“A fine Sriranjani (‘Sogasuga’), a caressing Huseni (‘Rama Ninne’), a majestic Vachaspati (‘Kantajutumi’) and an enchanting Brindavana Saranga (‘Kamalapathakula’) constituted the cream of a flute recital by S. Venkatraman, performing at the Mylai Rama Navami festival, at the P.S. High School, Chennai, on Thursday” wrote critic N.R. Buvarahan in his review published in The Mail in 1973.
“Pallavi Venkatrama Iyer, whose birth centenary falls on September 4, 2015, learnt Carnatic vocal music under the guidance of Salem Doraiswamy Iyengar, as he was then living in Salem. Doraiswamy Iyengar was the disciple of Poochi Srinivasa Iyengar of Ramanathapuram,” said Mahalingam (Mali) theatre artist and Venkatrama Iyer’s son.
According to the late Sulochana Pattabhiraman who wrote in The Hindu when he passed away on August 25, 2006, ‘Pallavi Venkatrama Iyer began his apprenticeship on the flute at the age of 20 from Salem Venu Pillai and honed his performing skills to professional level’. In her tribute she has added that ‘The inimitable Mali was much impressed with Venkatrama Iyer’s knowledge, approach and forthright views. He was a great admirer of Nagaswaram maestro Rajarathinam Pillai and his association with him for nearly four years to learn the technique of his elaboration of raga alapanas. TNR’s Thodi remained Iyer’s favourite till the end.’
“Father evinced interest in the younger generation learning Carnatic music, specially flute. I know he had volunteered to teach many of them!” recalls son Mahalingam. Pallavi singing was his forte and thus acquired the prefix ‘Pallavi’ to his name. “He successfully met the challenges of incorporating the nuances of this art of singing. It was Namakkal Pallavi Narasimhachariyar who honoured him with this title in the presence of K.J. Yesudas, who also learnt from Narasimhachariyar!” informs Mali. Although his father was not a professional flautist, he was known for his vidwat and also as an IT consultant for many of the vidwans of those days, including MLV.”
Many musicians have benefited from his teaching in the area of Pallavi singing. Even when he was 80, he used to ride a bike and reach out to artists who yearned for honing their skills!” said Mahalingam. “He used to frequent the house of one of his disciples, who had the same name as his guru, Doraiswamy, in Abiramapuram, Chennai, to teach flute. The student was learning to play the instrument at 70 and both of them would enjoy playing flute together.”
Sri Krishna Gana Sabha’s Yagnaraman was the first to honour him as Acharya Choodamani. Venkatrama Iyer had served as judge for the Music Academy senior concert series too. Mridangam vidwans Guruvayur Dorai, Vellore Ramabhadran, Kovai Dakshinamurthy and Kandadevi Alagirisami had accompanied him in many of his concerts. “Vocalist Aruna Sairam too had benefited from his vidwat and she had amply rewarded him,” says Mali.
According to Mali, his father Pallavi Venkatrama Iyer was the first to arrange a concert of mandolin Srinivas, who was hardly 11 years then, for which he had invited Veena Balachander and Madurai Seshagopalan. Both the stalwarts honoured the young mandolin vidwan on that day. “Madurai G.S. Mani and father would discuss music even when they met on the road. The discussion would include singing songs, too. Passers-by would look at them with amusement!” recalls Mali.
Mali has planned to commemorate his father’s birth anniversary in September by organising a flute recital. “Originally T.S. Sankaran had offered to perform along with his grandson Jayanth and ‘SAFE’ Ramabadran had agreed to organise the memorial concert. Unfortunately both of them are no more. However, J.A. Jayanth would be performing on the day,” concluded Mahalingam.
