The young Mandolin Shrinivas was scouring film recording studios for work, when Thanjavur Upendran took on the role of mentoring him. Recently, a well-attended tribute event was held at Narada Gana Sabha that recalled the life and musical journey of the mridangam maestro. Organised by his family and disciples, the invitees hailed Thanjavur Upendran's ‘thoppi’ style of playing and how he perfected the tuning of chaapu and meetu.
The evening began with a jugalbandi featuring Hindustani bansuri player Ronu Majumdar and Saraswati veena artist Nirmala Rajsekar. The strains of raga Saraswati and the Muthuswamy Dikshitar kriti ‘Saraswati Namostute’ lingered in the mind. The nuanced glides of the flautist and mandra sthayi sancharas of the veena set the tone. Beginning with a short alaap, they ended the piece with swara repartees.
Majumdar then presented a brief alaap in Bageshri followed by the composition ‘Kaun Kahata.’ Next was Nirmala Rajsekar's solo piece in Kalavati ‘Kalavati Kamalasane.’ The highlight was the Charukesi alaap. While the vainika produced some interesting mandra sthayi ( using the third and fourth strings of the veena) sancharas, the flautist rendered the raga with fast sancharas. They followed this with a pallavi and swaraprastara in ragamalika. The thani between K.V. Prasad (mridangam) and Ramdas Palsule (tabla) ended on a huge round of applause.
Next was the concert by Sanjay Subrahmanyam , with accompaniments — Nagai Sriram on the violin, Srimushnam V. Rajarao on the mridangam and C.S. Venkatramanan on the ganjira. Beginning with ‘Sri Ramya’ in Jayamanohari with rapid swaraprastara, Sanjay sang ‘Thyagaraja Gurum’ in Kedaram. After a Latangi alapana embellished with tara sthayi phrases, the vocalist brought forth ‘Diname Sudhinamu’ with niraval, swaram at ‘Sri Lathangiyani Satatamu Ninnu Kori.’
The central Khambodi alapana and song transported the audience to a higher musical plane. The thani by Srimushnam Rajarao and C.S. Venkatramanan was a fitting tribute to Thanjavur Upendran.
