Music is the food of the soul – that’s what is commonly said. In R. Paramasivan’s case, we may have to turn it on its head to say, food is the music of the soul. Or, maybe they work both ways: in his case, food and music were inseparable. “I cannot even explain our poverty, we were so very poor. My father was a temple priest and earned almost nothing. In fact, he was totally lost to us. He lived in the temple. My maternal uncle went seeking alms, and whatever he brought home every evening had to be fed to the entire family,” begins the 88-year-old encyclopedia of Kannada theatre songs, the extraordinary musician and veteran harmonium master, R. Paramasivan.
Karnataka : Bengaluru : 20/08/2018 . Carnatic harmonium vidwan and Theatre person , specialist in Ranga Geethegalu R. Paramasivan in Bengaluru. Photo: Bhagya Prakash K
His diminutive form stands bending over the staircase of his modest home, waving out to catch my attention. I go up the stairs, enter his house, by then, he has tucked himself into what looks like his most-favourite-place: his bed by the window, lined with a clutch bag, weathered covers with photographs in them, a couple of odd plastic boxes, a diary, and his most cherished instrument occupying half his bed. On the facing wall is a glass cabinet mounted close to the ceiling; it is stuffed with trophies, mementoes etc, and on the shelf above the television are some photographs of Paramasivan receiving various awards. He points to the picture in which he is receiving the Kendra Sangeet Natak Akademi award from the former president Abdul Kalam, and with a hint of tragicomic he says: “Till this photograph appeared in the newspapers, the world was oblivious to this man called R. Paramasivan. They woke up to my existence suddenly and rained on me every award in town. I was invited for concerts, performances and lecdems. To recognize things in your own backyard, you need a light from elsewhere…”
Karnataka : Bengaluru : 20/08/2018: Carnatic harmonium vidwan and Theatre person, specialist in Ranga Geethegalu R. Paramasivan in Bengaluru. Photo: K. Bhagya Prakash.
Paramasivan’s company life began when he was a boy of four, and in this long innings of 84 years, there has never been a moment when he has separated theatre from his mind. Paramasivan has served almost every company of the Mysore region and knows over 1250 theatre songs, sung in various companies. “We knew a Kittu maama who was an accountant in the Gubbi company. Chamundeshwari Company which had camped in Bangalore in 1935 needed a small boy to play the part of Charudatta’s son in the play, Vasantasene . Kittu maama took me there, since I was energetic and ebullient despite my circumstances. I had to say some two lines and sing two small songs. On the day of the performance, the audience was thrilled that a lad of four could carry off the role with so much confidence. I had a good voice, so I sang well too. They praised and gifted me three silver coins. Naturally, my family was thrilled. If being in the company took care of my food, and also earn some money, could I ask for anything better? I remained in the company on a salary of four annas , spending two and sending home the remaining two.”
Paramasivan began to get small roles and worked with stars like Kottoorappa, Nageshrayaru etc. The talented little boy was much loved, he too was happy, he slept on a full stomach every night. Companies in those days gave solid training to all their actors – young and old – in language, dance, vocal and instrumental music. Paramasivan was an extremely sharp youngster, who picked up music in no time. In 1939, when he was about eight years old, he was cast in Gubbi Veeranna’s film, Subhadra .
“Veeranna was very fond of me. He had seen me perform and always asked: ‘When are you joining my company?’. How could I tell him I was dying to join… the greatest charm for me then was that in his company there were two kitchens -- one for Brahmins and the other for Lingayats. I was imagining that I would eat from both the kitchens and have a feast every day. He was a very generous owner, and entire families lived off the company. It was indeed a blessing that I worked with him in Subhadra .” Veeranna, from his company experience, knew that catering to the varied tastes of the audience was very important. So he had hired three music directors for the film – B. Devendrappa, court musician of the Mysore Palace, Mallikarjun Mansur and Padmanabha Shastri, for Carnatic, Hindustani and light classical music respectively. “Padmanabha Shastri showered enormous affection on me. He would play a phrase and ask me to write the notations for it. When I did it perfectly, he would be overjoyed. He would give me plenty to eat. I, for my desire of food, followed him like a shadow and did everything he asked me to.” Though food served as the chief attraction then, in the later years Paramasivan realized that it was a huge learning experience.
Karnataka : Bengaluru : 20/08/2018 . A file photo of Carnatic harmonium vidwan and Theatre person , specialist in Ranga Geethegalu R. Paramasivan receiving award from President of India Abdul Kalam .
It so happened that one day B. Devendrappa came to watch the play in which Paramasivan was singing. After the play, he stormed backstage and asked, “Where’s that boy? Why is he wasting his talent here? I am taking him with me rightaway,” he declared, and took Paramasivan home. “I was surprised to see that his house was full of disciples, nearly 100 of them. He had appointed a Brahmin cook who cooked for all of us, and we all lived there. What do I say… the door of good fortune had opened for me. Else, with my poverty, could I even dream of learning from a musician of his stature? Could I ever pay fees? My guru Devendrappa was generosity personified.”
