Super Play-Back Singer of the Century!: October 2007

"Ninaiththale Inikkum"

A Musical Evening by our Beloved SPB

Date : 13-10-2007 (Saturday)
Time : 6.30pm
Venue : University Hall, Chennai
Organisers : TVK Cultural Academy
Presenter : Apollo Hospitals

Dear SPB Fans,

After a long hiatus, I am now bestowed with the chance of keying in one more elaborate write-up about an SPB Mega Event.

The Program Title "Ninaiththale Inikkum" (Sweet when thought) was quite apt because it applies at all times. Before the program, we had pleasure thinking about the forthcoming event and after the event, we felt the same pleasure (in fact multiplied several times over) thinking about the event captured in our human hard disk.

While the previous SPB event with Janakiamma at Nehru Stadium, Chennai had good song selection, it lacked the exuberance & effervescence of our Legend. This time around, he compensated it with an exhibition of superb enthusiasm, energy & charisma which ultimately made our day. The compere "Fathima Babu" the glamorous TV newsreader, Film personality put it nicely when she said "Sir celebrated his 61 birthday this year but the age of his voice is the reverse 16". Fathima in her own way entertained the crowd saying sweet and nice things about our SPB even though most of the facts that she voiced were already known to many fans. Anyhow, more of anything about our SPB is honey to our ears and we savoured it. We had many of our members present. Some of them were Ashok, Venkat, Vijayakrishnan, Madhumita & her Husband, Prasanna & his wife, C Balaji, Rangarajan. There were several others too but they were seated in the balcony (we were on the ground).

The ambiance inside the Hall was great. Almost all the seats, 3500 of them (i overheard someone mentioning it nearby) were filled by the time our Guruji invaded and conquered the stage. The show started off sharply at 6:30pm by Lakshman Sruthi Orchestra. However our SPB joined only at around 7:00pm and it was a total blast from then onwards.

Last Time I could not write much except a few lines. This time since our SPB was in his elements, there was a story to each song that he sang and hence justice can be done only if I detail song after song in the same order as they were sung so that the originality of the event is not lost for those who were unlucky not to have seen it.

The orchestra started off with a Welcome Theme Music "aada varalaam aada varalaam" an instrumental of the yesteryear popular song. Then for the next half-an-hour the orchestra singers had a gala time belting out many songs at a go. They were

1) ellOrum ellamum peravendum...(a seergazhi song) sung by Saravanan

2) velli nilave velli velli nilave.......by Saravanan

3) velyil urugudhE oru paarvaiyilE....by Malathi (cine singer & wife of Laksman) & Saravanan

4) shake it baby.....

5) sahana saaral thoovudhO.......Saravanan & Co

6) namma kaattulE mazhai......by Roshini (an upcoming cine singer)

Then, entered our Great at the invitation of Lakshman, to a standing ovation. He welcomed all in his characteristic style. He was attired in a cream coloured pant and brown coloured full sleeved shirt. His face was radiant with a beautiful smile. He turned to the Orchestra and initiated the music for his opening number

7-1) Madai Thiranthu thaavum nadhi alai naan......(Film : Nizhalgal, Music : IlayaRaja)
The song was rendered with full energy. It was a very appropriate song as the lyrics suited the occasion too. He flooded us all with the flow of the song

8-2) Padaiththane Brahma Devan ........ (Film : ellOrum nallavarE, Music : V.Kumar)
Our SPB had something to say about the Music Director V.Kumar. He said it was one of his best compositions. Even though during those periods ,Greats like M.S.Viswanathan & KV Mahadevan were ruling, Kumar in his own way had composed many great songs and he mentioned a few of these. He also mentioned that he had died at a very young age. He also mentioned about the renowned flutist Gunasingh at this juncture.

9) azhage brahmanidam. ..... by Ganga (cine singer) &Co

10) june poanaal july kaatre......by Saravanan

Fathima Babu entered the stage now in a glamorous attire (Saree). She seemed to be out of breath. She excused herself for having turned up late for the show. Lakshman intervened and admitted that it was their fault for having sent the car late for pick-up due to heavy traffic. At this juncture, our SPB who was there on the stage barged in saying that it was a torture driving in the present day traffic and mentioned that it took him 20 minutes to come out his house onto the road. He mused whether like in Mumbai one had to start at least 2 hours in advance for a program.

Fathima Babu (FB) then started off her compering by highlighting that our SPB was going to transport us all to Singapore with his next song.

11-3) namma ooru singari.......... (ninaiththalE inikkum, MS Viswanathan)
He had a few words of praise for this MSV composition and also about Kannadasan lyrics and about the Superstar as well.

