Surrounded by tanpuras in different shapes and sizes, hundreds of awards jostling for space on every available space (think plaques, statuettes, citations…) and thick bound books filled with musical notations and lyrics, K. Omanakutty is very much at home in her world of music. Over the years, Omanakutty teacher, as she is known to her legion of students that includes household names such as K.S. Chitra and B. Arundhathi, has build up an enviable reputation as a teacher and Carnatic vocalist. She belongs to that rare breed of academicians who also excel as performers. Earnest notes of a varnam sung by children waft in from the classes at Sangeetha Bharati, the school of music founded by her, as she meets Friday Review for an interview.
Mission in life
“Now my life's mission is to see that Sangeetha Bharati has a firm foundation in Thiruvananthapuram's long tradition of music. Awards and honours are secondary to me,” she says. A pause and she adds: “To be honest, the only award that I have ever longed for is the Government of Kerala's Swati Puraksaram. I feel that among the present-day musicians, there is hardly any one who has done more to popularise kritis and compositions of the royal composer,” she says.
She says the attachment to Swati Tirunal goes beyond composing, rendering and researching his music. “My mother, Kamalakshi Amma, was a student of the first batch of the Swati Music Academy along with Aranmula Ponnamma, Parassala Ponnammal and Gracy Philip. In those days, in a bid to revive and popularise Swati compositions, music teachers in schools were sent to the Academy to learn from masters such as Semmangudi and Muthiah Bhagavathar. Later, as a student of the Academy, I first began by learning the Utsavaprabandham of Swati's. So, there is a sentimental and academic attachment to Swati,” she elaborates.
Daughter of renowned musician Malabar Gopalan Nair, Omanakutty's initiation into music began in childhood. Once the family settled in Thiruvananthapuram, she came under the guidance of R. Prabhakara Varma. Following her graduation in Zoology, on the insistence of Semmangudi, then Principal of the Swati Music Academy, she enrolled in the Gana Praveena course without having to do the preliminary four-year Gana Bhushanam course. She recalls emotionally with folded hands that she was fortunate to learn from maestros such as Semmangudi and G.N. Balasubramoniam. Soon afterwards, she secured a job as an announcer in All India Radio. But, on the behest of her father, she reluctantly resigned her job there and stepped in as a lecturer (to fill a temporary vacancy for a music teacher) in the Government College for Women.
It was a period of trials and tribulations on account of bureaucratic rules and regulations that gave more importance to theory than music per se. The vocalist admits that there were times when she wanted to quit and go back to AIR. But Omanakutty is not one to turn and run at the first hint of adversity and so she channelised all her energy to meeting the qualifications required to teach music in colleges. She went on to do her doctorate in Kathakali music under the Faculty Improvement Programme. Along with academics, she also kept improving her grading in AIR. “There are many academics who fail when it comes to performances. I wanted to excel in both and so I got the top grade in AIR,” she recalls with a smile.
Were there problems on account of her being a woman vocalist? “Yes and no. I first got the opportunity to sing at the Music Academy at the age of 24. But then there was no one to take me all the way to Chennai. In those days, it was difficult for a woman to travel around on her own. I lost several opportunities because of that. The next opportunity to sing there came when I was 38. Today's youngsters are luckier than female singers of my generation. But there was no discrimination because I was a woman singer,” she clarifies.
Apt guidance
Although there were many hurdles in her way, she says challenges only made her stronger. Under her guidance and leadership the Department of Music was started under University of Kerala and classes began in full swing. She remembers how she managed to get generous donations from the royal family of erstwhile Travancore.
“At the end of it all, I did not even get an invite for the inauguration,” she says. Instead of becoming bitter, she found solace in her research on Swati kritis and Malayalam compositions by stalwarts. In 2007, under her leadership the first issue of the multi-lingual annual ‘Swati Kokilam,' devoted to all things musical, was released. In addition to articles on music, it has interviews with musicians, their biographies, analysis of terms in music and so on. “I also composed some of the Malayalam compositions and compiled them in a CD. Once, I sang a composition in Panthuvarali that was composed by Kutty Kunju Thankachi, at the Music Academy in Chennai. Many rasikas were pleasantly surprised to discover that it was a Malayalam composition,” she recalls with a smile. But she is disappointed that although there are several musicians who hail from Kerala, most of them somehow neglect melodious Malayalam compositions. Similarly, she feels that organisers discriminate against musicians settled in Kerala. “There are so many talented singers and musicians here. They are languishing for want of opportunities. If only organisers here would give them a platform, they would really come up in life and on the concert circuit.”
As youngsters flood the field of music, Omanakutty is hopeful that these refreshing voices will infuse new life into the music field. The pride in her voice is evident when she says that her grandson Harishanker, for instance, is one of those youngsters who is serious about making a mark as a Carnatic vocalist. Before she signs off, Omanakutty says, as a matter of fact, “Music is the breath of life for me!”
Sangeetha Bharati
S angeetha Bharati was begun in 1997, while she was still working in University of Kerala. “After my retirement, all my efforts are directed towards making it a centre of excellence in music. K.S. Chitra was the first student of the institution. Regular workshops and classes are held here. Recently, we purchased a small plot at Maruthoorkadavu in the capital city and a building is being put up there. We have been allowed to provide guidance to students doing their doctorate in music from the Mahatma Gandhi University. The Mother Teresa Women's University, Kodaikanal, has approved Sangeetha Bharati as a study centre for all programmes related to music,” says Omanakutty.
Composing music
S angeeta Bharathi has brought out seven CDs exclusively devoted to compositions of Swati Tirunal, including his popular kritis, rare kritis, thillanas, padams and ragamalikas. Then there are two CDs of his bhajans. “I have also published two volumes (titled ‘Swati Madhuri') on Swati and his compositions. Work on the third one is still on, a kind of biographical sketch of Swati Tirunal. I have written hundreds of articles and rendered hundreds of concerts in India and abroad that consisting of kritis devoted to Swati kritis,” she says. With her two brothers, M.G. Radhakrishnan and M.G. Sreekumar, and her students making it big in the film industry, why is it that Omanakutty did not want to sing for films?
“G. Devarajan Master, a great friend of my father's, did give me the opportunity to sing for a film. But my father advised me to concentrate on Carnatic music.” She has composed, rendered and compiled into separate CDs famous lullabies in Malayalam, Thiruvathira songs, folk songs of Kerala and so on.
