carnatic music, its players, aficionados, promoters, patrons and institutions.
Once TMK went down that road there was no stopping him from graduating to full-fledged left-liberalism …
Soon he got deeply embroiled in the messy, murky world of Tamil Nadu “identity politics”, “minority community politics”, “Aryan-Dravidian ethno-cultural divide” , “urban naxalist sympathies”, “civil, human and women rights” …
Today, he has built for himself a brand image as left-liberal, true-blue socialist, Brahmin-bashing, celebrity-iconoclast who rose up with all guns blazing from out of the staid, bourgeois, oppressive tradition-bound, conservative backwaters and environs of the cultural bastion of South India.
Today , there are thousands of his fans some of whom remain his loyal steadfast music fans, some who are enchanted with his celebrity status as a social champion of sorts, and there are some who love both his music and his politics … and then there are some who love him inspite of his politics … and finally, there are some, like yours truly, who disdain his music because they feel that it is his very own disdainful brand of politics that has led to the steady deterioration and even degradation of the true quality of sublime music that he used to possess once upon a time.
Every now and then , TMK who is the darling, poster-boy of social-media buzz , manages to keep himself in the public eye through his Twitter comments through which he raises many a storm in a teacup which disappears often as quickly as it breaks out. But then it provides grist for the mill of discussions and casual debates amongst small inconsequential groups of WhatsApp “chatteratti” amongst the Chennaite arm-chair communities whose love for Carnatic music transcends their disappointment with or contempt for TMK’s politics .
Vehement if not heated debates then breakout for a few days amongst them over this maverick Carnatic musician and passionate comments then fly about either condemning TMK or defending him . Love him or hate him , you can’t ignore a TMK tweet or posting!
One such debate occurred a few days amongst a small group of members in a WhatsApp circle in which I am a participant too. I am sharing the transcripts of that entire debate here, with no names of identities, revealed, purely for fun and frolic, and with neither malice nor charity towards none. .
It all started with this one Twitter posting of TM Krishna that was widely circulated on social media a few days ago:
This Tweet was forwarded by someone in my WhatsApp group … and then all hell broke loose over the ensuing couple of days!
Read on now and enjoy the serious-minded banter !
Mr. SR: Morphing into another Urban Naxal. What a waste of talent, this guy!
Mr. SU: Sir, I think TMK badly needs psychiatric counselling .
Mr. JM: SU, listen to his Mohanam in this forwarded YouTube video-clip rather than focussing on irrelevant parts of his persona.
He is arguably, one of the best exponents of carnatic music today
Mr SU: JM, He is a good singer who has gone to seed.
If you are a Carnatic music connoisseur… perhaps you are … you must know that it is “manodharma” and “Mano bhaavam” music …
Which means this music reflects the interior mindscape of the artiste. This form of music is not just about artistry and technical prowess … This music is laden with Bhakti rasa … Bhakti bhaava… You can sing a kriti of Thyagaraja or of Dikshitar flawlessly with all the right notes and lyrics and taalam… but Mano bhaavam is the real X factor without which the singer cannot truly connect with the heart of the true rasika …
TMK can essay Mohanam raagam very well with flourish and flamboyance , of course … but then, in my opinion, only in the manner of well-rehearsed one-man vocal band or orchestra… It is pretentious, cloying music , it is not sublime music …
Agatthin azhaghu muggathil teriyumm… is an old Tamizh proverb … i.e. Inner spiritual Beauty shows up as outward physical effulgence … It is the same with Carnatic music too to the trained ear and the palate of cultivated refined taste … These days TMK’s inner disturbed inner manobhaavam is wanting in grace and that shows up in his music too … His stage performance is little more than grandstanding and playing to the gallery …
His music has lost the depth and range of aesthetic feeling it once had due to spiritual stagnation … And that’s because his mind is just not perfectly in tune with his music . His music is histrionic in nature , it is very appealing no doubt to audiences which only want to be entertained by music, not elevated by it.
In his political beliefs and personal values TMK rejects everything that Sri Thyagaraja , Diksheetar and Syama Sastri stood for … starting with his openly professed contempt and hatred for the very concept of varnaashrama order .. for Hindutva or everything Hindu… and for even the true traditional roots of Bhakti … and ending with his own rather perverted, ego-bloated social conscience ….
