A report on Balu's Concert held in New Jersey (2006)

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The following report was written by NaChaKi, Telugucinema.com and he can be reached at nachaki@telugucinema.com

Thanks,
Srini
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Date: October 06, 2006
Venue: Nicholas Music Center of Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ
Time: 08:10 p.m.-11:40 p.m.
Chief Organizers: Sunil Nethikunta, Surendra Valluru (Aaina), Kulraaj Anand (EBC Radio)

Singers: S.P. Balasubrahmanyam, S.P. Sailaja, Mallikarjun, Gopika Purnima
Orchestra: Phaninder (Manager) - Conga Drum, Paulraj and Venu - Tabla, Krishna - Conga Drum & Percussion Pads, Swami - Percussion Pads, Ravishankar - Flute, Srinivasachar - Lead Guitar, Alexander - Bass Guitar, Praveen - Keyboard, Chinna - Keyboard
Total number of songs: 27 - Telugu (10 full + 2 bits), Tamil (8), Kannada (3), Hindi (4)
Total number of audience: More than 750 (fully sold out)


Mallikarjun, Gopika Purnima, S.P. Sailaja, S.P. Balasubrahmayam, and the orchestra



The night of Oct. 6, Friday, was not just another early-winter night for the "desi-s" in New Jersey - instead of being bitterly cold, it was a sweet and pleasant one! The famous S.P. Balasubrahmanyam, or simply our beloved Balu, along with Mallikarjun, S.P. Sailaja, Gopika Purnima, and a 12-member orchestra, turned the ordinary evening into a greatly memorable one, thanks to the organizers. This was the 14th of the sixteen concerts that the troupe has agreed to perform in this part of the world now; half of these were multilingual, and the NJ event marks the last such concert.

The event, scheduled at 7:30 p.m., had to be pushed a bit to accommodate supper that arrived to the venue late due to traffic congestions. Yasmin stepped on to the dais at 8:12 p.m. finally, and Mr. Kulraaj and Sapna followed her on to the stage to welcome the audience. Sapna started off with a "vaNakkam" and "namaskaar" ...she did miss "namaskaaram" but she compensated later with a warm "elaa unnaaru?", after asking the Telugu audience to raise hands, after she counted and addressed the Tamil audience similarly. (Mr. Kulraaj too, in the middle of the program, said that he was enjoying the songs though he doesn't understand Tamil. Did he forget about Telugu too, or does he understand the language?) Sapna went on to remember and thank all the sponsors that made the event possible. Exactly five minutes since the start of the event, the much-awaited veteran singer was welcomed on to the stage, followed by his sister and another beautiful singer S.P. Sailaja. For what he's worth, receiving a full minute of standing ovation was still less for the great singer and a great personality Balu is!

A singer he, of course, is, he's also known so much as a good orator that his first words on the stage were "I'll talk... later!" Soon, he invoked the divine rasa aptly choosing "Omkaara naadaanusandhaanamau..." from the movie Sankarabharanam, and Sailaja joined him as the female lead, as the audience started applauding the choice of the song already. It was then that he thanked the audience, and thanked the sponsors saying "I bow my head..." in true Sankarabharanam style, like Sankara Sastry in the movie before the song dorakunaa yiTuvanTi sEva.... He went on to request the audience to not video-capture the event. For the multilingual singer he is, he cautioned the audience not to count the songs in each language and feel disappointed of any "misproportions" that might be felt, adding that "music is a language" in itself! He also said that there were several song requests sent through the organizers (133 requests in all, according to the website www.spblive.com) and that singing all songs that people of various native tongues might still request would take him years of singing, given that he has sung 36,000 songs in all languages! (How true! Can we all be ever satisfied if he is right in front of us singing whatever we might want him to sing! ...He did sing some of the requested songs, of course!) Getting back to the performance, "Sankarabharanam is a universal movie", he acclaimed, earnestly thanking the music masters duo Mahadevan-Puzhalendi who worked for the movie and, in his own words, gave him a "passport" in the filmdom - a change of addressing from "Hey Balu, how are you?" to "Balu gaarU, namaskaaram!".

Ilayaraja's mellifluous composition ilaya nilaa pozhigiradu... from the Tamil movie Payanangal Mudivathillai followed as a solo by Balu, and he went on to explain how exceptionally the Maestro used the guitar in the song. Music is a language indeed, one could feel it as the whole auditorium burst into applause after the rendition! (The Hindi number neelE neelE ambar par... is very much on the same lines as this Tamil song; it's said that Kalyanji-Anandji had sought Ilayaraja's permission to reuse his composition!) From the orchestra on the stage, Srinivasachar with the lead guitar and Alexander with the bass guitar get a praiseworthy introduction after this song!