Next FB queried our SPB on his views about "remix" of old songs. His simple reply was "absolutely bad". He also pointed out that recently he had recorded his voice for a remix of his own song and after hearing it on record after the remixing had been done, he felt that he need not have sung it at all. This puts across his clear feeling on remixed songs.

Then our SPB recollected the recording method of yesteryears where everyone recorded the song together and the experience he had gained learning from seniors like P.Susheela & S.Janaki. He was unhappy with the present trend where one never knew who has sung the other part of the song and the lack of competitive spirit in singing due to absence of partners.

He then continued with his next song

12-4) vidiya vidiya solli tharuvEn.....(pokkiri raja, MSV)
Ganga accompanied our SPB for this song and she brought to good effect the tone of Susheelamma's voice in this song. It was a lovely number. Before the song FB briefed saying that the Guru (SPB) was going to teach the Disciple (Ganga) in this song. The lyrics suited the occasion and our SPB's playfulness was evident when he sang the words "solli tharen rajaathiyE" and glanced & gestured playfully at Ganga. It was cute. After this song, he recollected fond memories of maestros like Gunasingh (flute) & Joseph Krishna (Violin) and also Nanjappa the arranger for recording.

Next, FB introduced Singer Malathi as the owner of 40 different voices starting from Sundarambal, NavaneethaKrishnan, Varalakshmi, Janaki etc.................. and her expertise at singing high pitch songs. While she said that Malathi was a great fan of SPB, Susheelamma & Janakiamma, she mentioned that all these three were indeed fans of Malathi for her versatility. With this introduction, Malathi banged our ears with

13) kumbuda pOna dheivam............ along with Saravanan

For quite sometime some of the ardent fans had been shouting "Thalaivaa" repeatedly to express their joy. Our SPB acknowledged them by bowing his head and saluting them.

As all of you know from Ennodu Paattu Paadungal and other programs our SPB always remembers the musicians who were always at the background and brings them to the foreground. He did just that throughout the show. There was a Sitar Player in the Orchestra. Our SPB mentioned that he was happy to see an original instrument like Sitar being used for a program when the trend was to play it on the keyboard. (I do not remember the name of the Sitar Player). Our SPB went to the extent of detailing that the father of the sitarist was the renowned instrumentalist Mansur Ali Khan who played the sitar and sinthoor excellently. He then stated that the next song will have excellent sitar play and started off with

14-5) samasaaram enbathu veenai........... (mayangugiraal oru maadhu, Vijayabhaskar)
A classic song and quite pleasant to hear in the present SPB's soft voice. He mentioned that this was a beautiful composition of Music director Vijayabhaskar who had also tuned other songs like "anbu megame ingu odivaa......" etc...... He also recalled that Vijayabhaskar had migrated to Malayalam films and had done music for lot of films there.

Next was

15-6) Dil Deewana mil sajunake......(Maine Pyar Kiya, Vijay Patil (Raamlaxman))
Quite sweet and melodious. He had a few words for Salman Khan for whom this film happened to be the first and which gave him prominence because of the songs as well.

Then, FB started off in her own style with a mixture of English & tamil phrases mentioning that our SPB had proved that he was not only the king in his own den but had invaded others' den (Hindi Film word) as well and captured the same with songs like Tere Mere Beechume. She also reeled out a list of sponsors' names who were instrumental in making the program a success with their participation.

Two more bangs on the ears followed with Roshini (upcoming cine singer) singing

16) karuvaadu kayale.........

17) ennaasa maidhiliyE.........
This song had a highlight in the sense that the end has a very long drums bit and the orchestra drummer captured the crowd's attention by going around with the drums tied to his waist. It was a non-stop performance for about 10 minutes and it was concluded to a rousing applause.

Our SPB who came on to the dias immediately after this song mentioned that the drummer was "Tsunami" Surinder (the title was an apt one for he indeed created a tsunami of sounds with his drums) and that his father "Sigamani" was also a great drummer who had worked in MSV's team. He noted that the off-springs of many instrumentalists followed in their father's path but were unfortunate not to get many chances at playing with present day music directors. With this, he started off with one of his evergreen disco numbers

18-7) unnai naan paarththadhu vennilaa.......... (pattikaattu raja, Shankar-Ganesh)
Our SPB let out the cat from the bag when he mentioned that the humming which goes like "pabapabapabapaba...." was not sung by him in the original but by one Dr.Kalyan who used to organise choir groups those days. He said that Kalyan was used for such type of fillings in a song quite effectively. Of course our SPB sang it quite well in the program.

