(This piece is about the flute wizard T.R. Mahalingam aka Mali)
“My grandfather Papanasam Sivan was very fond of Mali. He would often say, ‘ There is no one who can ever be a patch on Mali, both as a musician and as a person. Above all, Mali was a good soul.’
I remember him saying, ‘He would always be pre-occupied with something or the other, be it music, politics or sport. He was an excellent conversationalist but only with those with whom he had developed a good rapport.’
Mali was seven when he played his first concert in 1933 at the Tyagaraja festival in Mylapore. At that concert, two stalwarts were sitting in the audience. Parur Sundaram Iyer and Musiri Subramania Iyer.
They were so impressed with the boy that they went out and returned with a ponnaadai (shawls) to drape around the boy's shoulders, a great honour usually reserved for veterans!
The Palghat Mani Iyer-Mali combination pairing was stuff of legend. Mani Iyer would say, ‘Only Mali gives work for my hands.’
When Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer was asked to pick geniuses of Carnatic music, he came up with only three names -- T.R. Mahalingam, T.N. Rajarathnam Pillai and Palghat Mani Iyer.
Chembai Vaidyanatha Bhagavathar once picked up the violin to accompany Mali. My thatha said once that Mali was accompanied by some of the best in the realm -- Chowdiah, Papa K.S. Venkataramaiah, Kumbakonam Azhagianambi Pillai and Tanjore Vaidyanatha Bhagavathar. Thatha has mentioned to my mother that Palladam Sanjeeva Rao played a seven-hole flute, and Mali introduced an eight-hole one. While Palladam Sanjeeva Rao used parallel fingering, Mali used cross fingering.
Mali ould say, “I see God within five minutes of playing.’ And the listeners forget the world when they listened to Mali!”
(The writer is the grandson of Papanasam Sivan and a well-known Carnatic vocalist)
