Mysore Brothers celebrate classicism

The Mysore Brothers have enhanced their traditional grooming with creativity and imagination

Sadly for connoisseurs of Carnatic music, who would congregate every December in Chennai from different parts of the world, Margazhi 2021 is playing out in a hybrid mode. So while there are a few opportunities to listen to and discuss music as a shared experience, at the sabha or the canteen, most of it still online. .

While listening to the virtual violin concert by the Mysore Brothers — Nagaraj and Manjunath — hosted by Kartik Fine Arts, some imaginary conversations came to the mind. The concert opened with raga Sindhu Ramakriya (‘Sudha Madhurya’, Tyagaraja), a raga not heard often on the concert stage. “Mali would play this beautifully, the higher notes also...,” from paati, who had hoisted her sari a foot above her ankles and waded her way to the sabha through waterlogged roads. A nod from me, while the friendly young man on my left, surfing Facebook, tells her about MS singing ‘Devadideva Sadashiva’. “It is available on YouTube paati, brilliant! Rajiv Gandhi, MGR, P.V. Narasimha Rao and P. Chidambaram were in the audience.” As this reverie broke, the brisk rendition was coming to an end and the brothers had moved on to Vasantabhairavi, a janya of the beautiful Vakulabharana.