As preparations to celebrate the 125th birth anniversary of Jnanpith Award-winning Kannada writer Masti Venkatesh Iyengar are under way, the lesser known musical side of the author came to the forefront at the recent ‘Masti Endowment Concert’ in the city.
The family members of the late writer who had gathered at the concert recounted that music had been an integral part of the family for at least four generations now.
“The Sampradaya Geethe taught by Masti’s mother, Tirumalamma, remains evergreen in our house. The family of Masti’s mother-in-law, Raghavamma, too was exposed to bulbul tarang (a string instrument), piano, violin, and veena nearly 200 years ago,” said Vasantha Sri, Masti’s granddaughter.
Six of the 123 books that Masti has written are lyrical and they have been adapted as ‘geete’, ‘kriti’, ‘pada’, ‘laavani’ and ‘janapada geete’. “Masti himself composed several of them, employing his favourite ragas,” said V. Ramabhadra, his grandson, who has had interactions with the writer for 22 years.
While Masti’s favourite composition was ‘Bhagyada Lakshmi Baramma’ of Purandara Dasa, his six daughters made the house reverberate with bhakti geethe, janapada geete, and kritis.
“We have released six CDs of Masti’s kavanas transformed into tuneful kritis. These songs have been rendered by renowned vocalists, including R.K. Srikantan, Shyamala Bhave, Tirumale Srinivas, Usha Kesari, and Jayashri Aravind,” said Ms. Vasantha.
When M.S. Subbulakshmi wanted assistance in rendering D.V. Gundappa’s works in the 1950s, the then President Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan directed her to visit Masti, which she did. “Our house was packed with people while M.S. sang. My grandfather assisted her with the right articulation,” she recalled.
