9.12.2010 O.S.Arun Kutcheri

So far, in this year’s Kunnakudi music festival we have attended only one kutcheri, so far. The festival was inaugurated on 7.12.2010 and on the 8th, Rajesh Vaidhya’s kutcheri was on prime time. But as we had to unconsciously follow the routine, we could only go on the 9th. But we got a bonus! We got to listen to O.S.Arun, the man who works magic with music!







The program was scheduled for 7.p.m. But when we reached exactly at 7 after being caught in the traffic and talking to the organizer’s daughter and wife and fumbling with the elevator, Serugudi sisters Rama and Geetha were in the end of their very brilliant performance. The thani avarthanams of the accompanists was excellent.






O.S.Arun sat finally at 7.30. (Does he have back pain? Why does he sit on that high cushion?) He was sweating profusely. He was accompanied by Madurai Balasubramanium on the violin (awesome performer), Venkatasubramanium on the mridangam and Adambakkam Shankar on ghatam. Arun had a stack of notebooks at his side apart from the folders that lay open in front of him. To be honest, I used to think that singers should be able to perform without help. But now, I do accept it’s more convenient for them to have their songs in front. They’re doing more kutcheris these days and shuttling from place to place in a very short time. Infact, Arun was in Thumkur that noon when he called up the organizers saying that he didn’t know how he was going to make it by 7.






He started the concert vibrantly with Vatapi ganapathim. Balasubramanium gave an equally vibrant performance with his violin. When Kunnakudi V.Srinivasan, the organizer mentioned his name after Rama and Geetha left the dais, there was a loud applause from a relatively small crowd. Arun showed once again he deserved that and a lot more. The evening got better with his second song, Meru samana. I was like, “wow”. He started the third one with a violin-vocal duet which was way better than anything I’ve ever heard, which was not much. It was Theruvil Varano. His expressions too were good and strangely, he reminded me of Sanjay Subramanium.






The best piece though, was Thunai purindarul which he started with an extraordinary piece of kalapanaswaram and a violin solo. Well the thani was good overall but I loved the violin and this particular piece of swaras that went ma dha, ma ni dha, sad ha ni, ni dha ni made us laugh. Get it? Madha manidha! Sadha ni nidhani. (Mad man be calm always)






Only one rasika sent a request, so Arun sang Swagatham krsna for them. I’ve heard that song by Unni Krishnan and Nithashree Mahadevan and Aruna Sairam, but Arun’s was a little different, nevertheless, good. He concluded with Beemaka maruthi. I went home in a better mood but unfortunately for me we could not attend the other kutcheris. I do hope to catch some at other sabhas this season and I might post my descriptions here.