The Hindustan Times, March 24, 1999
Picture of D.K. Pattammal with Sachin Tendulkar
WELL DONE, GRANDSON: Octogenarian Carnatic music exponent D.K. Pattammal, a Padma
Vibhushan winner, greets Sachin Tendulkar, a Padma Shree winner, at the awards ceremony at
Rashtrapati Bhavan in New Delhi.
The Indian Express, April 17, 1987
Tranquil Power
The Sri Jayendra Bhakta Samajam celebrated its second anniversary on Tamil New Year’s
day, with a classic vocal recital by the veteran, Smt D.K. Pattammal. Out of deference to the
founder, His Holiness Sri Jayendra Saraswathi, the occasion was consecrated to devotional
themes on Goddess Kamakshi, Lord Siva, the Kamakoti Mutt, through songs composed by the
Trinity and others.
D.K. Pattammal prefers pure musicianship to glamour of any sort. With her scrupulous fidelity
to tradition and the ground rules and total absence of self-indulgent interpretation of kritis,
this greatly respected artiste conveyed a pervasive feeling of tranquil power. She fulfils in an
extraordinary manner the motto Cardinal Richilieu laid down for the French Academy, viz. “to
encourage obedience to the rules of good taste and to curb anarchy in style”. Certain artistes
become institutions and once solidly institutionalised, become legendary. Smt. D.K.P. is one of
that blessed lot.
It was fascinating to observe how the artiste steered the concert away from becoming merely a
bhajan, yet retained the depth of emotion and the lyricism of that mode, and subtly brought in
the concert pattern without falling into mere technique or theatrical presentation. Condensation
has always been the cardinal virtue of her style; and DKP perhaps even believes it to be a
virtue to which other elements must be sacrificed! In this aspect she is like Ariyakudi Ramanuja
Iyengar.
Time was when concerts began with a song in Kedaram (often “Ramaneepai”). DKP opened
with the Dasar Kriti “Gajavadhanaveduve” in Kedaram, with classical calm and grace, and
followed it up with Tyagaraja’s Sri Raga kriti “Yukthamukathu”, a gem rarely heard. The long,
melodic lines of “Ekambaresa” (Sudha Asaveri) were well captured.
The orderly, lucid and quintessential delineations of ragas Sankarabharanam and Bhairavi
were notable for the suppression of the trivial details, in order to secure a captivating simplicity
of contour and depth. To younger musicians, they were an object lesson in raga alapana,
combining delight with profoundity and an intuitive feeling for the form of musical phrases.
Subbrama Dikshitar’s “Sankaracharyam”, the classic kriti on H.H. Mahadevendra Saraswathi,
a former pontiff of the Kamakoti mutt, and the depth of emotion stimulated in the neraval
on “Paramagnanalata” were rewarding. Similarly, in the Annaswamy Sastri Kriti “Sri Lalitha
Kanchinagaranivasini”, Pattammal was superb, both in the majestic raga alapana and the
note of pathos in the kriti. As if to capture other “rasas”, the artiste rendered “Kamakshi
Varalakshmi”, Dikshitar’s exhilarating piece in Bilahari, with breeziness, style and many climatic
moments.
All the above was substance of true music, not too demanding for the listeners, yet capable of
widening their intellectual horizons. D.K. Pattammal achieved with so much with great ease and
the infirmities of age seldom cramped her art.
T. Rukmini’s playing has always a gloss of its own but in a recital of this sort, a more restrained
display in raga alapana might have been appropriate. The young colt, J. Vaidyanathan,
accompanied his great aunt very ably on the mridangam and looks like earning high laurels very
soon. He duetted splendidly with Umayalpuram Narayanaswami on the ghatam.
By
K.S. Mahadevan