FB then filled in with the incident when our SPB & Lataji had met Bill Clinton in the USA and how he became a fan of our Guruji. Our SPB just enjoyed FB's narration silently with a happy and pleasant smile on his face not wanting to interrupt and disturb her enthusiasm.

For quite some time, some of the Rajini cum SPB fans were shouting out aloud for Balelakka. Finally our SPB strategically closed the issue by saying that the dessert should come after curd otherwise it would lose its charm meaning that the serving of curd was still going on (melodious numbers). This quietened them and they patiently waited for it. Of course our Guruji did not disappoint

The next number had all of us in a trance

19-8) en kaadhale en kaadhale ennai enna seiyya........ (Duet, AR.Rehman)
Our SPB had his eyes closed for major portion of the song. One could feel his total involvement in the song. The entire auditorium assumed total silence for a change and immersed itself in the beauty of his rendition. The saxophone competed with our SPB's voice and in the end both won with an excellent climax. After the song, our Great abundantly praised the saxophone player Alex of the Orchestra. When Lakshman interrupted saying that one could not judge which was better - SPB Sir's voice or the saxophone,our SPB put to rest the issue saying that the sax player had won. What magnanimity. One could see lot of such thoughtful gestures which brought out the greatness of the Legend. He also reminded us of the world's best sax player KennyG and equated the sax player Raju (the sax player who played originally for the song) with KennyG. He also cleared doubts of many when he said that Kathir Gopalanath was not involved in this song and that it was Raju.

Then our SPB lauded Lakshman troupe for selecting lovely & melodious songs that were not sung earlier by him on stage and all the credit were due to the team.

On hearing our SPB sharing lot of information about musicians and songs, FB could not hold herself and complimented the Legend saying that he was a living Encyclopedia having so much information dated long long ago. Our SPB's prompt reply was "That is why I am so fat".

Lakshman had an incident to narrate when he said that in one of the programs performed at a college function, a student had approached him for rendering this song (en kaadhale en kaadhale). It seems that Lakshman kept on assuring him that he would give a chance towards the end and finally there was lot of pressure from the Student Union Chairman and college principal and after allowing the student to sing this song, he understood that the student had been in love with one of the college mates for 4 years without expressing it and he had used this song to vent out his pent up feelings through this song. Such was the power of this song and the way our SPB had rendered it, Lakshman said. This was received with thunderous applause.

Lakshman also shared information when he said that the Trumphet player and the Flutist have been with him for many many years and without their support he would not be in such a position to give so many performances. They were really Superb and had select songs to show their expertise and talent.

This was followed by

20-9) Paattu thalaivan paadinaal ....... (idhaya koyil, Ilayaraja). Malathi accompanied her and she did enough justice by singing it in Janakiamma's style.

Now, there was a brief introduction on stage about the popular Tamil novel writer Lena Thamizhvanan. Our SPB was asked to facilitate him and also one of his friends who had come from down south to meet our SPB at the concert.

Then FB dwelled on our SPB's Love Story and how it ended in marriage near Vizag.

The next song was a cute song by a young girl Vandhana

21) ulaga azhagi naan thaane ........
hers was a cool performance and she happily entertained by coming into the midst of the audience and shaking hands with few kids as she was singing. Seemed level headed for her age.

After this there was one more song No.22 by the Orchestra (not sure what song).

FB then had something to say about the formation of the Lakshman Sruthi troupe way back in 1986 and how they had climbed the ladder of success through sheer dedication and passion.

When our SPB came on for the next song, he said that a Light Music performance was like a one day match where on a given day anything can go wrong inspite of lot of preparation, He then begged all cricket fans to show consideration to the Indian Team and not to degrade them with bad comments. He said that our Indian Team was one of the best talented in the world and that they needed our support. This was acknowledged with adequate applause.

He followed up this with an evergreen number dated 30+ years back

23-10) chinna pura ondru...... (anbE sangeetha, ILayaRaja)
One could feel out of the world experience on listening to his soulful voice and that too when he traverses the highs at "nooraandugal nee vaazhagave"

FB was never out of the picture and she came back again, this time elaborating about our SPB's lack of Tamil Knowledge in his younger years and how it lost him a chance with MSV and later compensating my learning it not in one or two months but two years and then singing a Tamil song in adimai penn with clear diction.

SPB at this moment recalled his association with IlayaRaja and wished his old friend long life and nusic. Having said this, he paid great tribute to his close friend by rendering a superb semi-classical number which deserved an award which it didn't

24-11) sangeetha jaadhimullai kaanavillai....(kadhal oviyam, ILayaRaja)

Next followed the felicitation to SPB by way of presenting him with a silk shawl by Maharaja royal club, one of the sponsors and this was continued with felicitations to sponsors and organisers. This took some 15 minutes or so.

