Springsteen, Mercury, Henley, Bono, Bocelli, Sivamani....theres a reason why these guys sound better live than on a CD. They soak in the energy of a live audience and get high on it, which brings out the best in them. Aruna Sairam has got to be right on top of this list. The way she can hypnotise the audience for hours together into a state of trance, is to be lived through to be believed.
It was the 'navarathiri' celebrations of the Mylapore Ramakrishna Home - Dad's Alma Mater and I had been waiting all afternoon for the concert. Lucky to get a seat in the overflowing hall, I was initially disappointed that 'Ghatam Karthik' was not part of the ensemble. But as it turned out, it was just a detail and over the next 2.5 hours, I was served everything I had waited for and then more - a Sahana oozing 'vandhanamu', a soul stirring 'Jaago' and a Bengali number that had half the auditorium swaying. She even did a 'Freddie Mercury', by making the the kids in the front row singalong 'maadu meikkum'.
The woman really is a rock star! Hers is probably the only kacheri, where you wont find 'rasikas' browsing through the 'raaga digest' to figure out what raagam the krithi is in. They are usually busy head banging! Seriously...
5 comments:
all i did was watch an interview of hers and that was enough for me to to totally fall in love with this lady. hopefuly will see her perform sometime soon.
you really make me want to shift to Chennai. I am even considering a month off during the great 'season'
I think I have listened to her once in Soorya festival when I was in Trivandrum. She has a way of captivating her audience. The lady I went along with kept explaining the ragas :)...not that I understood much!
arch: I looked up Hyderabad for you on her site (http://www.arunasairam.com/concertsForthcoming.htm), but no luck ;( Now you have yet another reason to come to chennai!!
Pathe: Machan...just do it!
Roopa: Am a zilch myself in raaga fundas....hers is probably one of the few concerts where I dont feel like a Douche for that ;)
I normally stay away....FAR away.. from classical music. But this lady's kutchery was on air the other day, and I sat gripped to the TV, for atleast 20 mins. She was so enthralling, absolutely enjoying the music, and making it look as attractive as rock. You are so right, she is a rock star!
Rgds,
Pallavi
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