Sripathi Panditaradhyula Balasubramaniyam
It is quite unbelievable that the man has been singing in films for 44 years now.
44 years!
We heard him live at Shanmukhananda hall yesterday, and sure enough, every thing is still intact. The typical butter-coated mushiness, the sudden upsurge of manly energy, the inevitable laugh in the middle of a line, the Telugu-sounding English, the immeasurable love for Ilayaraja, the humility to confess to his mistakes on stage, et al. Overall, delightfully pleasant!
After a 5-minute long monologue on stage which started off with "Music is an ocean.. (yeah, you get the drift)" and ended with "... and so I will make mistakes, it is my right, and you guys have every right to excuse me...", he jumped straight into Ulaa pOgum neram.. kanaa kaaNume.., the first in a long list of nostalgic numbers, mostly Ilayaraja's, much to my delight! A lot of old classics followed with the occasional smattering of Telugu (Sankaraaaa!) and Malayalam numbers.
It was quite mind-boggling to hear him say things like "When I recorded this song in 1969..." and the likes. Insane achievement, I must confess, still drawing the crowd he drew yesterday - in a city that has not even heard 40,000 of the 45,000 songs he has sung till date - and still sounding exactly how he sounded at least 10 years ago. Hats off.
Putting together Sundari Kannaal oru sedhi on stage was goosebumpy. Credit to the 9-man orchestra for pulling off the wild number. SPB kicked off the song with the typical words of a south indian music lover in bombay, "Listen to this song, and you might understand why Ilayaraja is a genuis of the rarest kind". Words that I have felt and said to the infinite number of unfortunates who have not lived out their 20s listening to Raja's insanities.
Other notable singers joining SPB were Goutam, Nikhil Mathew, Mrs & Mr. Anoop Sankar and Ananthu. Special mention to Ananthu, who I think is as talented a singer as anyone I have heard. His Pramadhavanam was remarkably perfect, and his Ponnondru Kanden with Goutam was a delight. I dearly wished Viji would sing a duet with SPB, but time constraints dictated otherwise. That Anoop managed to wrap up with his own medley of Raja songs even in an SPB show was outstanding and a simple reminder of his well-deserved growth in this industry, and very reminiscent of the days when his medley at the end of our shows were his signature!
Thanks to Anoop and Viji for the complimentary tickets! Awesome evening guys!
44 years!
We heard him live at Shanmukhananda hall yesterday, and sure enough, every thing is still intact. The typical butter-coated mushiness, the sudden upsurge of manly energy, the inevitable laugh in the middle of a line, the Telugu-sounding English, the immeasurable love for Ilayaraja, the humility to confess to his mistakes on stage, et al. Overall, delightfully pleasant!
After a 5-minute long monologue on stage which started off with "Music is an ocean.. (yeah, you get the drift)" and ended with "... and so I will make mistakes, it is my right, and you guys have every right to excuse me...", he jumped straight into Ulaa pOgum neram.. kanaa kaaNume.., the first in a long list of nostalgic numbers, mostly Ilayaraja's, much to my delight! A lot of old classics followed with the occasional smattering of Telugu (Sankaraaaa!) and Malayalam numbers.
It was quite mind-boggling to hear him say things like "When I recorded this song in 1969..." and the likes. Insane achievement, I must confess, still drawing the crowd he drew yesterday - in a city that has not even heard 40,000 of the 45,000 songs he has sung till date - and still sounding exactly how he sounded at least 10 years ago. Hats off.
Putting together Sundari Kannaal oru sedhi on stage was goosebumpy. Credit to the 9-man orchestra for pulling off the wild number. SPB kicked off the song with the typical words of a south indian music lover in bombay, "Listen to this song, and you might understand why Ilayaraja is a genuis of the rarest kind". Words that I have felt and said to the infinite number of unfortunates who have not lived out their 20s listening to Raja's insanities.
Other notable singers joining SPB were Goutam, Nikhil Mathew, Mrs & Mr. Anoop Sankar and Ananthu. Special mention to Ananthu, who I think is as talented a singer as anyone I have heard. His Pramadhavanam was remarkably perfect, and his Ponnondru Kanden with Goutam was a delight. I dearly wished Viji would sing a duet with SPB, but time constraints dictated otherwise. That Anoop managed to wrap up with his own medley of Raja songs even in an SPB show was outstanding and a simple reminder of his well-deserved growth in this industry, and very reminiscent of the days when his medley at the end of our shows were his signature!
Thanks to Anoop and Viji for the complimentary tickets! Awesome evening guys!
posted by Girish at 8:16 PM
4 Comments:
no thanks for the complementary tickets...the god deserved some devotees as audience...
Hey gireesh...such a perfect description of last evening...i loved the way u've penned it down...
What a man he is!!!! If at all there is one language that can describe the man compleletely, its only music...!!!
It was great to have u'll there!!!
:) Viji
Macha.. pls pass in info on stuff like dis.. wud b reeealy interested!!!
beautiful writeup, thnx!
-BK
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