After ridiculing him all his life, the Carnatic music world is celebrating MD Ramanathan

The voice is a profound bass, close to a low growl, the words blurring deep in the throat, the pace almost decelerating. The first impression is surreal, almost like a vinyl playing at the wrong tempo. But as the song unfurls, it opens out a grand canvas, filling in unexpected colours and leaving you deeply moved. Thyagaraja’s Endaro Mahanubhavulu is a much-loved ode to savants, but in MD Ramanathan’s voice, it transforms into an altogether new aural experience.

To use everyday words to describe Ramanathan’s, or MDR’s, music is a hopeless exercise – unless you are a poet with the felicity of KS Satchidanandan. In Ramanthan Padunnu (Ramanthan sings), a poignant work in Malayalam, Satchidanandan compares it to the resonance of a tanpura playing in the cavernous hollow of an elephant’s throat.

“He sang from a place of freedom and pure joy, oblivious to all else around him,” said violinist RK Shriramkumar, who recently set to music some of MDR’s unsung compositions. “It was internalised music, pure svanubhuti, and always in the moment. When most others were picking the medium or fast pace of singing, he was slower than slow in his exposition. Everything he did, from his accent to his intonation and even mannerisms, went into interpreting the...

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