IR concerts, TV shows and Interviews ...

Very Good Morning to everyone & hope you have a cool week ahead!

I hate myself to have missed most of the "Part II" of Maestro Dr.IR's concert on Jaya TV yesterday. I had to attend to something else very important. I was just able to catch 2-3 songs at the end of the program. Thoughts about the same:

1) "Oliyile Therivadhu" was sung pretty well by Karthik. Really appreciate his talent & ability to reproduce it pretty neatly on stage aswell. I am sorry I cant spare any appreciation for Bhavadharini. She needs to carry out her stage performances well, else she has to stop performing on stage atleast! Interludes were reproduced almost as it is and that was a very good point.

2) "Paadariyen Padippariyen" was done well by Chitra. The only thing that bothered me was that the pace of the song was a bit slow (also not much of vigour) compared to the original. I found the sudden increase of pace in the end (to accomodate the fast sangadhis) a bit unnatural. Also the violin guy deviated a bit. When audience thought the song was over, Chitra continued singing some portion of "Marimari ninne" originally sung by Jesudas.

3) Swarnalatha tried her best to induce lot of energy into the song "Aattama" and the output was ok I would say, but not the best. The main part I was looking for was the interludes and it was done to a decent extent. The best part was the flute portion which was reproduced ditto like the original.

AVM Saravanan said "IR is a role model for the youngsters". I completely agree with him.

Can anyone say about the songs that I missed?

Also, I totally forgot about the music that comes when the end credits rolls (it came in first part too). That music is really good. I have not heard it before and its fresh. It certainly has IR touch and it has some birds chirping/nature sounds aswell. Anyone has any ideas? Is it part of Wings CD? Is mp3's available of that CD anywhere?

The next part (Part-III) is coming Sunday. I dont know the timings.

thanks,

Krishnan

The intro by IR to second part of the show on Jaya TV had , guess what, background score from the movie GURU(Malayalam)!!
This intro must have been recorded after diwali because Raja spoke about response to the part 1 telecast.

GURU, circa 1998, was a popular discussion theme in this forum and it had mind-blowing BGM. Wonder if it is available under some other cover as an album? or, someone from the Jaya TV production team is as ardent(perhaps more) a fan or IR as many here :-). Either way, I would like to lay my hands upon whatever CD, album that beholds BGM of GURU...

This must come as good news to you and all the IR fans!

Jaya TV has accepted our request for supply of DVDs on the IR programme telecast in its channel.

This is expected to be announced tomorrow, Nov 5, 2005.

Regarding the modalities of how we can collect copies, make payments etc., I'll give you details sometime tomorr! ow, but the main thing is our request has been granted. Thanks to all of you for your perseverance and your patience.

You can make the announcement to our members, with the news that details will follow.

Thanks and regards

karthik






'Maestro Ilaiyaraaja' - May All The Elements Say His Name

that is not AVM Saravanam He is Director SP Muthuraman

Karthik must have thoroughly enjoyed singing "oLiyile". His body language showed that. My special appreciation to Arunmozhi or Napolean for playing the challenging flute bits to perfection.[It is a very a tough job to do on stage as I have noticed many light music flutists floundering on the stage]. Tippu's "unnai vida" cold blooded murder made me yearn for Kamal's karunai kolai.
Agreeing with Krish's comment on Chira's needless dragging of "paadariyen". I would have done a better justice to my most favourite "sendhurapoove" than IR's erumai magaL [Sorry Bhava fans :(( ]

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Agreeing with Krish's comment on Chira's needless dragging of "paadariyen".

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krish and thumburu
"mari mari ninaen" is a keertanai that follows that song.and keertanai ahs to be sung fully and shd not be stopped in the middle.

karthik, my grouse is not on the length of the song, but on the tempo of the song[thaaLathai romba medhuva poda vendi irukkum and might not sustain the sudience's interest]

The audience lapped up the "Padariyen-Mari mari" offering, as would have been evident in the TV programme. Any doubts/fears about the audience not liking it is FUD.

