Some history is in order here. Prakhya Sugandhikuntala was a housewife who lived
102 years ago. Her husband was a freedom fighter, and naturally she wasn't in
the most enviable of situations. The British, like you know, didn't love these
guys.
And so Prakhya used to pray for her husband. And she had this remarkable capability
to compose songs for a deity spontaneously when she visited a temple. Prakhya
is history now, and her songs were that way, too. Until recently, that is. They
were excavated in a 'compilation exercise' 2 years back, and are being released
as cassettes to the general public. So far, 7 volumes, containing over 60 songs,
have been released, and the 8th is now about to be released (on Jan 7, to be
precise).
Prior to this, though, is the run-up to the launch - even the Made For God label
requires marketing these days. So cassettes are being given free to some musicians
and vocalists to practise and sing in a competition. The preliminary rounds
of these competitions are being held in Hyderabad, Vijayawada, Visakhapatnam
and Tirupati. 5 finalists will be selected from each round, and they will all
participate in the finals to be held on the 18th of Febraury.
Today will see the prelims for Hyderabad being held. The songs have originally
been sung by Vani Jayaram, Parthasarathi and Vijayalakshmi Sharma, and the music
has been composed by Y N Sharma. The final winner will get a gold medal, the
runner-up award will be a silver medal, and then there are two secoond prizes
of Rs. 1,116 each.
Please contact Surendran 650-4054 for further details.