Artistes shocked at demise

That Mahadevan (45),  husband of Nithyasree, the granddaughter of Carnatic music icons, D K Pattamal and Palghat Mani Iyer, is not well-known among his wife’s contemporaries comes as a matter of surprise.

Also, the fact that his interactions with them have been largely limited, only compounds the surprise quotient.

When Express sought the reaction of noted violinist T N Krishnan, he professed ignorance about the incident. On learning that the suicide did happen, he replied in a shell-shocked tone: “It is very, very bad news.” 

The violinist, who is also the recipient of Sangeet Natak Akademi, Padmashri and Padma Bhushan awards, added that he had met Mahadevan only on a couple of occasions.

“He was a very nice man, I just do not know why this had to happen,” was his distraught reaction.

Expressing shock at the suicide, noted Mridangam artiste Umayalapuram Sivaraman, a recipient of the Padma Vibhushan, said that while he has had regular interactions with Nithyasree’s grandmother and grand uncle, D K Pattammal and D K Jayaraman, he had not interacted much with Mahadevan.

Chitraveena N Ravikiran, who won laurels from Pt Ravi Shankar during a music recital at the age of 2, too said that he had interacted vastly with D K Pattammal, while drawing a blank when it came to meeting Mahadevan.