My cable operator played truant from 5.20 to 6.10 which meant I was not able to watch the prog from the moment Sreya began to sing 'Unnai Vida' till Chitra started 'padariyen'.Can anyone tell me what all I missed out on?

Hi all,

As much as I was excited to watch the programme, I was also equally curious to know the hubbers reactions to the programme and its nice to know that all have had only positive comments (I mean hardly any blind criticism or favouritism).

What I liked?
. IR's sense of humour. Have known about it and read/seen in bits and pieces but saw it in full swing during the programme.

. Orchestration was so perfect that it seemed so close to the original score. Again, special kudos to ArunMozhi (a.k.a Napolean) for the flute bit. Read in an interview that IR is such a fan of flutes that he makes sure to get one during his abroad visits and one such flute costed about 1.5 Lakh rupees and Arunmozhi was the only one apart from IR to have had the chance to play it (I think it figured in this concert as well, the U-shaped one). The violin troupe, bongos, tablas were all too good.

. SPB's voice seems to be getting better and better with time. Also his appreciations, comments seemed very genuine and authentic.

. I am die hard fan of Chithra and it was nice to see her perform. But during some songs (pothi vecha and Sundari), her voice seemed very low. Liked the Pandariyen swaram bit - sounded just like the original.

. Uma Ramanan's voice - crystal clear and how it flows with ease even in the high octaves. Sad that her voice was not fully utilised (other than IR to some extent).

. Shreya Ghoshal, Sadhana Sargam, Mano, Karthik, Hariharan were all good.

What I did not find that good :

. Sound recording or acoustics were not that good. As somebody said, maybe an indoor stadium is not suited for a musical concert.

. Bhavatharini disappointed terribly. Her voice was literally shaking.

. Hariharan/SPB could have avoided the so called improvisations. But SPB stuck to the original tunes most of the time.

. Would have loved to see more chances given to the good singers - Karthik, Mano, Madhu Balakrishnan, Uma Ramanan. Don't know if Part-3 would hold more of their participation.

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Originally Posted by Ravi_odiyur

. Sound recording or acoustics were not that good. As somebody said, maybe an indoor stadium is not suited for a musical concert.

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On the contrary, an indoor stadium is very well suited for a concert, provided the acoustics are good. The balance given to the different sections [esp the string sections] was not good and that is why the sound was not great.
<Digression>
There was a concert in 2001 by Roger Waters [of Pink Floyd] in Bangalore. When it comes to audiovisual special effects, no group can hold a candle to Pink Floyd but on that night, the output and was not enough for the outdoor setting [palace grounds] and the 360 degree surround sound's impact was not that great as expected. And incidentally, most of the concerts he performed in that tour was in indoor stadiums where the effect was said to be mind blowing :)
</Digression>

Mmm... thanks for the info Alwarpet Andavan. Yes, I had the same thing is mind - acoustics - whether indoor stadium or not!

I have seen just the first part so far on numtv.com(which seems to be down for the past 2 days)
Ravi_Odiyur, you missed out IR's singing while criticizing Bhava. IR's voice was shaky and had innumerable shruthi losses throughout. Often while singing he would turn around to signal something to his orchestra and bang! would lose the shruthi. I think in naan thedum he was so busy overseeing his orchestra(why couldnt have someone else done this for that song?) that he forgot to start the charanam on time and had to wait for the next beat cycle with a sheepish smile. I didnt like the goof ups by Shreya Ghosal either. In Kaatril varum geethame she wasnt sure when to sing and when not to and kept jumping up and down looking at IR all the time. Singing is the easiest part in such programmes. When the musicians rehearse for hrs and deliver it cant the singers do it properly?

well atleast IR's voice has some character...hariharan and bhava should have been banned from singing in this concert...SPB should have sung more songs...

