T.R. Mahalingham -- Innovator and Flute Maestro

Mali, according to his own accounts, learnt music from his mother at home at a very young age. It is unclear as to if he also learnt to play the flute at the same time. His tremendous talent was recognized at home and was encouraged quite a lot by his mother. Lessons from his mother and opportunity to listen to the great flutists of that time helped Mali reach a good level of accomplishment in flute playing. Mali had an ambition to learn from the great flutist of those times, Palladam Sanjeeva Rao. Mali went to the village of Palladam near Coimbatore where Sanjeeva Rao lived, approached him regarding his desire to be his student. Palladam asked him to play and Mali played some compositions to the great master. After listening for a while, Palladam Sanjeeva Rao seems to have told Mali that "there is nothing that you need to learn from me; your sangeetha marga is on the right track. Go back, listen more to great artists and pay attention to and grasp the fine points of their rendering of raga, kritis, and swaras and remember those while practicing". Such was Mali's exceptional brilliance and ability at an early age. It must be remembered that Palladam Sanjeeva Rao was the most popular platform artist of that time when he uttered the above words to Mali. The reason for Palladam's fame was also the fact that he himself was a disciple of the great Sharabha Sastri, a brilliant flute vidwan. According to Ariyakudi, even though Sharabha Sastri was blind, he was a great scholar in sanskrit and vedanta. Such was his keen intellect and grasping power that all Sharabha Sastri had to do was listen just once and he would display his mastery of the material right away. It did not matter if it was vedanta or sanskrit or music. People who saw this were bewildered. Sharabha Sastri used to give concerts to the accompaniment of great vidwans like violin Thirukodikaval Krishna Iyer , etc.

Mali revolutionized and stormed the world of flute with his own unique blowing technique that would create effects and the touch comparable to that of human voice. Coupled with an immense imagination, captivating and intense raga bhava, unbelievable control of laya, and a pleasing, mesmerizing playing technique with the soulful rendering of ragalapana, kritis, neravals, unforgettable sangati's, and enchanting swara combinations would simply sweep the audience to another world and a elevate their spiritual experience.

Later Mali also learnt to play the violin under Papa Venkataramiah. Mali had great reverence for Papa. One can recall a memorable Ramanavami concert at the Bidaram Krishnappa Rama Mandira in Mysore (built by none other than T. Chowdiah in memory of his guru Bidaram Krishnappa) with Papa and Palghat Mani. Papa was giving cues to Mali to play Kambodhi, Shankarabharana, Kamaj, and Begada, etc. Mali's play of that day - ragalapana, kritis and swaras are still fresh in the minds of those who attended that concert. Palghat Mani made the concert reach the stratosphere in bringing out everything that is best in music.

The Ramanavami and Ganesha festival music season in Mysore would elicit the concerts of the great artists. I remember several live concerts of Flute Mali that were simply soul stirring. The raga bhava, rasa, and "nimmadi/sukha" in his music would be felt by the audience and would haunt them for hours and hours after the concert. One would long to be back in that sublime state created by Mali. It would not be an exaggeration to claim that none of today's or yesteryear's flutists and vidwans can reach such heights or attain such perfection in the many areas of music that Mali was capable of. With accompanists other than Papa, at times, Mali would get involved in mathematical acrobatics to such an extent that the audience would come pretty close to losing their patience. But when Mali was sober and exploring his inner world of music, there was none to match him. His music remains in our hearts forever.