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MADRAS MUSIC MELA 2001 - FEATURES

The eleven theme awards of the season

- by Sharada Ramanathan

Awards-benefaction may not be the most original form of recognition but it certainly works. Here are some reasons why awards work: one, they can be decided before-hand; two, they are always lapped up by the lay and not-so-lay man, especially those who publicly denounce them; three, they are a great opportunity for photo-opportunities for anything from paan masaala to HCL computers, and a golden opportunity for the musicians to feel privileged; and post-september 11, the fourth and most important reason, they don’t cost anything. 

So here are some important awards of the season that I hope the musicians will accept with honesty, dignity and grace. Of course there is a condition: In each of their thank-you speeches, they must do the following: one, wave the award maniacally to the invisible, unquestioning masses; two, thank the sponsors who were oh-so kind to make this happen - anyone from Nalli to Charminar Tobacco; and three, explicate their love for family, friends and foes for making them who they are. (Yes, foes, since your success is counted by the number of your enemies). So here are eleven of the top awards for this season: 

• The Kuladievam award for transcension: To Sri T N Sheshagopalan for proving that great music is simply not about mortal concerns such as voice and synthetic vibration.
  

• The silky voice award: To Sri P Unnikrishnan for proving that performance cannot happen without the voice – his Academy concert was postponed.
  

• The living legend award: To Sri N. Ravikiran for highlighting with great musicality that OVK is a profound means to a profound end.
  

• The excellent-and-conventionalist award: To Bhagavatar Sanjay Subramanyam for being so completely non-controversial and still bringing in the crowds – only he could have pulled it off.
  

• The Communal harmony award: To Sri T M Krishna for not provoking communal riots despite his identity overwhelming his success – only he could have pulled this one off.
  

• The discovered-again award: To Sri K N Shashikiran for being the seasoned-kid-on-the- block- again – in spite of being ignored by the Music Academy.
  

• The new vocalizer of the year award: To Sri (little) P Ganesh for his first utterly “vocal” presence with such frequency.
  

• The steady-state award: To Sri N Vijay Siva for being consistent in spite of the stock market fluctuations across the world.

Before you ask where the women are:

• The inexplicability award: To Smt. Sudha Raghunathan for not being able to explain the mad rush only to her every concert.
  

• The heart-breaker award: To Smt. Bombay Jayashree Ramnath for certainly achieving at least a good heart-break rate at every concert.
  

• The Jekyl and Hyde award: To Smt. Sowmya for being the mysterious entrepreneur when she’s not performing (to be shared with Sri. K N Shashikiran and Bhagavatar Sanjay Subramanyam – only if she will, since there is a gender priority here).

• The Special Audience Award: Shall be, as like every year, for my extended TRV family for being the longest-and-most-frequent-running patrons of the season.

Posted on December 31, 2001

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