Speeches by T.T.Vasu and Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer felicitating Maharani
Sethu Parvathy Bayi of Travancore for her Birth Centenary. This was followed by a concert by Prince Ashwathi Thirunal Rama Varma, who is the great grandson of Maharani. Long before Varmaji joined Dr.Balamuralikrishna, who has set music to the compositions of others very beautifully, he used to question the way many compositions of Maharaja Swathi Thirunal were tuned.
While this angered a few of Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer's students who felt
that it was a sacrilege to question anything he had done, Semmangudi himself accepted and appreciated Varmaji's questioning attitude and Varmaji fondly refers to Semmangudi as his "sparring partner." Watch what Semmangudi says, from 5:10 to 5:18 carefully. Varmaji always says that he has never seen another artist speak as amazingly as Semmangudi did. Here, Semmangudi has the audience eating out of his hand right from the word go, when he teases T.T.Vasu by calling him "Guruji" in response to Mr.Vasu calling Him Guruji.