Cry cry from Jhootha Hi Sahi – I am loving it! Can’t wait to listen to the full song!

Sanjay’s concert on 9th August at CLT, IIT Madras (Clasfest)

This concert was the 100th concert of Sanjay that I was going for and what a concert it was! 🙂

Accompanists:
Varadarajan – Viloin
Neyveli Venkatesh – Mridangam
Trichy K.Murali – Ghatam

Concert Duration: 2 hrs 45 min
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Isn’t there something mesmerizing about this raagam? I just now finished listening to a very beautiful AlApanai of ratipatipriya by Embar Kannan in the concert of Ghatam Karthick’s ‘Heart Beat’ team which is being live webcast here.

A lazy, relaxed day. Surrounded by murmurs. Earphones on. A whole lot of your favourite Rahman’s songs waiting to be listened to. You have been hooked big-time to Puthiya Manidha, Kadhal Anukkal, Kilimanjaro, Hosanna, Aaromale, Mannippaaya and Pudhu Vellai Mazhai for several weeks now that it feels like ages since you last listened to any of your other favourite songs. You press the ‘Play’ button and then you lose track of time, lose yourself in the music, in the melody, in the beats and in the nostalgic waves after fresh waves of memories and thoughts that flow in with each song. It’s amazing how many years worth of memories are compressed into just a few minutes of music! Amazing how Rahman’s music has become such an important part of your life that listening to any of your favourite Rahman’s songs itself gives you a feeling of having gotten into a comfort zone! Listening to each song is an experience in itself and I am so happy that this year we have got so many gems of songs from the man!

Sanjay’s December Season schedule is here! Seeing the schedule, the wait already seems longer!

The sound of some music band out on the street wakes up all of us at home. We realize that it’s being played for the procession of some Amman. Seeing through the window, we wait to get a glimpse of the deity. It was taking quite a bit of time for the deity to reach our part of the street. We go out into the street and see the music band followed by a group of nadaswaram and tavil players. And then surrounded by a small group of devotees was the Amman embellished by jewels, huge, colourful garlands and lots of flowers – beauty and divinity personified. Seeing the festive atmosphere, you don’t realize that it’s 1:30 am in the night! Isn’t this what the month of Adi is all about? With Adi being synonymous with festivities in the ubiquitous Amman temples all over the city and with even some of the small temples in street corners having their own utsava vigraham (processional idol), you can often see some idol in procession.

P.S.: This happened yesterday night and for the first time in the last few weeks, I suddenly felt the need to pen this down and felt the words pouring out. Is my bloggers’ block finally gone?

On 23rd June at Sri Krishna Gana Sabha (Organized by Shri Maharajapuram Rasikas Trust)

Just like last year, this year too I missed 3 consecutive concerts of Sanjay and the last concert of Sanjay that I went for was in January! And what made attending this concert all the more exciting was that I came to know about this concert just a couple of hours before the concert was to start!!

Accompanists:
Nagai Muralidharan – Violin
Srimushnam Raja Rao – Mridangam

Concert Duration: 2 hrs 15 min
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I liked Raavanan. Found it much better than Raavan. The first half too somehow seemed to move faster than Raavan. Was it because of the actors, or because I have already watched Raavan or because of the language? Am not sure about that. The climax – not the fight on the bridge, but the scene where Ragini gets back to Veeraiyya – was much better in Tamil than in Hindi. Prithviraj was too good in the role of Dev. Got mesmerized by the visuals, the lighting and the colours of the forest once again. Relished the awesome background score and songs of Rahman once again. I am happy that I watched both Raavan and Raavanan at Sathyam cinemas.