The finale of the annual Bharat Sangeet Utsav held on Friday, curated by Carnatica and Sri Parthasarathy Sabha featured a different kind of concert – Indian classical fused into devotional, western and pop with some unplugged songs too.
Hosted by the Trichur Brothers and backed by some very talented musicians, the concert offered a song on Lord Ayyappa, one based on poet Narayana Kurup’s verses, and the singers’ version of the popular ‘boatman’s song’ in Malayalam.
The fairly large audience seemed to enjoy it. “This is not going to be a Carnatic music con cert,” said Ramkumar Mohan as his brother Srikrishna grinned.
The rasikas who wanted the best Carnatic music had had their fill earlier that Friday evening, listening to a concert by Vijay Siva.
The duo were attired in faded jeans and off-white kurtas. “Vijay Siva asked us backstage why we were in mufti!”, Ramkumar said between songs. Later, they changed into mundus ( vestis).
And sometime later he joked, “One is not supposed to sing the songs we are doing this evening in a place like Mylapore!”
There were a few loud laughs. But the audience wanted one more after the band called it a day; the duo responded – with a wedding song in honour of the celebrated musician Navneeth who was at the keyboard and iPad. The musician’s wedding anniversary is at hand.
A warm end to a arts fest.
