It was quintessential M S Subbulakshmi as the of the legendary Carnatic singer and her music was recreated in an auditorium named after her at Asian College of Journalism  on September 16.

Through a series of presentation, violinist RK Shriramkumar, who had accompanied MS in many of her concerts, deconstructed   the magic of her music, by sharing his experience and memories.  With vocalist Amritha Murali, accompanied by K Arunprakash on mridangam, Aniruddh Athreya on khanjira and N. Guruprasad on ghatam, rendering the some of the composition popularized popularized by MS.

Shriramkumar recalled how MS never took her voice for granted and very rarely missed her daily sadaka. Alongwith Amritha, he demonstrated how MS used to structure her sadaka sessions.

At the event entitled ‘Shubhada’ to mark her 116 birth anniversary, Shriramkumar and his team brought to fore how MS , despite being Tamil, mastered the pronunciation and intonations of the compositions in other languages. She also made great effort to understand of the meanings of the compositions to ensure that the bhava of these compositions were rendered to perfection.

Recalling her rendition of devotional composition, especially Meera bhajans with which she had become identified,  the team  presented one of the bhajans popularized by her.

The presentation ended with ‘Maitreem bhajata’, which Swami Chandrashekarendra Saraswathi of Kanchi Kamakoti Peetam had composed specially for her concert at the UN General Assembly . The audience, however, could not have enough of MS, as requested and got the team to sing the iconic ‘Kurai onrum illai’ , written by Rajaji.