A BRIEF HISTORY ON THE LEGENDARY PERCUSSIONIST
Vikku ji’s exceedingly long and successful chosen field
spanning about sixty-one years proves that he is a one-of-a-
kind artist.
In the year 1955, his father Sri Harihara Sharma introduced
Vikku ji to Ghatam as there were too many mrigangists
around at that time and scope to make a decent living was
not easy considering the family’s financial status. This
transformation for Vikku ji from mridangam to ghatam was
not only for him but also for the instrument itself.
He was made to get up at 4AM every morning and was given
water in which the previous day’s rice was soaked after which
he was made to go to the prayer room after which the father
used to close the door from outside. Vikku ji would have to
practice one particular set of beats till the lamp died down
for want of oil. This had taken about four hours too many a
time. Sharma imparted on his son the beat calculation. Since
the basics were laid by his father, he was able to imbibe the
nuances of playing the ghatam easily. Moreover, he was used
to only hearing beats since his childhood.
In March 1955, he played his first concert at
Dhakshinamoorthy temple, Chennai for which the
honorarium was Rs. 1. Due to persistent poverty, the
family was forced to look into Cinema as well. At that time,
Gantasala, Chalapathirao and Raheswararao were some of
the music directors who were ruling. Vikku ji was in demand
as ghatam was indispensable instrument as it’s sound
heightened the total outcome of the song. He also performed
with the music troupe of MK Thiyagharaja Bagavathar.
During those times, it was believed that the metallic sound
of the ghatam was more suited for female voices than male
voices. Sulamangalam sisters, P. Leela, U.R Jeevarathnam,
T. V Ratnam, to name a few, offered Vikku ji chances in
their carnatic and light music concerts. He later became a
permanent artist in the concerts of M.L Vasanathakumari,
Radha Jayalakshmi, K.B Sundrambal and later D.K Pattamal.
Since his dad believed that his career would go up the notch
if he played for male singers, through his close friend Sattur
Subramaniam Iyer and also violin maestro Sri T.N Krishnan,
got him maximum chances.
Vikku ji was also in the troupe involving Lalgudi and
Umayalpuram organized by the Indian Council for Cultural
Relations. They toured Eastern Bloc Countries like Russia,
Yugoslavia, Hungary and Poland. In fact, they also organized a
program called ‘Layavinyasam’ to popularize ghatam in rural
areas of India.
In the year 1966, he performed his first American UN concert
tour which was attended by the representatives of all the
countries and was arranged by Sri C.V Narasimhan. He
accompanied the nightingale of India M.S Subbulakshmi and
Sri T.K Muthy on the mridangam. He has also taught Ghatam
at Berkley Center of World Music.
Later, his career was enhanced where he performed
with renowned artists like L Shankar(Violin), Zakir
Hussain(Tabla), Hariprasad Chaurasia, Shivakumar Sharma,
Briju Maharaj, Sultan Khan and Pandit Durg alal and they
took the world by storm.
The
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