You were conferred this year's Veerashrunghala award by the Keli festival. At your age you have been given almost all awards. Do you still get excited by them?For an artiste, rasikas' love is everything. All awards and recognition are over and above. They are an extra bonus. I feel blessed and happy people express their love for me and my music with these awards. As an organisation, Keli has been doing good work to preserve, develop and propagate our classical cultural heritage. An award from them is hence special.You were conferred India's second highest civilian honour the Padma Vibhushan 25 years ago. Many feel in your case the Bharat Ratna is long overdue.Its an honour that they think so. For me, music is everything. Whether the Padma Vibhushan, or the Chevalier of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French Government in 2005, I've never hankered for awards. If you pursue music selflessly, recognition and awards follow. And even if they don't, it doesn't matter.Yet there are artistes and their families who openly demand Bharat Ratna like an entitlement.That's saddening and shameful. Why should artistes demean themselves like this? If you have to get a recognition or award, it will come. Only those unsure of their art will do this.Isn't it true though that fewer Carnatic musicians make it to the civilian honours compared to Hindustani ones?You are really looking for a headline, aren't you? (Smiles) I know there are people who have such a perception but this is not entirely correct. There are fewer Carnatic musicians compared to Hindustani. Obviously the latter are more in number.As a 5th generation descendant of the saint-composer Thyagaraja in the guru-shishya tradition, you are celebrated as one of India's greatest vocalists. You play the violin, viola, kanjeera, veena and mridangam with equal ease and also compose. Which of these satisfies you the most?Music is like a vast ocean. It's seamless. Separating it as vocal, instrumental and composition are constructs of our minds. When you see it all as an extension of each other, you're able to surrender and let it guide you. At a kutcheri (concert), it's great connecting with audiences and trying something innovative on the spur of the moment. Similarly, recording has its own joy. I have even enjoyed and felt my music and singing grow from accompanying several great musicians on the violin.Your actual name is Muralikrishna. How did the prefix Bala come to be attached to your name?This prefix Bala (child) is good. It is a constant reminder that I shouldn't stop learning. I was barely eight when I got an opportunity to perform a full-fledged concert at a Thyagaraja Aradhana in Vijayawada. This then became a part of my name for listeners.The musical legacy came from your musician parents?My mother Suryakanthamma was an excellent veena player. My father Pattabhiramayya could play the flute, violin and the veena and was a well-known musician of his times. Unfortunately, I lost my mother when I was very young. My father, who raised me, realised I had no interest in formal school but was musically inclined. He took me to Parupalli Ramakrishnayya Pantulu, a direct descendant of the shishya tradition of Thyagaraja. That gave me a thorough foundation in the fundamentals of Carnatic music.Is that what led you to start composing songs in all the 72 Melakartha ragas, considered the very foundation of Carnatic music?There is nothing like sitting to compose. When I composed, then, or when I have composed music for films, it has all just happened. Often, I sit and begin humming and suddenly I get an idea. Yes, now we have technology, but sometimes one gets a brilliant idea and it also comes out in a flow and yet when you try to do the same thing again, you get something else.You've created several new ragas...Take my word for it. This has happened exactly as I said — on its own.Weren't you worried about criticism from purists when throwing tradition to the wind when you composed 25 new ragas like Ganapathi, Mahati, Lavangi, etc. with fewer than the five notes prescribed?What's tradition? Has it fallen from heaven? I respect and understand that tradition gives us the grammar of music. But there should be freedom to interpret this tradition. I don't like the conformist idea of blindly following tradition without applying one's own mind.Most Carnatic artistes ensure they have well-known percussionists and violinists accompanying them, hoping to attract more audiences. You've always gone out of your way to sing with obscure names and budding accompanists...But you will agree they are good musicians?Yes, of course...All of us made our beginnings some time and were able to be challenged and grew because we were encouraged with opportunities. Why shouldn't we extend the same grace to other youngsters too?You've composed over 400 compositions in 31 Telugu, Sanskrit, Kannada and Tamil films. What do you have to say to those classical musicians who look down upon film music?I've never felt any genre is lesser or greater. I will in fact admit that the challenge with a film song is often greater. Unlike a concert or an album recording, one doesn't have the luxury of time to evoke the mood of a raga. It has to make an immediate connect.Some artistes, like TM Krishna, have called Carnatic music an all-male, Brahmin-dominated genre.Everyone is entitled to their views. Music is above all kinds of divisive forces. If you ask me there are several internationally respected, non-Brahmin, musicians of repute both in Carnatic music and in the Southern film music world. If there is a feeling that they don't find enough space, the music fraternity must introspect and ensure greater integration.Does your work with music therapy continue?We have a history of looking at arts as more than leisure. This applies to music too. Studies have helped us re-evaluate how we look at music from this perspective. Studies show how from the 19th week of pregnancy, a child in the womb can hear music. S/he connects with it even after birth. Music therapy has helped cure stuttering, and improved speech fluency in kids who are just 8-10 weeks old. It is also beneficial for people with neurological disorders and hypertension.

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