Chennai’s annual festival of music and dance, with its attendant concerts, conversations and controversies, has begun. It is indeed the season of seasons in the southern city as the weather gets cooler. But my reference to the mega event is not just from the point of view of music. It’s also a time to look at the social ills through the art.
Earlier in this column, I hadspoken about the rather patronising treatment given to women composers in the West. We speak of John Williams and Hans Zimmer, Ilayaraja or A R Rahman. From Hollywood to Kollywood, men rule the roost — this is not to take away from their talent or their work. Why do we not hear of women in cinema, save our actresses and playback singers? What about women editors, cinematographers, directors, and music directors? This problem seems to pervade the entire planet, and not just India.
How many of us celebrate JoAnn Falletta, the famous American orchestral conductor. Actually how many of us have even heard of her? She won a Grammy in 2019. Why restrict ourselves to music, when even great screenwriters such as Elaine May is hardly known outside of Hollywood inner circles? How many of us even knew that she co-wrote Tootsie , which ironically is a film where a man (played by Dustin Hoffman) is forced to play the part of a woman in order to land himself an acting job!
However, the Chennai music scene has been lit by women musical greats — from MS, MLV and DKP to today’s stars. But evenin the classical world, stories of male patriarchy and misogynyare rife.
The reactions to the horrific Priyanka Reddy incident were multi-fold and extreme, to say the least. From politicians and yesteryear actors once again (predictably) blaming the victim to Jaya Bachchan asking for the perpetrators “to be lynched” (which is a dangerous notion to endorse, however heinous the crime, by a lawmaker in Parliament), social media is abuzz with war cries and witch hunts.
To truly move towards more enlightened behaviour— we need immediate and informed redressal. Men need to be taught a timely lesson, with perpetrators given the maximum penalty by law. We have to inculcate a sense of equality among the young, and education probably holds the answers to this. Meanwhile, let us resolve to support all genders equally. To start with, let us examine why more women have not been encouraged to be music directors . Why do we not popularise compositions by women on an equal footing? Why do we not get to study about stellar women performers?
I think as a community we need to band together and march towards gender equality. Enough, as they say, is enough. Empathy and respect are the only ‘sruti’ and ‘laya’ we need if social harmony is to be achieved.
