Sandeep Narayan - Great talent Indeed

Its a long time since I listened to any live carnatic concerts. The last I atteneded probably was sudha ragunathan's and kanyakumari's concerts during Jan 05. Last sunday, Chandi homam conducted by S'pore dakshina brahmin sabha was held in a profound manner. Befor deeparadhanai, I got to listen to a beautiful krithi rendered by Mr. Sandeep Narayan who is a disciple of the well acclaimed South Indian vocalist Sri Sanjay Subrahmanyan since 1996. It was 'Nee dhan Thunai Neelambari'. It was tuned in ashta ragamalika and sandeep's excellent rendition revealed many ragas like neelambari, vasantha bhairavi, gowri manohari, mohana kalyani and so on. How much I wished it never ended. It is said to be composed by the Great thanjavur Kalyanaraman(SKR) who was well known as innovative student of GNB who imbibed his guru’s musical knowledge and yet was able to present it with a stamp of originality.

Next day, I happened to glance thro the concerts in the nearby vadapathira kaliamman temple and found Mr.Sandeep's concert was there. So made it a point not to miss it. Though it was just 45 min, it was a very enjoyable experience. I entered half way thru sum krithi in Sri ragam followed by akilandeshwari in sahana. Later amma ravamma, the kalyani alapana n neraval I should say was breath taking, didnt realize the transition to swaras, just got the audience immersed. And ended with Thunbam nergayil which unconsciously brought tears to my eyes, later controlled it after feeling slightly embarassed. When I was wondering whether I cud request for 'Nee dhan thunai', it was a super surprise he ended the concert with that song. SO that made my day. I really hope to catch up such wonderful concerts in the days to come.

Idea Star Singer - A great show indeed!

'Idea Star Singer', a reality music show(music competition) as they call it, being telecast in Asianet from 8:30 PM to 9:30 PM on week days is a treat to all music lovers. The Scale and grandeur of the program is much bigger than 'Airtel Super Singer' which was telecast in Vijay TV. I came to know about this program recently when one of my friend asked me to watch it. Since my mother in law is from Palghat, in laws also watch the program. My god. All the singers sound like professionals.The foremost thing which got me stuck to the program is that they sing a lot of tamil/hindi songs and not only malayalam. Since then i became a fan of this program. It seems this had been there since last year(I really missed something great). The versatility of the rounds in this competition is simply fabulous.
The judges include playback singer M. G. Shrikumar, music director Sharath, and our pop queen Usha Uthup. Usha Uthup is sweetly called as 'DhiDhi' in the program. And others, shriyetta n sharath yetta.. While Usha Uthup concentrates on the finer details like confidence, breath control, attitude and presentation, Shri and Sharath are excellent singers, they get too technical, concentrate every swaram of the song sung by the contestants, point out their mistakes, make them repeat and correct them. Its a superb learning ground for those highly talented singers. For the finals of the program, there were five rounds which were unique n was never in the history of any music competition.
1. Carnatic kutchery round
2. Thillana round
3. Non-Malayalam round
4.Dakshinamoorthy swamy round(He is a very very great music director in malayalam like IR, IR and gangai amaran were said to be playing guitar for him in their initial days in cinema.DS songs were pearls...)
5.Judge's choice(this judge is one celebrity judge(definitely some musician) who keeps changing..people like MSV,gangaiamaran were there..
How can i not mention about the bold and beautiful hostess ' Ranjani'.. She has a terrific voice with lovely emotions..(she is missing this week,some other gal is interviewing the singers..ore mokkai..this female speaks mallu too fast..i dont understand only:(..)

Just Imagine how talented the singers should be to go through all these rounds.. all the rounds were awesome. many are in you tube..
6 (Najim,Hesham,Tushar,Durga,Amrutha,Arun gopan) were selected for the Finals out of which 2(Amrutha,hesham) were eliminated and 4 are getting ready for the mega finals.
Whats in store for the winner???? any guesses???

First prize:40 lakh worth flat in cochin
Second prize:Hyundai Santro
Third prize:Alto
Fourth prize: 1 lac rupees
Two of them who got eliminated was awarded 75,000rs..

More than these awards, they stole millions of hearts by their mesmerizing voices one of those being mine. Thats the greatest award!

Singing..

I think of those childhood days when i used to sit in front of my first music teacher(Mrs.Mohana,my relative) and repeat whatever she sang.. those times i never concentrated on raga,shruthi,..nothing. just listened to her singing and repeated it back..i used to even doze off when singing.. also hit my face against hers..:) but the beauty is when i was nt aware of these technical things, i made less mistakes,..anyway now i realize how much it takes to sing a krithi.. not only krithi,also varnams,thillana,..carnatic music or any song..
I believe the foremost thing that decides the splendor of a song is shruthi..if one is able to uphold the same shruthi throughout the song whichever raga he sings, he is identified as a good singer.. Then another essential thing is Thaalam.. Songs with adi taalam n roopaka thaalam are much easier to sing than in taalas like misra chaapu.. there are some krithis where the lyrics just fit into the thaalam.. one tat comes to my mind is bhogindra shaayinam(kuntalavaraali).. a lovely fast krithi.. but some really prove a challenge...
Next i feel control over the breath is very essential.. In many cine songs, we hear the hmm.. breathing sound of singers , most prominent s harini's..does the MD's purposely do it to give it a feeling or something?? If the singer breathes loudly in improper places,swallowing the lyrics, the charm of the song s definitely lost..
Bold singing is something which i had to correct myself on and feel am improving....Perfect example is SPB sir.. all his songs can be identified easily as in his voice s unique n bold..be it ilaya nila or megam kottatum or vannam konda... evry one shud hv their own style of singing.. n shud nt imitate any particular singer . I loved the way Krishnamurthy(Airtel super singer) sang.. he sang so many challenging numbers excellently in his amazing voice..
Pronounciation also plays a grt role.. I hate some northy singers like sadhana sargam , shreya goshal who spoil the beautiful tamil language like anything evnthough they have lovely voice.. why r nt the music directors correcting them.. thr r so many talented properly pronouncing singers in our state only.. i agree tat they r really great singers..but y spoil our language.. i feel we should not give up our language for big shots singing thm..

Ezhudugiren oru kadidham -- a great song by chinna kuyil

This song is from the movie kalki.. balachander's movie.. an evergreen song... though this movie was nt a big hit.. characters in the movie n songs were talked off.. Especially this song.. sung by chinna kuyil chitra and anuradha sriram.. chitra brings an awesome feeling to the song.....deva has scored the music... In the movie, actress geetha performed so aptly for the song.. Lyrics s the highlight of the song..i wud say... one can close their eyes n listen to it how manyever no of times...


Listen to Ezhudugiren oru kadidham

Ay Hairathe -- yet another pearl from ARR

I should say I missed to listen to tis song when it got released.. I dint even know it was from the maniratnam movie 'Guru'.. Heard tis first in tamil version when Srinivas who had sung it originally in Guru (Tamil) rendered it in a tv show.. it was 'hey maanburu mangaiye'.. it was so lovely.. later i realized its rahman's composition and heard the hindi version, ay hairathe aashiqui.. amazing lyrics.. sung by the grt Hariharan and alka yagnik.. Excellent duet... so soothening and wonderful ... simply touched..