Decades-old recordings of MSV digitised

Chennai: A radio biography of veteran music composer M S Viswanathan was released in audio CD format by Prasar Bharti Archives on Wednesday, along with archival recordings of other notable yesteryear doyens - veena maestro Emani Sankara Sastry, Carnatic vocalist Tanjore S Kalyanaraman, and orator Thenkachi Ko Swaminathan, who also served as assistant station director in All India Radio.
While recordings of M S Viswanathan, Emani Sankara Sastry and Tanjore Kalyanaraman were released as a set of three CDs, 'Indru oru Thagaval' - Thenkachi Swaminathan's 200 recordings of over 4 minutes each - were released in two parts. Film producer AVM Saravanan fondly remembered Swaminathan's humour-laced messages, commentary and punch lines from his celebrated 5-minute show on AIR, 'Indru oru Thagaval', which ran every morning for almost 14 years. "I would listen to him every morning on way to my grandson's school and later during the day translate it for him in English. It was almost as though I heard the show twice," he said. M S Viswanathan's daughter Madhu Ashok, who received his CD, reminisced how AIR acted as the bridge between her and her father when he was travelling and kept her abreast of all his work. Bhushany Kalyanaraman, who was both S Kalyanaraman's wife and disciple, fondly remembered how he diligently strove to pass on his knowledge to the future generation and thanked him for creating an artist out of her.
Emani Sankara Sastry's granddaughter Emani Keeravani received the CD of his recordings. The CDs were released by E Gayatri, vice chancellor, Tamil Nadu Music and Fine Arts University., whose connection to AIR dates back to her mother, Kamala Aswathama, who was a veena artiste for AIR. She also spoke fervently of Emani Sankara Sastry's work and how much it had inspired her own craft as a veena player. "My mother had performed many of his compositions for AIR's orchestra Vadya Vrinda, which I hope could be revived," she said. Chief guest Suresh Chandra Panda, IAS member (personnel), Prasar Bharti, lauded the agency's efforts to digitise decades worth of archives concisely and promised to bring to the fore many more works. "In the 1980s and 90s, we recorded the Ramcharitmanas in Bhopal, and it's now available in the form of CDs and DVDs. We have 4 lakh hours of archives in Doordarshan and AIR. To make it available to the public is a gigantic step," he said.