Dear SPB Fans,
I am glad to bring to you one of the previous episodes -EPP-19.05.07 (18th episode) (courtesy : Covai Ravee for the audio file links).
This episode was a continuation of the episode dated 12.05.07 with the same set of 6 contestants. The chief judge for the previous episode was Sound Engineer & Recordist HMV Raghunath and he also continued his presence for this concluding episode of the contest.Details of the program as follows : Our SPB welcomed everyone.
Kural for the Episode :
(Kural No.435)
வருமுன்னர்க் காவாதான் வாழ்க்கை எரிமுன்னர்
வைத்தூறு போலக் கெடும்.
Who fails to guard himself from flaw
Loses his life like flame-lit straw
Our SPB explains it as follows : Prevention is better than Cure. Guarding oneself against eventualities is better. This is what VaLLuvar tells us through this kuraL. Vaccinating a child against diseases, rain harvesting to prevent water scarcity, doing meditation to overcome anger - all these are the acts of smart people. If we are not smart, we tend to become like straw kept near a fire, we will be consumed by it. Prevention is better than Cure. Please don't treat this kuraL just a formality for the program, if one follows it, life will become better.
First Round of this Episode (second round of the contest):
As detailed in the previous posts, this round features fast paced or peppy or rhythm-oriented numbers chosen by the contestants themselves.
The list of songs of this round were,
1) kAla kAla murattu...... from manidhan (SPB & SP.Shailaja)
The contestant was Sharanya Easwaran. He advised the contestant to take care of her Sruthi parameters as she was deviating quite often from the notes.
2) injiringO injiringO.... from thenAli (Chitra & Kamal)
Megha sang this song. SPB advised the singer to develop stamina so that she could render sustained notes. Raghu praised the contestant and said that she sounded very promising in this type of song and wished her well for the future.
3) aadippaaru mangaaththa...... from may mAdham
Charumathi rendered this song. He praised the contestant for her singing and advised her to sing more openly.
4) vai raaja vai.... from pancha thanthiram (Shalini & Sreenivas)
Vandhana rendered this. He lauded the contestant abundantly. He said that she was singing with an open voice which is quite welcome. He advised her not to attempt singing in false voice like most of the present day singers are doing. He recommended false voice only wherever it was absolutely necessary or unavoidable for a song otherwise he wanted her to maintain her identity.
5) kaakka karuppu.... (Anitha)
Bhavatharani Ram sang this song. Our SPB was curious to know from the contestant if the character singing the song in the movie was an Anglo-Indian or so. She was not sure. Raghu told that it was a mentally retarded person in the movie. Our SPB felt that the diction at many places were not correct. Even if the original singer, due to lack of knowledge of the langauge, had sung it like that, he advised contestants to sing it correctly when they are presenting it. He was worried that langauge was not given the importance nowadays and felt that this would lead to detoriation. Sometimes, he said, persons take even 15 days to write such lyrics. Only sound was given importance with the words taking a back seat. He told that contestant that it was not her fault but asked her to pronounce the words correctly if she knew it.
6) vaseegara........ from minnalE (Bombay Jayashree)
Amrita sang this song. He complimented the contestant for having chosen a good song and singing it comfortably
Final Round of the contest :
This round featured songs which the contestants had to identify from the tune/rhythm pattern rendered by our SPB which was from a collection of songs submitted by the contestant during audition. The songs under this category were
1) vaan polE vannam.... from salangai oli (contestant : Sharanya Easwaran): Our SPB had a few words for the contestant regarding diction.
2) malarndhum malaraadha..... from pAsa malar (contestant : Megha) : SPB talked about this great composition. He said that it would be an eternal one that will be listened to, by future generation also. When one thinks of love between a brother & sister, only the film "pAsa malar" comes to mind, he said. He was in awe of the acting of Sivaji & Savithri in this film. He said that people used to come out of the theatres with tears pouring down from their eyes after seeing this movie. Such a great film it was.
3) thoda thoda ....from indrA (contestant : Charumathi): Our SPB rendered a whistling portion of the song for the contestant to identify. He later told that A.R.Rehman himself had whistled in the song.
4) O Butterfly .... from Meera (contestant : Vandhana) : Our SPB advised the contestant on sustaining voice at the higher notes. He also said her tempo was a bit slow for the song and asked her to take care. he demonstrated by singing a few lines.
5) rambambam.... from Michael Madhana Kaamaraajan (contestant : Bhavatharani Ram) : He called for more josh on the part of the contestant for this song and he demonstrated it by singing a few lines himself.
6) guruvaayur appa......from pudhu pudhu arthangal (contestant : Amrita): SPB called for a bit more involvement in singing by the contestant.
The competition came to end with this round. All the three - our SPB, the chief judge HMV-Raghu and ManoBala came on to the stage. Our SPB thanked the chief judge for having participated in the program and felt that Raghu had given the contestants lot of information including the technicalities of music. He further praised Raghu stating that in those days when punching method was not available, he used to record on a quarter inch tape. He had recorded the Suprabhatham of MSS amma, Bhagavath Geetha by Ghantasala, Sivasthuthu by SPB . He had also tried joining of tapes to provide a seamless effect. He has recorded almost all playback singers like Susheelamma, Janakiamma, Seergazhi Govindarajan ....and all Carnatic singers. He was a much sought-after sound engineer from all quarters and was quite busy even now at this age. He also knew many languages and spokes them perfectly. SPB thanked him and presented him with a memento on behalf of the organisors and asked him to say a few words. He thanked him for having come over inspite of his busy schedule.
The chief judge Raghu said he was in awe of the present day upcoming contestants saying that they handled lot of activities at one time like concentrating on their studies, learning carnatic music and also participating in light music contests and so on. He wished them all the very best.
Then our SPB delivered his message for the episode.
Message from our SPB :
The message for this episode was "from the newspaper we learn that the water table is at a higher & confortable level now in Chennai. This was due to the rain harvesting. If this had not been done, we would have ended up buying water or use technology to recycle used water which anyhow will not be like the original"
Announcement of the Contest Winner : ManoBala, the permanent judge, announced the scores as follows :(based on shruthi, thaalam, bhaavam & performance)
Sharanya Easwaran : 190, Megha : 199, Vandhana: 182, Bhavatharani Ram: 165, Amrita: 185, Charumathi : 213
ManoBala announced Charumathi as the Winner based on the highest score of 213 that she had scored. Charumathi was asked to express her feelings at having emerged the winner. She said that after ILayaRaja, she adored SPB a lot and was happy to be with him. She was happy to have come from Malaysai and made her country and the Tamilians there proud by winning this contest
SPB song :
Charumathi then joined our SPB to sing the song "thoda thoda malardhadhenna....." from "Indira" thus accomplishing a life time dream. She indeed combined well with the Legend to come out with a good performance. Our SPB ended the song in his usual style singing some lines from the Hindi version of this song.
The next episode after this was on 26.05.07 with a fresh set of 6 contestants and a new chief guest/judge. Please wait for the posting on the next episode (episode no. 19)
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