“Komalatara pallava pada…” the bhava-laden voice flowed effortlessly filling the air. It belonged to a frail lady, lying on the bed. It was T. Mukta who belonged to the Veena Dhanam bani. Even as her life was fading away, all she could remember was her music.
Such was the powerful musical spirit of Muktamma. Her centenary was celebrated recently with two-day event jointly hosted by the Dr. V. Raghavan Centre for Performing Arts, Chennai, and the Sangeet Natak Akademi, New Delhi, where Muktamma’s matchless contribution to music was recalled with reverence.
Mukta had her initial training from her mother, Kamakshi Ammal, and later came under the tutelage of the renowned Kanchipuram Naina Pillai along with her sister, T.Brinda. Under the gurukulam system, Muktamma mastered over 300 kritis of Tyagaraja, besides those of Dikshitar, Syama Sastri and Patnam Subramanya Iyer, among others.
Later, Mukta learnt padams and javalis from her grandmother Veena Dhanammal and her aunt Lakshmiratnammal, and accumulated a rare and rich repertoire. She started performing with her sister from the age of 10. Her expertise in rendering ragas, especially rakti, was considered unique.
But Mukta was known for her rendition of padams and javalis. As one of the torch-bearers of that genre, Muktamma kept up the high standards of the Dhanammal bani. Her high tonal rendering of padams such as “Ososi”, “Rama Rama prana sakhi”, “Kuvalayakshiro” or “Payyadaa” or javalis such as “Nareemani” and “Smara Sundaraanguni,” are spoken of with awe even today.
How can one forget her accompaniment to her illustrious cousin T. Balasaraswati, at a rare event at The Music Academy’s annual festival where both the doyennes vied with each other to bring out one of their best and immortal performance?
The Central Sangeet Natak Akdemi, New Delhi, through the efforts of one of its founding members, Dr.V. Raghavan, stood by Muktamma in 1970, to launch an intensive training programme to foster the padam-javali tradition.
For all her musical accomplishments and her lineage, Muktamma remained a simple and unassuming person, who was always ready to share her knowledge with everyone who came seeking it. Her observations or comments were often short, sharp and sweet; she had a ready wit and often diffused tense moments with her humour.
Indeed Muktamma was a rare musician and a wonderful human being.