Devendrappa put him through the rigours of music, and in a few years, Paramasivan passed his vidwat exam. “I simultaneously practised veena and violin on my own, to which I had access in the company.” He cleared his senior exams in both. “When I was in the first company, Shivappa, the harmonium master was my first teacher. So, I could sing, play the harmonium and act.”
Paramasivan joined the Gubbi Company in 1942 and stayed there till 1954. Veeranna personally came looking and fixed him up on a salary of Rs. 500 and also gave him an advance of Rs. 5000, a sum that was unheard off! When Paramasivan was 12-years old, he played the role of Anjaneya in the play Ramayana which had nearly 50 verses ( kanda padyas ). His performance in the play made him a star, and Paramasivan remembers how B. Puttaswamaiah, Rajkumar’s father who was in the company had praised him. “ Nodu koose (Did you see little one),” he told the young Rajkumar, “how well he sang!”
Karnataka : Bengaluru : 20/08/2018: Carnatic harmonium vidwan and Theatre person, specialist in Ranga Geethegalu R. Paramasivan in Bengaluru. Photo: K. Bhagya Prakash.
Rajkumar and Paramasivan worked together in several companies, until the big break came in 1954 for the thespian. “Rajkumar got his best roles in Subbaiah Naidu company. It so happened that they took up Ramayana , and I trained Rajkumar for the Anjaneya role. Since I had played the role earlier, I knew it all. The play had a total of 250 songs, and went on for nearly eight hours!”.
Entry to the Gubbi Veeranna company gave Paramasivan a huge turning point in his life. He met P. Kalinga Rao, one of the greatest composers of Karnataka, who changed his perspective of music. He did have an earlier brief meeting with him in the studios of All India Radio, Madras. “I happened to be at the wedding of freedom fighter T. Satyamurthy’s daughter’s in 1942. MS was supposed to sing that day. She was arriving a bit late, and so, Kalaivani films Subramaniam pulled me on stage and made me sing. I sang two keertanes that my guru Devendrappa had taught me. The director of AIR who was in the audience was very impressed, and asked me to come for a recording. A Kannadiga to sing classical music on AIR Madras was a huge achievement. That day I had a short meeting with Kalinga Rao, who had also come for a recording. ‘Good, good’, he had patted my back.” When Pramasivan met him at the Gubbi Company, it turned into an enduring relationship. Paramasivan remained Kalinga Rao’s favourite harmonium player who accompanied him for most of his concerts.
“There were no composers in theatre companies. Most songs were either set to a Carnatic keertane, or a Hindustani bandish or a western tune. Subbanna, Malavalli Sundaramma’s father, was the first composer. He was a violinist, and his compositions had the distinct stamp of the violin. Veeranna had brought Kalinga Rao into the company.” Paramasivan’s voice gathers a special excitement as he speaks about Kalinga Rao. “He is unmatched,” he says. Kalinga Rao was a creative genius, who knew all the genres and could move between them seamlessly. “Even when he had to compose for AIR, he walked into the library, picked a couple of poems and strolled on the lawns looking at them. In about 15 minutes he would be back into the studios with the song and background score ready!” Paramasivan strongly feels that Kalinga Rao was deliberately suppressed by the music world. “He was so brilliant that he could easily overshadow everyone. So his free spirit was construed as a problem. They labelled him, and damaged his reputation. But for him, would Kannadigas have remembered Rajarathnam today? I don’t think Kannada poets would be remembered the way they are now if it wasn’t for Kalinga Rao’s tunes.”
Paramasivan, in the later years, got a music teacher’s job in government school. Even then, he did not give up theatre. “I would finish school at 4 p.m., catch the 4.30 bus to the nearest camp, depending on where I was posted. The plays would begin at 9 p.m. and end by 4 a.m. I would catch a bus back, to be at school by 10 a.m.,” such was his passion. When one listens to Paramasivan sing, the kind of work that has gone into his music is evident. Even today, at his age, his voice can manouever complex sangatis and scale changes.
Why haven’t the universities produced monstrous talents like Paramasivan? If theatre companies could train their musicians so thoroughly what went wrong with mainstream music education? “It is conservatism. Companies were like Universities, in fact, Gubbi Company is the finest example. We were exposed to all kinds of forms, and were put through the rigours. Now musicians only talk of complex theoretical aspects, then it was implemented in the songs we sang. I can give hundreds of examples. Classical musicians of the later years looked upon theatre music with contempt, without even trying to find out what it contained,” he explains.
A conversation with Paramasivan can never end: there’s always so much left. “I came into theatre as a young boy. All the people with whom I came into contact were stalwarts. But you know, they did not snub me, they took me very seriously and encouraged me. This is what helped me grow to this stature today. I am ever grateful to them...,” he says, and treats us to song after song, never missing a line, or a beat, or the sense of it.
