Madurai Mani Iyer. The very name evokes an affectionate, intimate kind of nostalgia. An outstanding vocalist of an earlier era, he was both a pundit’s and a people’s musician, whose lilt swayed even the unlettered, uninitiated passerby with its sometimes beseeching, sometimes playful magic of pure sound. He was that rare amalgam of swara and sruti that achieved the ultimate effect of effortlessness; not only in raga alapana and kriti rendering but also in his mellifluous cascades of swara-s did he paint the raga swaroopa with utter fidelity. He was one of the most consistent performers in the midst of many giants of Carnatic music, yet his consistency did not mean repetitiveness; critics and enthusiasts remark on how fresh his music was throughout his career, how fresh it continues to be even today.