Racy and Klassy Murthy! - Ramakrishnan Murthy

Racy and Klassy Murthy!

In the past years, one name making the rounds, as someone to watch out for, in the Carnatic music field, has been this youngster , Ramakrishna Murthy. 
I have also been attending his concerts year after year, and was greatly impressed with his steady growth. Listening to him again this year at Bharati Vidya Bhavan on 27th November, I was happy to see his progress in all aspects of the performance. His breath control, swarasthanam, depth in understanding in the ragam, infact the whole delivery was more than satisfactory ! 
His first song ‘Duddukku Gala’ in Ragam Gowla, which is one of the Pancharatana krithis of Saint Thyagaraja. It was so flawlessly sung also establishing why this pancharatna krithi is called a gem. His next song was one from Muthuswamy Dikshitar’s Navagraha krithis ‘Budham Ashrayami Satatam Suravinutam’ in Ragam Natakurinji. A well thought choice because the concert happened to be a Wednesday. These great composers have spared none or nothing ... they have composed songs on not just Gods and Goddesses but also planets, days of the week, seasons, mountains, rivers, five elements, the sun, moon and what not !!! 
Ramakrishna Murthy did not miss the third of the Trinity. It was Shyama Sastry’s ‘Birana Varalichi Brovumu’ in Ragam Kalyani. This krithi has three charanams making it a masterpiece. I certainly found more confidence and power in his singing from last year and yet he hesitated to give the eye contact with the audience. 
Ramakrishna Murthy, should we call him just RKM like RaGa,TMK, MS, MLV, GNB ... after all he is getting there ! 
RKM started his music journey in Irvine under Padma Kutty and though being an Informatics graduate from The University of California, has chosen Carnatic music as a career. After learning under the violin artiste Delhi P Sunder Rajan, today he is a student of our own R.K. Shriramkumar the violinist. Vocalists learning from instrumentalists is not uncommon. The knowledge transferred is immeasurable and outcome speaks for itself. 
RKM chose to sing his own teacher R.K. Shriramkumar’s composition in Ragam Sindhu Bhairavi ‘ Appar Karuna Maheshwara ‘ on Lord Kapaleeshwara since he was singing in Mylapore. Personally it was a revealation that R.K. Shriramkumar could compose so well. 
RKM didn’t waste a single minute and was so brilliant. His program flow was so tightly packed that there was hardly any time to savour and recover from one song as he moves to the next song. Have you ever sat to have a Tamil Brahmin wedding lunch which is served on a banana leaf, and before you can enjoy your sambhar, some morkuzhambu, followed by rasam is served, all one on top of the other. They kind of hurry you to finish an actually well planned and well cooked four course meal and that’s how I felt in this kutcheri. 
Then came a composition by Chidambaram Bharati in Ragam Bilahari ‘Maa Mayoora Meedil Eri.’ 
Before Muruga could hear him and start on his peacock, RKM was faster than him and started his next song composed by Saint Thyagaraja in Ragam Kharaharapriya ‘Pakkala Nilabadi Goliche’. As the Thani Avartanam started, as usual some people started to leave, it was then RKM quipped that there was only one line left to sing after that ! 
Then followed a Javali composed by Poochi Iyengar in Ragam Behaag ‘Nirupama Samini‘ and most of the moving crowd changed their mind and sat back to listen to his rendering of Papanasam Sivan’s ‘Nambi Kettavar Yevar Ayya‘ in Ragam Hindolam. The last song for the day was Swati Tirunal’s ‘Ali Veni Yentu Cheyvu‘ which sounded like Ragam Nilambari or Ragam Megaragakurinji... where did he give me time to think anyway !

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.)