The guiding light

An artiste is the reflection of his or her guru. Every concert or katcheri is the guru’s way of telling the disciple that they are worthy of the art. Guru KJ Govindarajan was perhaps born to be a one. His tradition has lived on, two decades after he passed away, through his students who often feel that he was way ahead of his times. A nattuvanar, singer, composer, choreographer and poet, this month marks his 24th death anniversary.

In a two-room apartment in Karol Bagh, back in the 70s, Guru Govindarajan would be up at the first light of dawn and perform his morning puja. His contemporaries, fellow artistes and disciples often fondly called him “Mama”. On any given day, he had visitors who were artistes, apart from his students, and they conversed over tea and coffee, with the discussions often leading to songs and dances. There was food for anyone who visited. Karol Bagh was perhaps the Carnatic centre, with an artiste inhibiting every second household. People often referred to the place as the Mylapore of Delhi.

In his magnificent career of 34 years, he composed over 50 items for the margam along with nine dance dramas. His Kambhodi Varnam called “Nee Poyi Solluvan” remains a favourite amongst his students. He was awarded by the Sahitya Kala Parishad in Delhi in 1992. But all this does not mark a guru’s eminence and that can solely be seen in how he inspired his students to take up the art form. In Delhi alone, artistes like Radha Marar, Jaishankar Menon, Jamuna Krishnan, Marie Elangovan, Kodhai Narayanan, Rasika Khanna and Kiran Sehgal (though she took up Odissi later) carried on his tradition. His children too took up the arts, with his sons Vasudevan pioneering the mridangam, Elangovan turning a composer, singer and nattuvanar like his father, Raghuraman the flute and his daughter, Kalaivani Rajmohan, the dance. In some of his earliest tours abroad, he accompanied dancers like Indrani Rehman and MK Saroja.

“I joined him at Triveni back in the 60s. He was an ocean of knowledge in his own way. When I think about him now, I am amazed at the ease with which he would teach. I think the classical art is a fairly complicated field, but he made everything easy for us. For a long time, I never went to the stage without him. His presence changed everything,” reminisces Jamuna Krishnan.

K.J. Govindarajan   | Photo Credit: Special arrangement

“He had an eye to notice the innate style of each dancer. For example, how I danced and moved was different from someone else, and he would specially design and choreograph pieces that best suited our abilities. I think it was extremely caring of him as a guru,” says Marie Elangovan. “He would compose and forget about it. It was our job to remember what he taught in the class and I would go back and try hard to remember, because there were just so many new ideas. He was someone who believed that every individual had their style, unlike strictly adhering to the established styles. When it came to abhinaya, we took each day as it came. He mostly worked with improvisations, there was no question of expressing one emotion one way,” she adds. As a tribute to her Guru, Marie will render a Bharatanayam recital “Sri Gurubhyo Namaha” this week.

Guru Govindarajan was born in Kiranur in Tanjavur to a family of traditional nattuvanars, who played in the temples for dancers. His musician mother, the legendary Kiranoor Jayalakshmi, was the first lady Carnatic flautist. As a young boy, he acquainted himself with music, mythologies and stories, learning the arts from Pichayya Pillai. As dance started to come out of temple spaces into the urban middle-class households and sabhas, Guru Govindarajan’s lineage was phenomenal enough to have crossed the borders of South-India and establish itself in the Capital city. He moved to Delhi in 1960, with Sikkal Ramasamy, who was impressed by Govindarajan’s talent and passion for the arts. And then he started his 15 year-long teaching at Triveni Kala Sangam, before starting his own school called Bharata Natya Niketan in Karol Bagh.

Guru Govindarajan was not possessive about his art. Nattuvangam, understanding the nuances of talams and ragams, the meaning of the poetry, were all part of the training he imbibed. Jaishankar Menon was a scientist with DRDO, who went to Guru Govindarajan to learn Bharatanatyam. Later, Menon was told to take the dance up professionally by his guru. “His approach was never to attain fame. When I developed my own choreographies, people kept telling me that they could see what impact Guruji had had on me,” says Menon. Menon has been teaching Bharatanatyam for over four decades now. “He understood my background in Kathakali very well and helped me develop a style wherein I could utilise those skills,” adds Menon. In his choreography of Ramayan, Menon played the roles of both Dashrath as well as Ravan, something that was widely applauded.

Even within the Tanjavur bani, Guru Govindarajan developed his own style. “He made sure that the sahityam of the piece stood out, that the dancer danced first to the lyrics before the instruments accompanied it. I think it was his way of conveying the clarity and the meaning of the lyrics,” says Elangovan. “He was someone who constantly thought about his art, even if he was travelling, he would pen down jathis and lyrics randomly,” he adds.

For her margam at “Sri Gurubhyo Namaha,” Marie will render some of the best compositions of Guru Govindarajan, like the Valachi Jathiswaram, Kambhodi Varnam, and Desh Tillana. It will be held at India International Centre on April 22 at 6:30pm.