When I read the title and saw the photo in this article in ‘Friday Review’, the supplement of ‘The Hindu’, my initial reaction was ‘These men??? :O’ before I went on to read the full article. Why did I give that reaction?

During Sanjay’s Nadopasana concert last year, these men were sitting on the row behind mine and they kept saying the raaga names loudly and singing along quite loudly. I can’t tell you what a great nuisance it was. Though I did try my best to control my rising temper, when Sanjay started the Charukesi alapana and one of them started loudly singing his own version of Charukesi alapana, I couldn’t stop myself any longer from asking him to stop singing. He did stop singing, but only for a few minutes after which he resumed his singing again! Since I didn’t want to say anything more, I went to the row in front of mine and sat. During the Season, I saw these men in quite a few concerts and the moment I saw them, I made sure that I was sitting as far away from them as possible!

It’s high time that people like these started remembering that the audience has come to a concert to listen to the musicians on stage and not to listen to them! One can enjoy a concert in their own way, only as long as it doesn’t disturb others and mar the concert listening experience of others. Now that they have been featured in a newspaper, I think they will be encouraged even more to show-off their singing skills and knowledge during the concerts. 😐 Seeing this thread in rasikas.org, I felt happy that I wasn’t the only one who found what they did so irritating.

P.S.: Here’s my earlier rant on the same topic.

Wishing A.R.Rahman a very happy birthday! 🙂

As I was scrolling through the December Season schedule for the nth time about a week or so back thinking with a sigh that the Season was going to end soon what with Sanjay’s last concert of the Season being on Jan 5th, it dawned on me that the next day was Rahman’s birthday! (Pardon me for mentioning about the Season yet again! But I have been obsessed with Carnatic music big time during the last one month that these days, no conversation seems to happen without a mention of it happening!) Can there be a better way to celebrate Rahman’s birthday than listening to your favourite Rahman’s songs and losing yourself in the man’s music? 🙂 And that too when you are listening to the songs after quite sometime, I can’t tell you how happy it feels!

To me, listening to a Rahman’s song isn’t just about enjoying the music, experiencing the magic of Rahman’s music and marveling at how he comes up with such amazing compositions alone. Considering the fact that Rahman’s songs have been the ones I have grown up listening to, there are a whole lot of memories associated with quite a lot of songs. The memories range from something as mundane as me eating a Diary Milk when I was listening to some song to some momentous one like me celebrating the successful completion of some work listening to a song. Last year, during what was one of the worst weeks, Kabhi Kabhi Aditi really worked wonders for me. With each passing day, there are only a lot more memories getting added to all those wonderful songs. And with Rahman giving us more and more awesome songs, Rahman’s music continues to fascinate me more and more. 🙂 Thank you, Rahman!

Wishing Rahman a very happy birthday once again!

Sanjay Subrahmanyan’s Concert
At Rasika Fine Arts on 4th January, 2009

Accompanists:
Nagai Muralidharan – Violin
Mannargudi Easwaran – Mridangam
K.V.Gopalakrishnan – Khanjira

Concert Duration: 2 hrs 5 min
Continue reading →

I watched Margazhi Raagam today 🙂 To begin with, it’s not everyday that you get to watch a ‘movie’ in a theatre where the majority of the audience comprises of Maamas and Maamis. 😉

Coming to the ‘movie’, the camera and lighting and of course, the audio are, needless to say, excellent. I liked the stage setting too. I didn’t like Bombay Jayashri’s part that much. Her singing, though quite good, was nowhere close to how it was in her Music Academy concert. Or so I felt. Graceful is the word that I would associate with Jayashri when I see her sing. Eyes closed and lost in the music is how she appears. But since I didn’t find anything that great about her singing, the visuals didn’t matter much to me. But, I just loved TMK’s part. I liked his part visually too since he is more expressive while singing and those have been captured so well on the camera.

Every moment of TMK’s singing in this is superb! I felt so happy listening to TMK after a long time (or so it feels like, since Sanjay is all I am listening to most of the times!)! Watching this movie today has compensated for no Sanjay’s or TMK’s concert happening today. 😉

P.S.: I didn’t want to know before watching the movie, what was sung by TMK and Bombay Jayashri in that. So, am not posting the songs list here now. If you want me to post, do let me know.

Wishing you all a very happy new year!! 🙂 May this year and all the years to come, be filled with loads and loads of happiness!