i think shreya goofed up katril varum geethamey due to hariharan, actually all the singers screwed up that song...you have to give her a break...(okay vijayr maybe the wrong person to ask for any such breaks :-))...i dont think singing in such concerts is easy for the non-tamil singers...she was easily my pick among the female singers of the evening...

okay enough of cribbing...the good things about the concert...(i have seen only the first part in NumTV)...SPB and Shreya come out on top of the singers list...SPB is just in a different league...i am glad he got to sing the pseudo-first song of the evening...it would have been a gross injustice if it had been anybody else...shreya did an amazing job with katril endhan geetham...though sadhana's pronunciation was supposedly better i prefer shreya's voice...

arunmozhi/napolean was great on the flute...i though he was perfect...i am looking forward to listening to jeyachandran and dreading bhava's sendhoora poove...

If you would hv noted, in the second interlude of 'Sundhari Kannaal Oru Sedhi', after the huge violin/trumphet/drums combo, when the flute took over to finish the interlude, there was applause.

The bass-flute intro for the 'Aasaya kaathula thoodhu vittu' also drew instant applause from the crowd.

I dont think Shreya's goofup had anything to do with HH. HH joins that song only towards the end.Sure, HH had his usual wacky improvs here and there but him and Sadhana showed their stage experience and competence in general. I guess Shreya probably needs more experience singing Tamil songs on stage. Her voice is good I agree(as is Saadhana's). But I find it hard to believe that we cant find singers like that in TN. Our MDs need to switch on Jaya TV once in a while and watch sapthaswarangaL and other programmes.

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well atleast IR's voice has some character...hariharan and bhava should have been banned from singing in this concert...SPB should have sung more songs

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:clap: :clap:
well said

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Originally Posted by vijayr

Often while singing he would turn around to signal something to his orchestra and bang! would lose the shruthi... Singing is the easiest part in such programmes. When the musicians rehearse for hrs and deliver it cant the singers do it properly?

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True. Idhai perfectionism ednrum sollalaam, aaruvakkalaru endrum sollalaam, and to a certain extent, micro-management endrum sollalaam. Also, in a couple of instances, the singers themselves felt a little bit tied down, IMO. And about the rehearsals, maybe its like the difference between the "nets" and the actual match in the ground :)

vijayr, you were right in saying "But I find it hard to believe that we cant find singers like that in TN". This is exactly my stand too. We say Sandhana's pronounciation is better, Shreya is improving on the diction... this goes on to show that we are getting convinced with the flawed dictions too. Sadhana and Shreya are great singers no doubt but I can never accept their pronounciation to be anywhere close to perfection. Infact PSusheela, SPB, Chitra, SJ, Sujatha - all have strong native accent while speaking in Tamizh but when singing their diction is so near perfect!

Yes, even I felt singers did not practise as much as the orchestra (why then would Shreya sing as "Thoduthey"). And again, Shreya jumping around and moving back forth seemed very unprofessional.

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Originally Posted by Ravi_odiyur

And again, Shreya jumping around and moving back forth seemed very unprofessional.

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Her behaviour was like a child. (Thoduthey, theduthey and thappa badichuttu thiru thiru nu muzhichathu) :lol:

I noticed an interesting gesture when shreya was singing...After every line she jerks the mike out to the side stylishly...I was wondering why was she doing that...I then realized she was taking breath after every line and this was to avoid that "huuh.." kind of inhaling sound. You can find that sound when swarna sings her numbers.

Chitra after every line, jerks her head away from the mike ....SJ is the ONLY person i've seen who doesn't move a bit while singing...I remember watching SJ on tv. The song was "adiyE manam.." from neengaL kEttavai...I can't imagine what people like HH wud've acted if they were singing this number.

HH acted like a clown most of the time. Most of his improvizations ended up spoiling the songs.

