Malladi (ous) Singing - Malladi Brothers

Malladi(ous) Singing - Malladi Brothers

There are many pairs of siblings who perform together. Among Indian classical music vocalists, some of my favourite pairs of brothers have been the Gundecha Brothers in the Dhrupad genre of Hindustani music, the Trichur Brothers and the Malladi Brothers.

It was Malladi Brothers in Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan on 29th November this year. They have their own loyal following, one among the audience was the Former Chief Minister of Karnataka S.M.Krishna. Not disappointing their fans, they started a majestic Varnam in Hamsadhwani by Mysore Vasudevachar ‘Vande Anisham Aham Varana’. Malladi Brothers are well known for their purity in singing and sticking to the grammar of Carnatic music. They don’t even try straying from the tradition.

Their next song was Muthuswamy Dikshitar’s ‘Kshitija Ramana’ in Ragam Devagandhari. The going was good till Ravikumar the younger brother missed a note and Devagandhari became ‘Asura’gandhari! Hope nobody googles to find out if such a Ragam exists, it’s just my mean self playing with words! On a serious note, it was surprising that a senior experienced artiste can miss a note. Not to take away from the fact that they wonderfully compensated during the rest of concert.

Saint Thyagaraja’s ‘Niravadi Sukhada’ in Ragam Ravichandrika was their next submission. Their comfort in Telugu compositions is very evident and they made complete use of this fact. Their main song for the day was Shyama Sastry’s ‘Meenalochana Brova’ in Ragam Dhanyasi. If the siblings were wonderful, the violinist a youngster Vittal Rangan was simply amazing. The Thani Avartanams for both the violinist & mridangam artiste came so late and the mridangam artiste K.V.Prasad didn’t want to let go of the opportunity and went on for so long that I wanted to get up and say ‘Beat it’!

Towards the end, they sang ‘Sadashiva Bhajaname’ which sounded like Ragam Suposhini but I have no idea whose composition it was! They sang a lovely Annamacharya’s krithi ‘Sharanu Sharanu Surendra’ in Ragam Senchurutti. Surprisingly, they didn’t sing any Tamil song.

Yet again a lovely rendering of Narayana Theertha’s ‘Mrugayata Radha Madhav’ which seemed as Kamboji and also Sankarabharanam. On clarifying with the Malladi Brothers much later, apparently it was neither ... it was Ragam Behaag. Now, it explains my confusion .... both Sankarabharanam and Behaag are janyas of Dhirasankarabharanam. Hence they have similarities & variations. Like the tributaries of the main river or children from the same parents, they are individuals in their own merit.
Well, that is the beauty of Carnatic Music, the similarities can be so strong that they can confuse you and differences can be sometimes so subtle that they are invisible .. .... wish it was the same case with human beings where the differences should be invisible and similarities is what should stand out!

About the Author:

Sandhya Shankar belongs to a well respected business family in Chennai. She is a Life Skills & Corporate Trainer by profession. She is an avid reader and a natural writer, who has written several poems and articles. She even presented her poems as a reading at the British council. She has keen interest in all art forms  and has explored many different forms of painting like stained glass and Tanjore being among them. 

Music being her first passion, she had her formal training under Terakotti Chandrasekharaiah at Bangalore and later briefly under Mrs Champa Kumar. She is a regular visitor of concerts, theatre and other live performances. Her witty reviews have gained a loyal and interactive readership for their sound technical commentary and relevance for every kind of melophile, from the casual-goer to the ragam expert, frequenting Chennai’s rich music scene.

(*The views and opinions expressed herein are those of the author and not necessarily those of Music of Madras.)