Shaji Chen

                                    Hundred years ago, in America there was a movie super star named Rudolf Valentino. He was born in Italy the year the technology of cinema was invented! Acting in the early years’ silent movies as a hero in action and romantic films, he became the high idol of popular art of the time and worshipped like a human god. He started acting at the age of 19 and became a super star at 23! He was popularly called as the ‘Latin Lover’ by young girls and also men who were partial to handsome men. He became their sex symbol. More than his acting talent the movements of his body, his sleepy eyes and his firmly fleshed body attracted his fans. He shined over the film field for only six years before he passed away due to lacerating ulcer of intestines, at the age of 31. Law and order broke down in the city of New York because of the frenzied behavior of his hysterical fans. Many...

“Is it possible to get A.R.Rahman? If it is not possible, how about Balamuralikrishna? At least S.P.Balasubramaniam?” These were the questions posed to me by a Manager in charge of Music in an important Malayalam TV Channel on the morning of 11 th  December, 2012, the day Pundit Ravi Shankar passed away! The idea was to get a few popular figures in the field of music to talk about Pundit Ravi Shankar and get it telecast as a channel tribute. I told him that there is a person in Chennai who is better qualified to talk about Pundit Ravi Shankar. “Is it Ilayaraja?” he asked me. I said, “No. He is Pundit Janardhan Mitta.” He responded saying “Even I do not know of him. So where is the question of viewers knowing of him?” Then I asked him, “Do you know who Vilayat Khan is?” He said, “I have heard the name somewhere, but cannot place him.” “Do you know who Annapurna Devi is?” I continued. He said, “No”. “Nikhil Banerji?” “No”. “How about Shahid Parvez?” He did not know him as well. I dis...

“There is nothing as great a music system in this world as Carnatic music. There may be a few others that are pleasant to hear. But none of them have the greatness or the importance of our music system.” This is no sooth-saying of an ordinary person! It was no less than the Guru of Carnatic music, Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer! Most of the people here will contend that this opinion of the omniscient Guru is indeed correct. Is it possible that the venerable Semmangudi reached this conclusion after attaining a complete understanding of all the other music systems in this world? If he has reached this conclusion only on the basis of his understanding of Carnatic music, is it tenable or credible? Melissa Holliday is an Australian friend. She can sing very well. On an occasion I presented her a record of Madurai Mani Iyer’s rendering of a Swati Thirunal  krithi  ‘Saarasaaksha Paripaalaya’ in Raag Pantuvarali (Kamavardhini). After listening to it, the question that she asked me was, “Is...

They always say what can one man do?  One man can do a lot if he dedicates himself to the task.  One man can create an AMUL.  – Dr. Verghese Kurien Years ago, I have travelled widely in the state of Gujarat. Anand town is on the State Highway between Baroda and Ahmedabad. It has a sleepy railway station on the Mumbai - Ahmedabad line. As you travel on the state highway you can see factories bearing sky-high legend AMUL. Whenever I used to travel on the route, my mind would inescapably remember Dr. Verghese Kurien. I had always regarded him as one of my ideals. I could never think of him without a sense of admiration. I had always longed to go into his office to meet him and shake hands at least once. The thought of ‘who am I for that?’ curbed my ambition. Dr.Verghese Kurien was the one, over the last 63 years, who had built brick by brick the AMUL brand that is the face of the internationally famous, commercially successful empire that markets milk and milk...

Whenever I visited the home of Sabira, daughter of that eternal marvel of a composer of Malayalam film music, Baburaj, I had felt that the house and the people within were all like a Baburaj song. I always felt that the family was like a love-filled Baburaj song of sincerity, truthfulness and simplicity. On a rainy day they told me about Philip Francis, the musician. He was a person who loved the songs of Baburaj like they were the very breath of his life. At that time I only thought of him as another singer among thousands who worshipped Baburaj. But when I got to listen to the songs sung by Philip Francis in an album titled ‘Baburajinte Swarabhedangal (Variations of Baburaj)’ I felt that nobody else had sung those Ghazals of Baburaj that every Malayalee knew well. Philip Francis, the musician was not another one among thousands of singers. His was the rarest among rare musicians! Who was this Philip Francis really? We will see this personality wearing many hats and find it hard to de...

The swirling mid-day wind is moving the tall coconut trees and making the leaves shake to the beat patterns of it. Mango trees dance to the wind letting the ripe mangoes fall to the ground in rhythm. The cooling summer day breeze carrying around the sweet whiff of fruit mangoes. When I look at the huge mango tree standing tall before me offering its fruits unfailingly, I am reminded of Michael Jackson’s ‘giving tree’ that he regularly kept referring to.  “Trees are the great inspiration of my music. When I climb and sit on my ‘giving tree’ music and poems spring from me on their own. I created many of my songs like ‘Heal the world’, ‘Will you be there?’, ‘Black or White?’ and ‘Childhood’ sitting on that tree.  I look at trees with great love. Their kindness moves me to tears. I would always like to sit on them as an eternal child.” When Michael Jackson passed away, I did not write much beyond a small note in Tamil in the Ananda Vikatan weekly. This made many of my readers conc...