Sanjay Subrahmanyam is one of the, if not THE, top ranking performing artistes in Carnatic music currently.
I can safely say that the sentence above is possibly the most inane sentence I have written in my life. Because to anyone who follows Carnatic music even casually, the premise is totally superfluous. It would be as obvious to them as a “gooseberry in one’s palm”, to borrow an ancient reference. To those who don’t follow the art form, Sanjay would almost certainly be an unknown entity, and the premise irrelevant.
So where am I going with this? I count myself in the former cohort - listeners / followers of Carnatic music. I have followed Sanjay’s musical journey since about 1990. I love his music, but more importantly I adore how he delivers great and chaste classical music without making a fuss about external appearances. I have seen and heard him in a phase when he would deliver a pristine Kambhoji or Todi, while sporting purple streaked longish hair. There was nothing unclassical about the music, yet he was cocking a mischievous snook at the stuffy mamas and mamis who infest the Carnatic listening world. Who place more value on appearance and form, while being unable to differentiate a Saveri from a Behag, or even a Varnam from a Kriti for that matter!
