In Anandha Vikatan-7.7.10

Rewind & Replay

The Hindu Playback singer and composer Srinivas at 'The Golden Age', Hindi Retro performance at The Hindu Friday Review November Fest at Jnana Jyothi Convention Centre in Bangalore, on November 27, 2010. Photo K. Murali Kumar
Nostalgia, humming, singing along, and much dancing. Friday Review November Fest's retro music evening was a reliving of an era of unforgettable lyrics and melodies

It's played a hundred times over on LPs as on the discs of your mind. You have hummed along on the radio, collected the tapes. It's survived the assault of every successive wave of music.

DJs have remixed it and given it their own spin. And now it's made its way to the iPod. But whatever it does, the romance of retro music never really does a cinematic fade out.

The Friday Review November Fest's night of retro music “The Golden Age” took people back to the era of K.L. Saigal, Mohammed Rafi, Kishore Kumar, Lata Mangeshkar, and Asha Bhonsle.

There's something about old Hindi film music that makes us all go weak in the knees.

Despite the road trip from Coimbatore to Bangalore (thanks to cancelled flights), the stars of the evening didn't let any of that exhaustion show. Holding up their singing and adding layers to their voices was a wonderful orchestra of musicians from Chennai and Kerala.

From the 40s to the 70s is one of Hindi cinema's most creative periods. Selecting songs is a challenge; no list can be comprehensive, and many favourites get “left out”. Srinivas opened with K.L. Saigal's 1940 track “Main kya jaanoo kya jadoo hai” from the film “Zindagi”.

It set a sombre note for the evening and won over the audience. The audience instantly focussed on and appreciated Nikhil Ram, the reed-thin saxophonist-flutist who effortlessly blew life into both instruments.

Chinmayi took on the challenge of “Kuhu kuhu boley koyaliya” and negotiated bravely the intricacies of Raag Sohini and the ensuing ragamalika. The song reiterated the strong classical influence from where our Hindi film music (and musicians) largely came. Haricharan too leapt back in time to “Madhuban mein radhika naache re” when a song was set to classical dance – in a typical Maharaja's court – Hindi cinema's original “dance music”.

The concert covered most of the templated “types” of songs we have seen in Hindi cinema over the years — Chinmayi chose the sublime mujra “Thaade rahiyo” from “Pakeezah” — songs that proved that pauses made for equally beautiful music. Mahalakshmi Iyer chose the more seductive “Aao huzoor tumko sitaron mein le chaloo”.

Haricharan and Chinmayi gave us the first duet of the evening “Abhi na jao chhod kar”, where Jaidev's music marries well with Sahir Ludhianvi's lyrics to give us a hummable romantic refrain. The men did a full-throttle “Parda hai parda”, the epitome of the qawwali genre.

Mahalakshmi Iyer got it bang on when she said, “The audience know these songs like the back of their hand” — a challenge then, for new and young singers who are expected to live up to the image of the original stars; but no one “copied” styles. The encouraging audience ignored the few slip ups when lyrics were forgotten or missed.

The tempo picked up with the audience demanding “fast numbers”. So “Badan pe sitare lapete hue” tumbled out, followed up with “Kajra mohobbatwalla”.

The invitation to dance came in the form of “Mera naam Chin Chin Choo” and Jaya Murthy from the audience came up on stage and took to the mike, while young Sushma set the stage on fire with her twisty moves.

The men whipped up passions further with “Mehbooba mehbooba”. The songs finally spiralled into “Aaaja aaja”, concluding with most of the audience dancing to the frenzied “Jai jai Shiv Shankar”.

She sings, she dubs, runs a company that offers translation services, hosts mega shows on TV, takes part in music albums and is ready take on anything new.

That's Chinmayi Sripada for you, one of Tamil television's best known multi-taskers.

She has won a good deal of accolade for her work -- her dubbing for Jessie, from Vinnaithaandi Varuvaya has won rave reviews, while she was also the recipient, recently, of the Vijay TV Award for Best Playback Singer (Female), for the melodious Varayo Varayo, from Adhavan.

She's just finished a recording when we called, but she makes the time for this exclusive chat with rediff.com, where she revealed her plans, experiences and life as a game-show host. Excerpts:

I Sing a sort of welcome song, as each episode begins'

Meet Tamil TV's best known multi-tasker!

You are hosting the show Sangeetha Maha Yuddham, on Sun TV. What's it all about?

You must have seen the show Music Ka Maha Muqabla on Star Plus. Sangeetha Maha Yuddham is basically the Tamil version of it.

The show has six teams, with three members each, and each team has a captain. They're playback singers Vijay Yesudas, Devan Ekambaram, Madhu Balakrishnan, Mathangi, Srilekha Parthasarathy and Anupama. There's a round-robin method, and each episode will see two teams compete against each other. And the captains of the four teams that are not playing, will act as judges.

So, basically, the singers become competitors in one episode and judges in another. Eventually, you'll have four teams in the semi-finals and two in the finals.

There are three rounds -- you have the Jugalbandhi or Nerukku Ner round, the solo round, where each team sends one of their team mates against the other. Then there's the round where captains participate along with their teams. That depends on the previous rounds, of course, and they can participate at their discretion. The teams are evaluated in each round and marks are awarded, so they don't have to wait until all the rounds are ended, for elimination.

I host the whole show -- I take the audience through the rounds, introducing the teams, and so on. And yes, I sing as well. Not competitively, of course, but I sing a sort of welcome song, as each episode begins. I'm having a lot of fun.

'I've been working with music directors like Harris Jeyaraj sir, A R Rahman sir'

Do you think the show will entice Tamil audiences?

Why not? The show has got everything. Great format, many lead singers whom the audience will have a chance to see and hear. I'm quite certain it will rake in the TRPs.

You dub for movies, sing full time, and are an entrepreneur as well. How do you manage to do so many things at the same time?

[Laughs] The truth is, I have an excellent team, a staff that handles Blue Elephant, my translation company, perfectly. It is like a well-oiled machine. As for song-recordings -- well, that's something that just happens. I've been working with music directors like Harris Jeyaraj sir, A R Rahman sir, and the experience is great. Yes, I have had to rearrange my schedules, last week we were shooting, and there were song recordings as well. So far, I've been doing well.

'I remember being nervous shooting for Chemmozhi Anthem'

You were a part of the Chemmozhi Anthem too. What was that experience like?

Awesome! Gautam Menon is an excellent director; he has just given Vinnaithaandi Varuvaya, a huge hit, so it was an honour working with him. Of course, I only had a line to sing, but I remember feeling very nervous when we had to shoot for it.

All those arc-lights, and people standing around, watching you; it was very unnerving. I was shivering. But it was great shooting with all the other singers, legends like Susheela Amma. We couldn't shoot with A R Rahman sir, though, he was on tour, and he shot separately, the next day. It was wonderful.