http://www.dailypioneer.com/244684/Pavan-K-Varma-in-conversation-with-Kanchan-Gupta.html

I think, its appropriate to share it here..

Few excerpts from the above article.

There is a language of communication and there is a language of culture. The language of culture is a window to your history, mythology, folklore, proverbs, idioms, to your creativity … and it’s the language in which we cry and laugh. There is no contradiction between the two. Recent research shows that all those who are well-grounded first in their mother tongue pick up a foreign language that much faster.

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Look at the state of our humanities departments, not an original work! This is the country of Nalanda? Doctoral theses are being written with footnotes by foreign scholars. Look at the state of our literature, the man who won the Bharatiya Gnanpeeth told me his books sell less than a thousand copies. Look at the state, pardon my saying so, of even our book reviews. If you are in the UK, the country that colonised us, on the weekend any broadsheet will have 30 to 40 pages only on book reviews. Here we have leading newspapers who have dispensed with book reviews!

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Exactly! Look at the state of classical dance… I mean I have been a cultural administrator also. Top exponents of a parampara which goes back 3,000 years have to telephone friends for days before a performance to fill a hall when the entrance is free. Look at the state of classical music, the raga represents a 4,000-year-old parampara and it is a very delicate structure… the elaboration of the mood the gradual vistaar and the drut… Today we have eminent musicians performing like adolescent pop stars, catering to the lowest common denominator of an audience.

Now, I am not against pop culture. In Hyde Park — I have lived in London — when you have a pop music performance thousands go for it. But on the same day I have seen people queuing up from 11 in the morning at 20 pounds a pop to attend a performance of Western classical music. Mature civilisations nurture both. We cannot be reduced to a sterile simplicity that it is either popular culture or nothing else at all. So these are things we need to think about.

Priya.. In that case, can we say, most of the westerners are “Kattupettis” (or narrow minded) .. since they dont know anything about eastern music..

I feel, our world is as big as how deep we had understood the culture & history we live..

I was so surprised at the comments i got.. I could not decide, whether its the raaga, or the lyric or the devotion of MS, that attracts so many people towards it..

I happened to hear the village folks few days back, and my opinion was re-inforced.. Village folks is more of an expression of the singer, rather than the music itself.. We can understand the true spirit of that music, only if we could understand the superbly crafted (yet simple) words of the song.. without the meaning, the village folk would be an uninteresting sound..

I remember in my child hood, how i hated Oppari.. But, few years back, one person from malaysia, released a book, containing collection of folksongs (lyrics only).. after reading this, i understood how rich are those songs in expressing the joys/sorrows/ (even hatred )..

I think, the difference b/w POP and folk is that in the former, we enjoy the sounds in harmony,.. whereas, in the later (folks), we appreciate the content of the song, reinforced with a plain music..

That’s why, ilayaraja’s music is different from present day western music.. in the former, we enjoy the songs and its ragams which is appreciated at the intellectual level (by interpreting both music and content), while in the later, we enjoy the beats and orchestra.. there was some kind of abstraction in the former.. (this is just my observation.. )

Let me quote some examples..

“”இளமை என்னும் பூங்காற்று…”
Hope, you remember the above song.. Even though its highly romantic song , there is a “Nalinam” in it, and it doesnt look vulgar ..

Compare the above with the following..

“கட்டிப்புடி கட்டிப்புடிடா…”

“கல்யாணம் கட்டிக்கிட்டு ஓடிப்போகலாமா…”

There is a differerence, in the quality of the above songs..

If we consider the history of music in the past 50 years, the quality of music in general (both indian and western) has depleted considerably.. The west first started with introducing seducing elements, like sexy madonna etc, as a cheap marketing strategy..
And indian entertaining industry followed that..

Compare the level of obscenity, vulgarity, in classical films with the modern one.. we can understand the degradation..

The taste of people is influenced a lot by the quality of the music, particularly when there is no alternative..

Very few songs of tamil film industry maintains that quality.. Consider the song “ஒவ்வொரு பூக்களுமே..” .. it was so impressive, that many schools adopted it as prayer song..

We need such songs to maintain the standards of the music..