Of all the stars in the Carnatic music galaxy from the 1930s through the 1980s, there was one star that outshone the brilliance of the rest: the irrepressible genius, S. Balachander, who stormed into the prim Madras music scene with a panache and eccentricity that no contemporary of his could match.
But Balachander's iconoclastic and brash ways earned him the ire of the Carnatic music fraternity. He was quick to pick quarrels with established fellow musicians in his lifelong quest for perfection and truth.
So was Balachander a beloved genius or a much-maligned maverick? The book attempts to recreate the towering personality that he was- a lot of this researched from his elaborate personal diaries.
While his death in 1990 created a void in the Carnatic realm, the issues he fought for remain relevant till date and his memory lives on in the minds of music connoisseurs. As the maestro himself would have smugly said: 'Veena is Balachander, Balachander is veena.'