 KS Mahadevan is well known in the field of Carnatic music, as a respected critic. He has in the past 90 odd years of his life seen the ebb and flow of Carnatic music. Being a very active member of the Shanmukhananda Sabha of Bombay for many years, he had the opportunity to move closely with many of our musicians.
Despite his advanced age, KSM is very alert and exceedingly sharp. His memory, which is unfailing, has stored away in it many an anecdote of which he displays a few during his speeches and writings. Among many artistes he and his family knew, a few like
Semmangudi, M S Subbulakshmi and
M L Vasanthakumari were very close friends. It is therefore but appropriate that such a storehouse of facts and experiences should set down his reminiscences in writing. It is indeed the good fortune of Carnatic music that he has done so.
The book, as KSM himself writes in the preface, records his own experiences of over 60 years in the field of committed listening and reporting. According to the author, the book "is a humble effort to portray the artistes' competence in the art, achieved through hard training under great masters and the peaks of success attained by them and how".
The author covers the period 1920-1990 and deals with music personalities who are now no more. Two individuals who were not musicians but were closely involved with those in the field, namely T T Krishnamachari and T Sadasivam, have also been included.
The book begins with a brief account of KSM’s own childhood and his early memories of listening to such greats as Malaikottai Govindasami Pillai. This part also traces the origins of the Shanmukhananda Sabha. The second part is titled 'My Family and Music'. But this is quite brief and talks about some of KSM’s family members who were very knowledgeable on music.
The third part deals with Ariyakudi Ramanuja Iyengar, Maharajapuram Viswanatha Iyer, Musiri Subramanya Iyer, Kumbakonam Rajamanikkam Pillai, Umayalpuram Kothandarama Iyer, T Chowdiah, Papa KS Venkataramaiah, Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer, Palani Subramania Pillai, Alathur Brothers, G N Balasubramaniam (written by KSM’s son Ramesh), Palghat Mani Iyer (co authored by KSM’s second son MS Sekhar), M D Ramanathan, T R Mahalingam, K V Narayanaswami, T Vishwanathan, M L Vasanthakumari, D K Jayaraman, Calcutta K S Krishnamurthy and Maharajapuram
Santhanam.
KSM has written on the the above personalities as seen by himself and has related several interesting anecdotes on each of them. The book has around 140 pages and is extremely easy to read. What is amazing is the energy that KSM has brought into the writing of the book, not allowing his old age to be an impediment.
The one big drawback that the book suffers from is the number of printers devils which are almost on every page. Still it is a must for every music lover and raconteur.
The book has been published by KSM himself. The price of the book is not mentioned.
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