By, Tharanie Rajendran
Like Boggler Blogger's Facebook page by clicking the link below for more post!
At any given day, a perfect evening for me
would consist of hanging out with a bunch of close friends, sipping on our
favourite drink and going back in time to relive the beauty of Ilayaraja’s
music. You know, the kinda music that was made without a template from a
musical software or auto tune to help balance it all of. And that is exactly
what “Madras: An 80’s Musical” by Mojo Project gave me, last Saturday on 5th May 2018.
It was no doubt that the set of singers who
flew in from India for this concert were big names in the playback industry,
but I was skeptical on their ability to revive the 80’s musical simple because
I, an ardent fan of live music, have not heard some of these names performing
an old song on stage. But, since the
very first song, till the last bit, I was repeatedly proven wrong, by literally
everyone who went up on stage.
Before entering the ballroom, I was also
curious on why was there a place setting involved in the naming of the concert,
and the choices of songs performed answered my question. Madras, before being
renamed to Chennai, was also known as South India’s Movie capital and it oozes
out of pure talent for the performing arts industry.
(From left: Rahul Nambiar, Ranjith, Saindhavi, Aaalap Raju)
Madras: An 80’s Musical did feel like
taking a time travel back through music, and I loved the fact that it was not
Ilayaraja centred. It was indeed an evening reliving the moments from the era
of timeless music, from all music directors that made the decade a golden one
for the Tamil music industry.
(Singer Aalaap Raju)
There are some songs that makes this golden
era, golden. Songs like Raja Raja Cholan, Vaa Vennilla, En Iniya Pon Nilave, Vaa
Vaa Pakkam Vaa, Kannukul Nooru Nilava, Madai Thiranthu. The special
craftsmanship that is put in for each and every of this song makes it a timeless
piece. Aalaap Raju, Ranjith, Rahul Nambiar and Saindhavi performed all this
songs to perfection during the Madras: An 80’s Musical and it was magical!
(Singer Ranjith)
I believe one of the reason this show was a
success is the crowd. They were very responsive and cheerful to every song,
every backstory, every interaction the singers tried to include in their preforming
period.
(Singer Saindhavi)
But the cheerful and loud crowd became
silent and we could feel the sudden gloom when tribute to Sri Devi and Malaysia
Vasudevan started. The unfortunate passing of these two souls definitely
created an impact in the Tamil cinema industry, and caused a grievous moment in
the show. Trust me when I say I definitely saw some tears rolling, around me.
(From left: Rahul Nambiar, Ranjith, Saindhavi, Aaalap Raju during the tribute of Sri Devi)
Few hours in the show, I was literally
shouting to Sukesh. “WHERE IS SUNDARI FROM THALAPATHY?!” A personal opinion is
that an 80’s musical is not complete without this piece from Ilayaraja. I mean,
who could not love that song? Sundari from Thalapathy was literally every
couple in the early 90’s theme song!
(Violinist Raghav)
Then came the moment where the musicians in
the show got a special part, without the singers, where they played a medley of
several impactful BGMs from the golden era. Special mention to Raghav on violin
and Karthik Devaraj on keyboards. The BGMs started with Sundari, and made it’s
way to Punnagai Mannan and ended with Nayagan, which made the whole ballroom
sing along. It was too beautiful for me to word it (trust me, I tried).
(Keyboardist Karthik Devaraj)
When I drafted this write up, I thought of
mentioning the singers Aalaap Raju, Ranjith, Rahul Nambiar and Saindhavi
separately but then I realized, this concert was made beautiful because of the
entire team and there is no I in a team. Every singer added a piece of their
expertise with their magical voice and the concert was wholesome because of
everyone. But, putting everything aside, I just want to say, “I LOVE YOU
RAHUL!” (yes, I was the annoying voice everytime Rahul finished performing and
I am sure that Rahul knows that by now).
(BAE Rahul <3 )
Talking about how much I fell in love with
Rahul (more in person than just through my Spotify and YouTube), I am still
VERY JEALOUS that Sukesh got a chance to spend some time with Rahul (and all
the other singers). He got an interview session with all the singers, one-to-one
and it is coming on Boggler Blogger’s page this week, so stay tuned, people!
All in all, Madras: An 80’s musical was a
great show and Mojo Project has definitely set the bar high for the event they
run, and I am being informed that the 3 more upcoming shows are set equally or
even higher! I don’t know about you, but I am purchasing the tickets for the
remaining three shows already!
Season Pass to all Three Concerts: https://airasiaredtix.com/milffconcert2018
Here are the links to purchase the tickets
for Mojo project’s upcoming concert, individually:
Triple Treat (9th June 2018): https://airasiaredtix.com/tripletreat
Rahman Retro- A Tribute (7th
July 2018): https://airasiaredtix.com/retrorahman
MILFF 2018 Mainstage (8th Sept
2018): https://airasiaredtix.com/milff2018
Like Boggler Blogger's Facebook page by clicking the link below for more post!
I'm expecting more picture about SAINDHAVI. So keep posting!! Thank you..!
ReplyDelete