Adieu To My Dear School Friend Shyam Sundar Who Managed The Shanmukhananda Hall Functions & Had Also Acted In Asoka

Jyothi Venkatesh

It is a horribly bad year which has snatched away many of my dear friends including Rishi Kapoor, Irrfan Khan, Basu Chatterjee, music director Wajid, Jagdeep, PR person R R Pathak, producer Harish Shah, director Johny Bakshi ,director Nishikant Kamat, choreographer Saroj Khan, lyricist Yogesh and last but not the least photographer Dharam Mulchandani and journalist Shyam Sharma. Some died because of ailment while some died because of the deadly coronavirus during the lockdown. It is a sad year which will send a shocking wave of pain down youir spine and make your heart ache for the departed persons. The latest in the list is the affable and amicable Shyam Sunder, the man behind many smooth running shows at the Shanmukhananda Hall in Sion. We lost the genius at the age of 70 last week after a prolonged period of hibernation at the hospital. Shyam was an energetic guy who used to handle the stage at the Shanmukhananda Hall single handedly without losing his cool demeanor, even once.

Shyam Sunder had to undergo a heart surgery two years back but though he survived miraculously, once again his health started deteriorating and he had to be admitted to the Kikabhai hospital. Shyam who was unmarried is survived by his doting mother Rajee Narayanan, who was a noted Bharat Natyam exponent in the 60’s. Every musician, dancer, singers and event organiser who had the privilege of doing a concert at the Shanmukhananda Hall even today proudly recollect his smiling face since Shyam used to interact with all of them with love  but was also very stern at the same time as the manager of the stage since he was very particular about maintaining discipline and seeing to it that the functions held at Shanmukhananda Hall ended promptly by 10.30 pm every evening. It was no mean task since the Hall had a capacity of as many as 2800 people and Shyam used to make it a point not to let any organizer flout the rule. No matter how senior the artist was, Shyam used to make it a point to  give warning signals to them by 10.15 pm itself and also diligently ensure that no one exceeded the time limit of the Hall

Shyam had started his lifelong association with the Hall way back in the mid 70’s at the same time when I too had started my career as a journalist and used to cover many functions at the Hall. Paying Shyam Sundar his rich tribute, the ace violinist Dr L. Subramaniam says, “Every year, I used to host the V Lakshminarayana Global Music Festival at the Shanmukhananda Hall. In 2015 we had a Latvian symphony orchestra. It had around 18 musicians and it was very different from the usual kind of orchestras being held at the Hall. Yet Shyam Sundar managed the seating and sound very efficiently. Not only that he used to ensure that all the members of the troupe who were rehearsing during the day before the programme started got hot batata vadas and tea during the sound check.”

If you wonder why on earth am I writing this obit article about a manager of Shanmukhananda Hall, here’s the answer, he knew almost each and every person from the film industry since it was he who used to make them feel at home during their stage shows by ensuring that no one jumped on to the stage and disturbed them during the interval. Since Shyam Sundar had this habit of shaving off his head, he was also cast in a pivotal role by Santosh Sivan in his film Asoka produced by Sharukh Khan in which Shah Rukh Khan himself had played the title role. Shyam had also appeared in a few ads and was very popular among all of us when we were studying at the S.I.E.S High School in Matunga for all his extra curricular activities there, especially during the school’s annual days. The death of this great impresario has left a big void in the music circles of Mumbai and will be a big personal loss to not not only me but also all his ex-colleagues who had passed out of the S.I.E.S High  School in Matunga. May his soul rest in peace