FB topped it all by singing a song bit herself. It was not bad at all. Being on stage she was infected with the urge to sing a few lines.

The orchestra singers thumped in the next number Song no. 25 "Dheem Dheem......" from Sivaji.
Our SPB observed that this song was a hit because it was picturised on the Superstar otherwise it would not have earned much popularity.

FB then setup a prelude to the next song by mentioning that SPB himself had admitted that the song "mannil indha kaadhal...." was not sung at one breath and that it was a recording gimmick. However she opined that the song to follow was a breathless number. Our SPB commented that even this song was not sung in one breath. He however lightened it all by saying that the audience knew that and inspite of knowing it all they would still applaud when he sang it. This received a good round of applause as well. With this, our SPB belted out the high energy number in his characteristic style and with great energy

26-12) Ballelakka......... (sivaji, AR.Rehman)
He was in full flow in the song and one could only admire the abundant energy at that age and at that time of the night (it must have been around 10.00pm)

The next act of the Legend was the height of Thoughtfulness and Humility

Yes, when none of the group members least expected it, our SPB mentioned about our SPB Fans Association and complimented the Group for the charity work it was doing, He also searched for us among the audience and we stood on our feet to acknowledge his thoughtful gesture and we all felt proud to see so many eyes looking at us with jealousy. It made our day. He has never missed out on mentioning about her group inspite of all his pre-occupations and thoughts. What more to say about the GREAT.

FB continued with rain of compliments on SPB and when she invited the singer Roshini for the next song with SPB, SPB encouraged her to say more about Roshini. FB observed that Roshini was an Engineer and that she was to sing a song with a man who had discontinued engineering (our SPB). She asked our SPB to bless the upcoming singer. Our SPB not found wanting on pranks sang a phrase "olimayamaana edhitkaalam en kangalil therigiradhu.." (maybe it had a dual meaning to it for Roshini was in glamorous attire). this was followed by

27-13) thelusa manasa....... (telugu, film: criminal, music-Keeravani) with Roshini.
The song has some phrases being read out in the middle portion and our SPB improvised the phrases by dwelling on the manner in which some of the audience left the auditorium in the midst of a song. He melodiously advised all to leave either before a song or aftera song and not in the middle. He mentioned that the song was composed by Keeravani alias Maragathamani (in tamil).

He followed this up with a few verses of the song "aayiram nilave vaa......." (without music) which was his presentation to an earnest request from an ardent fan and he did not want to disappoint him

A song (No. 28) from Pokkiri by the Orchestra singers followed next and then three songs followed up in a row by our SPB

29-14) yaaro yaarodu ingu yaaro........(Chennai 600028, yuvan shankar raja)

30-15) keladi kanmani paadagan sangathi........(pudhu pudhu arthangal, IlayaRaja) - Our SPB mentioned that this was one of his favourite songs tuned by his friend Ilayaraja. One could feel the hairs bristling on listening to this song in his mellifluous voice which reverberated inside the auditorium. A pleasant one.

To satisfy the many requests from fans for other songs he sang a few lines of the song "raaman kadhai kelungal from sippikkul muthu, kamban emaandhaan from nizhalgal nijamaagiradhu. He also sang a few lines of some Hindi songs to the request of some Hindi fans - pehla pehla pyar...from HAHK and another bit which i am not sure. He requested all to excuse for not singing these songs fully as it required rehearsals by Orchestra and himself too.

The program came to a fitting end when he sang the song

31-16) unakenna mele nindrai.....(Simla Special, MSV)

We all left the auditorium with a great sense of fulfillment. The songs were ones which have not been sung by the Legend in recent years or not sung at all. This added variety to the show. Eventhough one felt that the 16 songs were few all were gems. Maybe it is high time we realised that he needs adequate rest in between songs and this will finally result in lesser songs. The orchestra singers had the unprecedented luxury of singing an equal number of songs (15). The crux was it catered to all sections of the audience with mixture of fast beats by the Orchestara singers with the melody served by our Great.

Lashman Sruthi Orchestra should be complimented for providing adequate support to our SPB and making the show a great and memorable one.

It has given me immense delight in giving form to the program through this posting and I hope I have done enough justice in capturing the moments.

Hoping to come back soon with a similar write-up on an upcoming concert. BYE for now.

(Thanks to Covai Ravee for having got hold of 38 photos of this event and loading it into ESNIPS site and giving me the link to include in this post)