The unstoppable MLV
The Hindu
The celebrated vocalist and her intrepid journey to a remote village in Kerala for a concert
It was the late 1990s and I was in Easwari Lending Library in Avvai Shanmugam Salai peering into some old Tamil magazines. Suddenly my eyes fell upon a page with a photograph of M.L. Vasanthakumari. Since she is one of my favourite artistes, I dropped everything and sat down on the floor between the racks to read the piece. MLV was narrating an incident that happened early in her career. A concert invite had come from an obscure village in Kerala, but there was no family elder to accompany her to it. MLV was very keen to go, so her parents finally decided that her elderly ghatam accompanist would be her chaperone. A team was put together and a telegram sent out to the organiser confirming acceptance. The artistes travelled by train to the town closest to the concert venue. On getting there, they found nobody to receive them. After waiting awhile, MLV made enquiries about how to reach the village. She was informed that the only option was to hire a cart to get to the river, cross it by boat, then walk to the village. The ghatam artiste was all for going back, but MLV would not give in. And so they hired a cart and set off. It was getting late for the concert and when they reached the river they had to wait quite a while for a boat. Eventually, they made it to the other side and then set out on a long walk, their path lit by a flaming torch that the boatman had provided. They did not hope to reach the venue at the scheduled time. The team, even the intrepid MLV, was quite sure that there would be no one in the audience when they finally reach.More Related News