In memory of
Madikeri Nagendra
1950 - 2005
_edited_edited.png)
Madikeri Nagendra - An artist par excellence
Madikeri Nagendra was a renowned singer and music director in the field of Kannada Sugama Sangeetha (light music). Known for his sonorous voice, he was one of a kind singer who amalgamated the Carnatic and Sugama genres of music. His compositions are unique and are a perfect blend of both the music forms. Madikeri Nagendra was also a Gamaka exponent. Self-trained in all forms of music, Nagendra had a bespoke voice for 'kaavya vachana' style of singing. He was born on 16th September 1950, into a culturally rich and affluent family of his father, renowned Gamaki Late Sri. M S Ananthapadmanabha Rao and his mother Smt. Lakshmi Devi as their fourth child. His father, Shri. Rao's literary friends and acquaintances included the likes of Kuvempu, Bendre, DVG, Gamaka Bhageeratha Shri. Krishnagiri Krishna Rao, Gudibande Ramachar and so on. His father, being a Gamaki and laureate himself influenced the tender mind of Nagendra and influenced him towards the magic of music.
Music and singing styles
Nagendra was known for his unique and special singing style. His deep and resonating base voice, often mistaken for that of Dr. M Balamuralikrishna, and crystal clear pronunciation of saahithya was tailor-made for Gamaka style of music. He participated in the Gamaka trainers training workshop in which he was received the tutelage of stalwarts like Shri. Raghavendra Rao, Prof. G Venkatasubbaiah, Smt. E V Alamelu and so on.
"Bhavataranga"
Nagendra's music concerts were always an undefeated feat. His presence of mind in deciding what to sing and when to sing what, took him to different heights as a performer. A classic example of this was the "Bhavataranga" program organized at the Adarsha institute, Mallehswaram, Bangalore in 1995. This was the first of its kind program where a poet had to pen down a new song, a music director had to compose and sing the song on the spot and while hearing this, a painter had to paint an appropriate picture on the canvas, instantly. The poets included Shri. Aa Ra Mithra, Prof. Siddhalingaiah, Shri. P S Ramanujam and so on. The music composers and singers were Shri. Shimogga Subbanna, Shri. Tirumale Srinivas, Madikeri Nagendra and so on. The painting on the canvas was the responsibility of Dr. BKS Verma. Prof. Aa Ra Mithra penned a song about the atrocities of dowry and harassment on women in a very colloquial Kannada. He challenged Nagendra to compose music to this song and sing. Within a span of 5-6 minutes Nagendra composed music which included ragas based on karuna rasa and sung the song making the audience wipe their teary eyes. Prof. Aa Raa Mithra hugged Nagendra and appreciated his sense of music and poetry.
Musical Acquaintances
Nagendra's contemporaries who also performed with him were the likes of Shri. Shimogga Subbanna, Shri. Srinivas Udupa, Shri. Yashwanth Halibandi, Smt. Rathnamala Prakash, Smt. Malathi Sharma, Shri. Tirumale Srinivas, Shri. G V Athri, Shri. M R Prabhakar, Shri. M Prabhakar, Smt. H N Meera, Smt. Shantha Jayatirtha, Shri. Garthikere Raghanna and so on.
He was often accompanied very fondly by renowned artistes of world class calibre like Shri. R R Keshavamurthy, Shri. Anoor Ramakrishna, Shri. B K Chandramouli, Shri. Anoor Ananthakrishna Sharma, Shri. Venugopal Hemmige, Shri. Mahesha Swamy, Shri. N Ashwathnarayan Rao, Shri. Paramashivan, Shri. Nandyala Ramamurthy and so on. Nagendra, in his later part of musical career, shifted to Mysore and there he was accompanied by artistes like Shri. H L Shivashankar Swamy, Shri. A V Prakash, Shri. Sameer Rao, Shri. Vishwanath and many others.
His style of singing and performances were admired and blessed by senior artistes like Smt. H R Leelavathi, Smt. S K Vasumathi etc. Though he was not a trained Carnatic musician, renowned dancers like Smt., Vasundhara Doraiswamy, Smt. Tulasi Ramachandra, Smt. Krupa Phadke, Prof. Ramamurthy Rao were drawn to his Carnatic-influenced style and asked him to participate in their productions.
Purandara Aradhanotsava
Bangalore's Purandara Aradhana Samithi Trust has been organizing the Purandara Aradhanothsava since 1974. Started at Hampi, the event goes on for 3 consecutive days. Since 1982 and until he passed away, Nagendra had been an essential and integral part of this organization. This annual event was a witness to many stalwarts of music and literature viz., Dr. R K Srikanthan, Chintalapalli Ramchandra Rao, Chintalapalli Krishnamurthy, Honnappa Bhagavatar, M S Govindaswamy, Anoor Soori, Prasanna Kumari Satyam, Rajamma Keshavamurthy, Shyamala G Bhave, R R Keshavamurthy, T V Bhadrachar, T A S Mani, B K Chandramouli, Harikatha exponents like Bhadragiri Achyutha Dasaru and Bhadragiri Sarvothama Dasaru and several others. Nagendra used to perform with all of them and was the beloved singer of all these highly acclaimed artistes. He used to regularly accompany the legendary Harikatha exponents like Gururajalu Naydu, Bhadrgiri Sarvothama Dasaru etc. with his self-taught Harmonium skills. After the event was relocated to Mulabagilu in 1988 and later when Nagendra moved to Mysore in 1997, he used to, every year participate with more than 30-50 of his students.