BTW, I was fortunate to grow up in a home as a boy where thanks to my mother, who was an accomplished singer acknowledged for high classicism, even the walls there used to hum Carnatic music … So, please spare me lectures on how to appreciate “relevant” Carnatic music . 🙏
Mr.RA: There are several other greater exponents of Mohanam. It’s important that we boycott this urban naxal altogether to ensure that he goes into obscurity
Mr. SU: Yes, Ram … Mohanam raagam was a very special offering of Late Maharajapuram Santanam …. Used to love his rendering of the raagam…. Mohana-kalyaani raagam was essayed well too by Santhanam
MrRA: Madurai Mani Iyer was amongst the best exponents. We must boycott this riffraff. Don’t ever give him any rent-free accommodation in your mind-space. He’s demented and just deserves to be totally ignored
I am here referring to TMK. Clarifying it as a matter of abundant caution, lest Mr JM mischievously interprets it otherwise as referring to you! 😂👆
MR. SU: Mr JM is entitled to his views about TMK … and I’m entitled to mine…. No issues at all 🤗🙏
Mr. RA: Of course! I was only clarifying whom the pronoun I’d used was referring to, that’s all!😂
Mr. SU 😁…. And you Mr RA accuse Mr JM of being “mischievous”?! A case of the pot calling the kettle black … 🤗
Mr JM: M/s SU/RA, You both do enjoy the performing Arts (Dance, Music etc) purely for the Art form and the Rasanubhava it creates. It is an artist’s ability to communicate , through artistic expressions with his/her audience that determines the Rasanubhava that a true rasika experiences.
You don’t have to look at other aspects of the Artists persona or character or political views (Does he have 2 wives; Is the person gay; Is he/she a drunk; what are their political views etc etc);
You both are only conflating two different things and in the process casting aspersions on the artistic personality; If Mr.SU genuinely disliked TM Krishna’s singing (even before he became a renegade), I would have respected his thoughts about TMK’s Music. But that is not the case here. I respectfully have to disagree with the judgment call that is being made here about his music.
I am not saying all this to change anyone’s mind. I am just doing some loud thinking. That is all. In the final analysis, it is actually renegade thinking that leads to true innovation and development. For e.g. If Rukmini Devi had consigned Sadir Attam to Devadasis alone, Kalakshetra would not have been born.
MrRA: Rukmini Devi had a positive thought for and attitude towards traditional arts .. and so she is celebrated. There’s nothing more to say.
Mr. SU: Mr. JM, you ask me to separate the man from his music …. That might be possible and is indeed possible with regard to other forms of music in the west or elsewhere …. Not in “saastreeya sangeetham” which is Carnatic music which by itself is “spiritual saadhakam” …
I’m sure guy have heard the famous kriti of Sri Thyagaraja …. “Sogasuga mridanga taalamu …” In the Anu pallavi and charanam bit of that song the Saint clearly emphasises the Vedic roots and Saastreeya paradigm of Carnatic music :
pallavi
sogasugA mrdanga tALamu jatagUrci ninu sokkajEyu dhIruDevvaDO
anupallavi
nigama shirOttama galgina nija vAkkulatO svara shuddhamutO
caraNam
yati vishrama sadbhakti virati drAkSArasa nva rasayuta
krticE bhanjiyincE yukti tyAgarAjuni taramA shrI rAma
Meaning:
“Who is that stalwart, that great man of courage and conviction, who overwhelms you by singing songs pregnant with sublime thoughts of the Upanishads, with total purity and charming rhythms, to the accompaniment of the Mridanga? Does TyAgarAja have the competence for such an exalted task, employing the rules of prosody, proper intervals, with sublime devotion, and woven around the nine moods of men – the Navarasas – appropriately? O RAma!
Tell me, is TMK a mere performer who makes a living and a bit of short-lived fame too from singing Thyagaraja kritis greater than Thyagaraja that he thinks he can make light of the very Vedic roots, deeply respected tenets and precepts from which Carnatic music springs?
You ask me to not to conflate the music with the personality … I ask you then a hypothetical but simple question : would Sri Thyagaraja have been able to compose the sublime music he did if he too had the mind, mindset and mindscape of TMK? Would you then be able to separate Thyagaraja the man from Thyagaraja the music composer or “vaageyakaara”?