Shankar, even PS and Uma Ramanan stand very still while singing. Chithra, I believe, acquired this habit somewhere in the middle. She wasn't doing this earlier. Also, her trademark smiles have lessened these days.

K, yup my mistake...its S.P.Muthuraman.

thumburu, agree with you on Karthik & also the flute guy.

karthik_sa2, in the movie sindhu bhairavi, chitra completes "paadariyen" song with the pallavi (can I call it pallavi??) of "mari mari ninne" song, but in this stage version, she continued beyond that and sung the portions that Jesudas sung in the movie.

Vijayr, when Bhavadharini sang on stage, everyone missed something or the other :) BTW, how do I see the program on numtv.com? Although Shreya is my current favourite, Sadhana performed better than her in this stage performance. Agree with you there are good talent available from programs such as Sapthaswarangal. I have also seen some good performances in "Aaha paadalam" (compered by Mahati (she can be tested aswell) & the other guy) on Pothigai channel aswell. The format of this program is kept very simple.

Thumburu, agree with you on Karthik. He's my current favourite too.

Is mp3 of "Naan thedum Chevvanthipoo" available somewhere?

thanks,

Krishnan

Shreya started goofing up only after HH entered towards the end of the song...IMNSHO HH's whacky improvisations were highly incompetent...even otherwise he sucked big time...and by her own admission this was shreya's first tamil concert...so she did pass with flying colors...

//Yes, even I felt singers did not practise as much as the orchestra (why then would Shreya sing as "Thoduthey"). And again, Shreya jumping around and moving back forth seemed very unprofessional.//

well obviously...this concert was held at a relatively short notice and since the singers are not part of IR's troupe they do have other things to do, than spend 3 weeks rehearsing i assume..."competent" singers like HH screwed up songs which they have sung before and should be familiar with...shreya's goof up pales in comparison...

if you expect ppl to stand like statues and perform maybe you should go a WCM concert...

thops, you got it all wrong. I never wanted singers to sing like statues. I have loved the styles of Usha Uthup, L.R.Eswari, SPB-Gangai Amaran combo and also the likes of SJ, PS, Chithra who sing very quietly. Where did Shreya fit here? Was she entertaing the crowd by moving back and forth? A big fan of Shreya you may be thops, but justifying every action of hers is totally unwarranted. People are entitled to their own opinions too.

In his eagerness to defend Shreya, Thops is unnecessarily bashing HH. HH's improvs-you might not have liked them but that doesnt mean he was incompetent.
Shreya had obvious flaws. First concert, little time for preparation etc. are not valid excuses. Saadhana probably had the same time for preparation too and this is not the first time Shreya is singing tamil songs in her life either. She even wrote the word right as IR pointed out but sang it wrongly. So who is to blame here? And her jumping up and down wasnt because of any Usha Uthup style or anything like that but more a temporary thing when she started off at the wrong place and realized it almost instantaneously and that made her almost jump up a little and look at IR for approval.
On the plus side, she has a good voice which I have already mentioned it earlier.

Hai friends,Can anyone give me the link where I can hear/download the song "Naan Thedum Sevanthi povithu" from Dharmapathini

musicman

u can try coolgoose.com or mohankumars.com.

// Was she entertaing the crowd by moving back and forth? //
i may be missing something but how did her actions devalue the song...

//A big fan of Shreya you may be thops, but justifying every action of hers is totally unwarranted.//
this is applicable to your comment about shreya's unprofessionalism too...there is no need to pick at every little thing either...

vijayr...my recommendation to ban hariharan was before i started defending shreya...HH was indeed incompetent...feel free to disagree...

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HH's improvs-you might not have liked them but that doesnt mean he was incompetent.
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I felt he spoiled the original numbers by his improvs. Somehow, i've always felt hh acts big in his concerts but isn't as good as he projects himself to be.

Thops, while we cite specific goof ups for Shreya all that you have against HH are your personal opinions. So there is nothing much here to agree or disagree.For the same improvs for which you hate him there might be people who might love him for that. I am not myself a big fan of his improvs, but incompetent he certainly was'nt.