Journey to Mysore, Voluntary retirement
Madikeri Nagendra was an employee of Canara Bank. Following a transfer at his workplace, Nagendra relocated to Mysore in 1997. Very soon Nagendra became the talk of the town for his musical renditions. Senior artistes like Smt. H R Leelavathi, Shri. S G Raghuram, Smt. S K Vasumathi, Smt. Tulasi Ramachandra, Smt. Vasundhara Doraiswamy and so on recognized and admired his style of music and singing. Prestigious organizations and platforms like Rotary, Lions Club, Gaanabharathi, Bharatiya Vidya Bhavana, Jaganmohana Palace, Mysore Dasara, Mysore Akashavani, Sutturu Matha, Sharada Vilas Educational institutions and many others lined up to host and organize his programs. Literary scholars like Shri. G T Narayana Rao, Prof. Ramamurthy Rao, HSK, Niranjan Vanhalli, senior and renowned theatre artiste Shri. Master Hirannaiah appreciated Nagendra's musical repertoire. In 2001, Madikeri Nagendra took voluntary retirement from his banking service to dedicate himself, fulltime to music. Upon retirement, he gave birth to his beloved child, his music school, Gurukrupa Sangeetha Kendra
Gurukurpa Sangeetha Kendra
In 2001, Madikeri Nagendra established his beloved music school, Gurukrupa Sangeetha Kendra. It was inaugurated by Smt. H R Leelavathi. Very soon, the school gathered traction and had more than 200 students with 3 different branches in Mysore. Gurukrupa provided the right balance of training and opportunity to perform to all its students. With Nagendra at the helm of training in the school, he started imparting music knowledge across different genres of music like Dasa Sahithya, Bhaavageethe, Vachana Sahithya, Bhajans, Patriotic Songs etc. Nagendra's training was not limited to teaching songs, in his classes unlike many other modern day music schools. Each class was made up of learning a song and also the nuances of it like, understanding the lyrics, language, 'kavibhaava', sandhi vibhajane, understanding complex words, why a raaga was chosen for a song, the emotions of the song, how to render it as a singer, how to develop a presence of mind to understand the pulse of the audience and so on. The training was a combination of weekly classes, summer camps, guest workshops, practical demonstrations and so on. After the demise of Madikeri Nagendra, just after 4 years of establishment of Gurukrupa, the institution was run for the next several years by Negendra's wife Smt. Geetha Nagendra, Smt. Indrani Antharam, one of his students, his children and all of his beloved students.
Under the Gurukrupa Sangeetha Kendra banner, several unique and experimental programs were organized. Many senior and highly accomplished artistes participated in these programs viz., Shri. Shimogga Subbanna, Shri. Garthikere Raghanna, Shri. Yashwanth Halibandi, Shri. Tirumale Srinivas, Shri. Anoor Ananthakrishna Sharma, Smt. Shantha Jayatirtha, Smt. Indu Vishwanath, Smt. Supriya Raghunandan, Kuchipudi exponent, Smt. Veena Murthy, Bharathanatya exponents like Smt. Tulasi Ramachandra, Shri. Sanjay, Smt. Shama, Poets like Shri. V C Airsangha, Shri. M N Vyasa Rao, Shri. B R Laxman Rao, Shri. N S Lakshminarayana Bhatta, Gamaka stalwarts like Shri. Tali Vaidyanathan, Shri. B S S Kaushik, Shri. K S Narayanachar, Smt. Vasanthalaksmi, Smt. Gauramma Nagaraj, actors like Shri. Mandya Ramesh, Shri. Rathnakar, and so on. It was Nagendra's vision to train the next generation of artistes, not just to make them mere singers but also to develop them as full-fledged musicians. His fond association with all the legendary artistes of Kannada music, dance and literature brought all of them together on one platform in this regard. Even today, after several years of his demise artistes from different generations remember him as one of his kind of singers, music composers, organizers and people mobilisers.
​Passion for Sugama Sangeetha:
It was that time when a very senior Carnatic musician, during the devaranama workshop he was conducting, spoke with the media and mentioned that devaranama is not sugama sangeetha as sugama sangeetha is "chillare sangeetha". Pained by this expression, Nagendra who strongly believed that dasa sahithya was composed particularly keeping every common man in mind and therefore was an essential part of Sugama Sangeetha responded to this artiste in a very creative but responsible way. He wrote and composed a song titled "naavu chillare sangeethada chillare gaayakaru". In a world of no social media presence, several organizations which published muktaka sahithya picked up this song and published them expressing their solidarity with Madikeri Nagendra. Several articles were also exchanged over multiple days on the then famous daily, "Prajavaani" under the column called "vaachakara vaani".
Death:
Madikeri Nagendra abruptly finished his earthly affairs on 8th August 2005 due a massive cardiac arrest. He was 54 years old when he passed away. Even today, after several years of his demise his audiences, well-wishers and music connoisseurs very fondly remember Madikeri Nagendra for his contributions towards Sugama Sangeetha.
