Chitti Babu was one the most pre-eminent Veena artist from the late 1960's to the early 1980's. A desciple of Emani Shakara Shastry, Chitti Babu brought a new verve to the oldest musical intrument. Though there were classical Veena players like Mysore Doraiswamy Iyengar and S. Balachander, Chtti Babu's success spawned a generation of excellent Veena artists like R.K. Suryanarayana, E. Gayatri and S. Sundar. Chitti Babu brought in Blues-like quality to Veena playing
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Chitti Babu was one the most pre-eminent Veena artist from the late 1960's to the early 1980's. A desciple of Emani Shakara Shastry, Chitti Babu brought a new verve to the oldest musical intrument. Though there were classical Veena players like Mysore Doraiswamy Iyengar and S. Balachander, Chtti Babu's success spawned a generation of excellent Veena artists like R.K. Suryanarayana, E. Gayatri and S. Sundar. Chitti Babu brought in Blues-like quality to Veena playing, eschewing the then prevalent style of plucking audibly so that the music was kind of discrete. His playing had a slide quality to it. His renditions of Sudhamayi, Raghuvamsa, Chinnachiru Kiliye, and Kuyil Paattu are milestones. The ever popular pancharanjani and Bahudari (Musings of a Musician) too are unforgettable. Though his popularity declined in the later years, it will not be an overstatement to say that Chitti Babu almost single handed the carried the burden of his generation of Veena players. His decline marked the decline of the popularity of Veena too. Rajesh Vaidhya is doing his best to revive the popularity, but, despite his undeniable talent, there is always the problem him being considered the Kunnakkudi of Veena. We miss Chitti Babu