About Rukmini Devi … how can you speak of her artistic accomplishments with that of TMK ?! She was a veritable institution in herself. TMK can’t hold a candle to her . It’s you who is now mistakenly confusing an artistic giant with an artistic midget. Rukmini Devi was a builder of “saastreeya” insitutions like the Madras Kalakshetra and Besant Theosophical Society. TMK on the contrary is a destroyer of artistic institutions with his unwarranted championing for social causes that are all mixed up with only communal and caste identity hate- politics.
When TMK himself refuses to separate his music from his politics, why should I an ordinary rasika be expected to separate TMK’s persona from his music ?
🙏
Mr VK (moderator of the group): Mr JM is writing good as usual. Enjoyed your passion.
I generally do not butt in when you three guys are discussing, firstly to enjoy the narratives. I do. Here is a ringside view, more like an fan’s diary. Do have patience to read.
I agree with you that musicians belong to music. They border on divinity. Their personal life or perversions are none of our business.
May be in case of TMK, you so should consider a few background stuff. Let me explain.
I do not have any depth and my home walls did not resonate the sabhdhaswaraas. But my addiction to kutcheris started majorly because of Krishna. I almost started looking forward to the music season because of him.
I did not miss any of his kutcheris and sat there spell bound for the two & half hours. He is great, in simple lingo. He is divine. Plus: His shows are a lesson in professionalism. The whole hall is full half hour early; there is no murmur, chitchat, shouting out to friends – just expectation and silence. Sharp at 6.30 pm the curtain will rise; no Shruthi-chekaradhu when you r waiting. Curtains open & he zooms. There is no need for him to build the tempo. He takes off like a rocket. There starts your getting mesmerised. You realise your existence, when the singing ends. I am serious. It is a delight watching him encourage his troupe. His aaha, sabaash rings in my ears. Remember I cannot even recognise simple ragas.
I have a funny connection with him. I bump into him often in Mylapore. He is a lesson in humility. He always shakes hands n talks to you. Once I remember he came into the hall and sat behind, to quietly enjoy his favourite singer. I was sitting right behind him. He just sat, enjoyed & left, at a time he was at peak. Our whole family adore him as a musician.
Then something happened. His convictions or his arrogance siezed him. Like you say, you shd not look at the background of the singer – there r simple rules for the singers too.
Firstly, you do not disrespect your fans. You can never become bigger than your fans. You cannot think whatever I do, these slaves will worship me.
Secondly you do not kick your paramprariya that made you what you are. There is no need for that. He solidly did that. If you look at Maharajapuram or Balamurali, you will understand what I mean.
When he went out of the scene – and such a great man goes to the slums – and is with them – my adoration in fact increased. His kutcheris became far n few. He wanted to take music to the masses. He did not want his music to be a brahminical bastion. Fair enough, admirable.
Then it happened: my baloon burst. He announced a kutcheri in the beaches of Besant nagar. I literally ran well in advance. The whole family did. This was well after all the controversies. I tell you, that evening was a lesson.
I cud see he was sitting there thinking he is music’s boss. Music is his slave. Whatever he does his fans are there to lap it up. He was an epitome of ego. Firstly he never acknowledged the audience. He never even looked at us. Surprisingly he was sitting at a cross angle and singing …. Sorry to say, badly. He cud not care less. That kurchery was a shocker. I cud see a different man.
That evening I remember clearly. I even remember the contours of his face. That evening, an adoring family, running behind him like sheep said ‘he has gone mad’. We said that in unison and forgot about him. My folks are well entrenched in music unlike me. But opinion of all of us was the same.
He became bigger than the music that made him. Fair enough, he wanted to break the barriers. He wanted to take the music to the masses. Noble. That was the time, if he had snapped his fingers, funds wud have flooded in. He cud have established a TMK Sabha & music centre in every slum. He cud have been in positive about it. He seriously cud have done a service to Carnatic music. He lost that God given opportunity because of his ego.
I can go on n on about his church concerts. Noble if intentions were to integrate. I am afraid it was not. It was a projection of his ego.
He went on a tirade against the ladder that reached him. He was nasty. When the artist crosses his unwritten rules, world too did.
He used his energy negatively.
Krishna, for me, is like a love that went sour. It’s a chapter of disappointment in my life, that I cannot get over.
👍🙏
Mr VK: Which is exactly my point Sir … When TMK himself refuses to separate his music from his politics, why should I an ordinary rasika be expected to separate TMK’s persona from his music ?
Sudarshan Madabushi