And the mandolin falls silent (1969-2014)
His untimely death has stunned the music world. Courteous, soft-spoken, unassuming, with a childlike innocence, his mandolin spoke for him. Name and fame didn’t affect him and he treated all fellow musicians and everyone in society with respect. Mandolin U. Srinivas, the child prodigy and quiet rebel, died following a liver failure in Chennai on 19 September, 2014. He was just 45. Hailing from Palakol in Andhra Pradesh, Srinivas picked up his father Sathyanarayana’s broken mandolin with precocious ease at the tender age of six. At the age of 9, he had his first public performance at the Thiagaraja Aradhana where he stunned all the well known musicians with his mastery over the instrument.
Srinivas’s first guru was Rudraraju Subbaraju. In 1981, the 12-year-old gave his first major public concert in Chennai for the Indian Fine Arts Society.
Criticised initially for choosing the mandolin, as among the several conservative rigidities Carnatic music has, is a reluctance to admit unfamiliar instruments, Srinivas proved the sceptics wrong by how well he adapted the instrument.
He then stormed the Carnatic music scene as the swift-fingered mandolin artist. He then took the instrument, not just to stages across the state, but across the country and globe. With his head – topped with a shaggy mane of hair – bent over his mandolin, Srinivas seemed to conjure music out of thin air; his technique gentle and seductive, his fingering immaculate. Srinivas learned by ear, listening to Carnatic singers and picking out krithis and ragams.
Like the great D.K. Pattammal in her youth, who battled barriers of her own and included improvisations considered too complex, in her repertoire, Srinivas ignored those who criticised him, and created his own kind of honest, beautiful music, convinced that he could carve his own niche in the field. He proved that the mandolin could be true to, and even enhance, the exacting demands of Carnatic music.
Apart from his Carnatic concerts, Srinivas also collaborated with western and Indian classical musicians for fusion music performances. When McLaughlin revived his old ensemble Shakti under the name Remember Shakti, in 1997, Srinivas joined him, along with Zakir Hussain, singer Shankar Mahadevan, and percussionist V. Selvaganesh, all artistes raring to push beyond the boundaries of their immediate sphere of music.
Incidentally, the late Tamil Nadu chief minister, M.G. Ramachandran, after hearing Srinivas perform at a wedding, instructed his attendants to make sure Srinivas played at all AIADMK (All India Anna Dravaida Munnetra Kazhagam, the party founded by MGR) functions.
For all the flourish of his mandolin strings on stage, Srinivas’s personal life was in doldrums. The death of Sathya Sai Baba, in 2011 depressed him, as he was a great devotee. Later, his marriage with his wife Sree came to a bitter end in 2012, on the grounds of her cruelty. She got the custody of their only son, Sai Krishna, though they had already been living separately from Srinivas since the past 16 years.
Srinivas was appointed Tamil Nadu State Musician at the age of 15. He received Sangeeta Bala Bhaskara award at the hands of M.S. Subbulakshmi. He received his Padma Shri in 1998, when he was just 19, for his contribution to the arts, although awards meant not much to him.
He gave many concerts along with his brother in several countries. He was honoured with many awards both by the State and Central governments. Other awards he received are Sangeeta Ratna, Sanatana Sangeeta Puraskar, Rajalaxmi Foundation award, National Citizen award, Rajiv Gandhi National Integration award and so on. But the irony of his life is not lost, as dancer Dr. Padma Subramaniam says: “I would say everything about him was premature. He became a musical genius much ahead of his age. He became globally popular much ahead of his age. And he died much ahead of his age. The music world has lost a gem and a genius.”