HH's first line on-stage in the concert is a goof up...he starts enna solli at the wrong moment and has to restart...he also starts his portion the katril varum geethame at the wrong tempo...thappu kandupidikaanumnu ninaichaa aayiram irukku...

just finished watching the 2nd part on numtv...the audio and video was totally out of sync, spoiling the experience...

Being a classically trained singer HH's music competency cannot be questioned. I rate HH, KJY even greater than SPB in this aspect. What bothered me about HH was not his improv, but his "off shruthi " singing at many places which cannot be excused.But his "vaanaville" rendition was good.
Few months back, I was raving about HH's free flowing improvs and his mastery over brihas and sangathis after watching his "50th year" celebration programme.When HH ad SPB sang "kaadhal rojavae" like a duet, I felt SPB was losing out to HH. Well, I think we can only comment on case to case basis as for as talented singers like SPB/HH/ShankarMahadevan are concerned. Regarding this IR's programme , looks like only SPB can do justice to all IR's songs.

HH wasnt "off-shruthi" anywhere during the concert, nor did he sing out-of-tempo in Kaatril varum geethame. Lets not invent imaginary mistakes. Shreya was the one who joined in at the wrong time and had to jump about it.

and her goof up earlier in Kaatril endhan geetham was so glaring that the entire audience reacted to it.

you have convieniently avoided talking about the other goofup as expected and now want get into to rating the goof-ups...nice try...

I watched the first part last week and will have to watch it again today to determine if it was a goof up or another imaginary invention. I dont remember HH and Saadhana making any embarassing mistakes like the one Shreya did. As for rating or determining goofs, I dont have to do it, the audience and IR did it in the show itself.
(Also your earlier claim for HH being incompetent were based on his improvs which was clearly your preference and nothing to do with any singing goofups)

Agree with thumburu on whats been said about HH. I love his style of singing (and his voice) right from his Ghazal days. One has to check out his old Ghazal albums. I dont remember them offhand, but one of them is called "Reflections" (That reminds me, I need to collect mp3's of the same). SPB is one of my most favourite singer (next to Mohd. Rafi), but I did not like some of the improvisations that he did in his old concerts. Even today he does it, but I feel he has limited them! I have seen HH singing in other concerts aswell and I have sort of (despite liking some improvs & not liking other improvs) enjoyed his overall performance, but in this concert, as thumburu says, his off-key rendition in a few places irritated me more. For me, even if my favourite artist irritates me like that, I will not like that.

What I liked about Shreya (and also Sadhana...she gave me a pleasant shock in the rendition of both "Shenbagame" & "Enna Solli" (am I right)) is that she stuck to the originals as much as possible. Having said that I cannot imagine how "Thodudhey" missed everyones sight/ears while rehearsing or while writing it down. Shreya is pardoned because otherwise she did a decent job with her other songs.

Regarding "Kaatril Varum Geethame", there is no single singer you can point to. A delicate song has been spoiled. The aalaap by Shreya (when she joins Bhava) in the CD version is one of my favourite spots in that song, so I somehow patiently waited till Bhava finishes :), but to my shock, Shreya did not do it that well on stage!

Anyway, I think we should not get too serious about this and move on. We can just hope that they (all the artists) realise their mistakes and dont repeat them.

Also, I found the link for "Naan Thedum" song. Here it is. I am so glad coolgoose is changed to cooltoad! My office had blocked access to coolgoose! Let me see how far my honeymoon with cooltoad continues :)

http://as01.cooltoad.com/music/song.php?id=174294

To cheer you guys, check out this clip. Two chinese guys lipsyncing for an English song. Pretty funny.

http://www.youtube.com/watch.php?v=Lb6eAnp0Yec

thanks,

Krishnan

HH did deviate from shruthi not just in one place but many esp in the song "enna solli".