The event celebrating the centenary of composer Ambujam Krishna was held last month in Madurai, her native place. The three-day festival was organised by Sri Sathguru Sangeetha Samajam, of which she was a senior office-bearer for decades. The sabha’s auditorium, Lakshmi Sundaram Hall, owes its presence to her. A wing of the sabha, the Sathguru Sangeetha Vidyalayam that was started by her in the 1960s, has grown into a college, which offers courses up to research level.
Three concerts on successive evenings by Sikkil Gurucharan, Ramakrishnan Murthy and Sumitra Nitin focussed on her compositions. The vocalists presented nearly 30 songs in Tamil, Telugu, Sanskrit, Kannada, Hindi and Manipravalam. A galaxy of accompanying artistes, J. Vaidyanathan (mridangam), V. Sanjeev (violin), Bombay Balaji (mridangam), Charumathy Raghuraman (violin), N. Manoj Siva (mridangam), V. Anirudh Athreya (ghatam),Thiruvananthapuram N. Sampath (violin), and Tiruchi S. Krishna (ghatam) gave spirited support. Steeped in bhakti, the lyrics, which were set to music by doyens, struck a chord with the listeners.
Ambujam Krishna’s portrait was unveiled by her son, Suresh Krishna, of the TVS group. He and his sister, Radha Parthasarathy, spoke briefly and movingly about their mother and her association with the Samajam. It was heartwarming to see children receive prizes in competitions that featured her compositions. The event was marked by an emotionally rendered prayer, ‘En Thai Nee Andro’ on Meenakshi, a favourite of the composer.
