The divine ambience created by the serene rendering of Carnatic music has given way to a high pitched cacophony following the decision of Madras Music Academy at Chennai to honour TM Krishna, well known musician, with the Sangita Kalanidhi Award for 2024. Aficionados were shocked by the move by Music Academy, one of the oldest cultural institutions in the city, to honour Krishna who they allege have slandered, insulted and humiliated the icons of Carnatic music starting from Saint Thyagaraja to MS Subbulakshmi, the diva of Indian classical music.
"TM Krishna, through his write-ups and speeches, has slandered the Carnatic musicians who are adored, admired and loved by connoisseurs of music. He is nowhere near the great maestros of Carnatic music like MSS, D K Pattammal etc," said R Ananthanarayanan, honorary secretary, Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, Puthucode, who is engaged in the propagation of Sanskrit, Vedic Science and Carnatic Music.
GenerationNext artists, shocked by the derogatory comments made by Krishna decided to return the Sangita Kalanidhi Award conferred on them by Music Academy. The artists include Chitravina Ravikiran (winner of 2017 award) and Ranjani-Gayatri who declared that they were withdrawing from Music Academy's 2024 conference when the Sangita Kalanidhi award would be conferred on Krishna.
The duo of Srikrishna Mohan and Ramkumar Mohan (known as Trichur Brothers) scheduled to perform on December 19 at Music Academy too made it known that they would not participate in an event which was being presided over by Krishna. "He believes and propagates a value system that is diametrically opposite to our core values. To participate in a conference presided over by Krishna would make us outright hypocrites in our own eyes," said Trichur Brothers in a release.
The root cause of the latest controversy is an interview given by Krishna to an evangelist-Maoist periodical in 2015 where he described MS Subbulakshmi as the greatest hoax of the 20th century.
"It was packaging and marketing that made MS Subbulakshmi the global face and voice of Carnatic music ; her music was otherwise intrinsically hollow and lacked stuff. She was stage managed," said Krishna in the article.
He also belittled the people who considered MS as a divine star and questioned their credentials to make such a comment. It was eight years after the demise of the diva he wrote this article for the said magazine which had a track record of publishing fabricated and fictitious stories masqueraded as reports.
