Perspective - Kanniks

Writer Sujatha’s departure leaves a vacuum that is hard to fill.

I have always been an admirer of writer Sujatha.

The numerous todar kathais, or short clips on Kumudam and Vikatan used to hold me spellbound during the early 80s  in India. Pirivom Sandippom, Karaiyallaam Shenbagappoo were both interesting.

Karaiyellaam Shenbagappoo became a film starred by Pratap Pothen with a neat music  score by Illaiyaraaja.

I clearly remember a writeup by Sujatha on the orchestral score of Illaiyaraaja in the film RaajaPaarvai. He described the pantuvarali flow in its gradual stages of meandering from a violin solo to which a veena flute duet replied, to a Western Classical ish transition to a jazzy transition to a climactic finale. The writeup enabled a greater appreciation of the actual recording itself.

This writing is just an illustration of how the man actually communicated through his words. It could be any topic. He had his own style of expressing it, in simple words, in a way that had an impact on you when you read it. You would remember it later.

I met Mr. Sujatha Rangarajan for the first time  in 1998 and have been in touch with him ever since then. He had  the highest compliments  for  one of my recordings  ‘Tiruvarangam’ based on the pasurams of the Alwars and very strongly encouraged me to record a sequel to the album.

His creativity showed no sign of  diminishing. I met him recently in December last year, when I shared with him some of the work that I had been engaged in.  He spoke for about 45 minutes.

What I remember most clearly from the conversation was his description of the last rites in  the Indian tradition that have a tremendous amount of  significance in completing the bereaved’s relationship with the deceased. He said that he had stood by the performance of the  last rites of a relative recently and that what remained in his mind was a quote from Nammalvar, ‘ini oru tuyarum illai’.

There is a vacuum created by the departure of  Sujatha and it is  hard to say ‘ini oru tuyarum illai’ in the same spirit as he did!