Tribute to the aadi flautist

The mellifluous strains that suffused Ravindra Bharati auditorium on Wednesday evening will keep ringing in the minds of Krishna bhakts and music lovers alike for some time to come. Such was the awesome performance of flautist Nagaraju and the members of his group during Janmashtami celebrations

Askari Jaffer

Hailing from a family of musicians, Nagaraju nurtured an ardent desire to play the flute from a tender age. “I was 10 years old and when I visited one of my friends and found a flute in his house. I started playing it and then I started liking it; you can say it was an insatiable desire that was swelling within me and waiting to leap forward. I approached my Guru and mentor Sri Tirupathi Ramanuja Suri, an accomplished violinist and a celebrity in Carnatic Classical Music. I then learnt Carnatic Classical Music and started giving performances in school and later college years. Gradually I reached where I am today.”

He worked with many top artistes after learning Hindustani classical, including L Subramaniam, Mandolin U Srinivas, Colonial Cousins, Shivamani, Louis Banks, Niladri Kumar and similar towering national and international personalities. He says, “I worked with many top artistes and conducted numerous musical events with legends like P Suseela, S Janaki, SP Balasubramanyam, Hariharan, Shankar Mahadevan, Chitra, Mano and many others. It has been a great experience with all of them. They are a great people who have taken Indian music to great heights.”

Nagaraju’s career as a film music director kick-started with ‘Jagadguru Aadi Shankara’, the life story of the great saint and it has won accolades from music lovers all over. “Performing for the film is different. The director’s perception is totally different from what is required for on-stage performance. We compose, according to the director’s virtue, but while performing on stage we have to keep the audience in mind. We have to play for them and we get immediate response, while for films, we have to wait,” says Nagaraju.

He talks about his life’s journey with his wife singer Mani Nagaraju. “We use to work together before marriage and she is a trained singer. Today she launched her audio CD of ‘Sri Krishna Ganaamrutam’ and even my son is with us in our music group called ‘Indie Winds.’ Three of us will go and perform together, which we enjoy a lot,” shares Nagaraju. His idol is Hari Prasad Chaurasia. When it comes to music director, Ilayaraja tops his list.