K Arun Prakash
He is perhaps the most polarising mridangists of current times and K Arun Prakash is well aware of it. “What I am doing is unprecedented and anything unprecedented takes time to get accepted,” he says, in the unflustered manner typical of him. One realises very soon that he is a keen observer – besides music and many types of it, everything around him too, including human nature and its foibles. Arun Prakash is known for his candour and unafraid to speak his mind though only when asked.
Arun, son of L Krishnan and Vasantha, was born at his maternal grandparents’ then home in Kumbakonam on May 3rd, 1968, arriving even before the midwife’s entrance. His birth, he says, was in Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer’s former home, and just a few hours before Thyagaraja’s birthday which, that year, coincided with the composer’s janma nakshatram. Between those facts and Kumbakonam itself being a historic seat for Carnatic music, many musical stars seem to have congregated in his birth. Arun’s late father was an early student of GN Balasubramaniam. Besides accompanying GNB on several concerts, Krishnan gave many concerts of his own where he was accompanied by well-known artistes. He spent two decades working with movie directors as well and subsequently joined All India Radio as a composer. He composed for more than 2000 devotional albums for CDs, for leading musicians. Arun grew up listening to many styles of music – ghazals, Hindustani, film music, Vivid Bharati. “It was never just a Carnatic-only home,” he says.
From the earliest, Arun recollects trying to dissect any music he heard layer by layer, examining what followed what, how lyric, melody and rhythm went together. Arun would sing anything he heard casually at home but to date has never learned vocal. He was part of a children’s group that sang at the All India Radio at the ages of 6-7.
His tryst with mridangam began almost by accident. “I had gone to the AIR office to give my father a packed lunch from home. While I was waiting for him, I peeked into a room full of mridangams. There was one on the floor which I just started tapping on. A gentleman came in and asked me who I was. Right then, my father came in apologising for my touching the instruments. The gentleman asked my father if I was his son. He then asked if I was learning. My father said no and, suddenly, utterly unexpectedly, said, “I wanted to bring him to you for training, actually.” Arun had no idea until then that his father had had any such intention. It was May 13th, 1977 and the gentleman was Ramanathapuram MN Kandasamy Pillai.”
The above is an excerpt. Read the full article by buying the December 2022 issue of Sruti at this link: https://www.sruti.com/index.php?route=product/product&path=6&product_id=629