Then, Sailaja and Gopika Purnima came forward to join Balu for aamani paaDavE haayigaa... (Geethanjali). "More than I, she needs all your blessings", requested the ever-encouraging singer, introducing Gopika Purnima to the audience. The song went smoothly from start to end, as Balu tweaks the original ending deftly. Thus paying a musical tribute to Ilayaraja with a song each from Telugu and Tamil, SPB said, "One of the finest things in Indian film industry is the invention of Ilayaraja!" He shared how Raja rose from being a harmonist in a music troupe to such a high position that "I stand here and applaud my buddy who's up there (pointing roofward)." "Orchestration only enhances the beauty of his composition", he rightly said! From the orchestra, Praveen and Chinna on keyboards add the authentic effect of bird chirps.

Planned carefully or casually, SPB's "music language" revealed a third color at this time, as he sung tErE mErE beech mE... (Ek Duje Ke Liye)leaving the auditorium in an echo of his high pitch towards the end, ...or was it just the lingering melody in the hearts of the listeners?

Mallikarjun was still not in the centerstage yet, except to obediently get some drinking water for Balu as the veteran got tired, and as no other helper was found near the stage. After being at the microphone for this much time at a stretch, SPB beckoned "a wonderful singer called Mallikarjun" while cautioning the audience: "The problem for these singers is that they have to sing other singers' songs", thus requesting them to not compare their rendition with the originals and to encourage these singers nevertheless. With this, Mallikarjun greeted everyone: "andarikee namaskaaram. ellaarukkum vaNakkam. (pause) sabkO namaskaar." And, as if he heard a murmur among the audience, he, albeit hesitantly, added "ellaaraku namaskaara" and sighed happily as the Kannada audience burst into an approving applause. Gopika Purnima then joined him for kurukku chirutavaLE... from the Tamil movie Mudalvan (Tamil version of nellUri nerajaaNaa... from Oke Okkadu), as Balu filled in the details of the original singers (Hariharan, Mahalakshmi), lyricist (Vairamutthu), and composer (A.R. Rahman) - like he always did in his TV shows. Gopika and Mallikarjun didn't just get the listeners' applause - Balu warmly put his hand on Mallikarjun's head in the form of a hearty blessing as the latter handed over the microphone to SPB.

Taking off from the song that was just performed: "...That boy has now come to such an extent...", SPB praised the composer Rahman, "What a beautiful composer! ...In all this, he hasn't change an iota!" and went on to talk how humble Rahman is, and how much he devotes himself to the ocean of music, "he eats music, drinks music, thinks music, sleeps music, dreams music, and lives music!" And as the audience applauded mildly to the veteran's showering praises over the young composer who would not even know of these compliments here, Balu added, "That's not enough for this gentleman!" and encouraged the audience to truly applaud all that Rahman is worth!

With this he went on to share the extraordinary experiences he had while he worked with "four generations of artistes and composers", and as he mentioned Kannada, he recollected the talent of music director duo Rajan-Nagendra. As Sailaja joined him, he sang jeeva veeNe needu miDitada sangeeta... from the movie Hombisilu, borrowing a line or two from the equally popular Telugu version veeNa vENuvaina sarigama vinnaaraa... from Intinti Ramayanam. While he was trying to recollect the female lead paired with Vishnuvardhan on the screen, the audience cheerfully responded "Aarthiiii".

With Sailaja on his side, he was understandably reminded of her screen presence for the movie Sagara Sangamam, and shared the experience where his "cousin brother K. Viswanath" convinced her for the role after learning of her formal training in Bharatanatyam and Kuchipudi and her classical dance arangetram along with SPB's daughter (S.P. Pallavi). As he shared this experience, he also explained how Kamal's fans were initially enraged at his sister (Sailaja) yelling "Stupid!" at Kamal Hasan in the movie, and the convincing that took him to cool them down, explaining how sibling-like Kamal Hasan was to them both. As this movie came up, naturally, the brother and sister went on to relive the rendition of the climax song of the movie that was also originally sung by them both. This one song was just enough to tell how skilled the two singers were! Personally, I never expected, even as the song started off, that Balu could "again" reach that really high pitch at the start of the song, but he did, and may be even more easily this time around! I can still hear it ringing in my ears, days after the concert! And, then, there was Sailaja, who beautifully joins the number with her lengthy aalaapana that goes on for nearly half a minute, ending in a high pitch too, quite deftly! What was more stunning was yet to come - as the song neared its end, I couldn't really imagine that two singers could stand so very next to each other and sing undisturbed in two different "levels" - pitch, tone, tempo, what not! Sailaja sings the pallavi in a high pitched voice, while Balu chants the Sloka in a bass voice - like I said, not at all disturbed by each other! Want to feel how it was? Listen to the song vEdam aNuvaNuvuna naadam from Sagara Sangamam right away and feel how it would have been to watch these two artistes render that on one stage! As usual, Balu compliments the people behind the song - the lyricist "pumbhaava saraswati" Veturi, and "great music by none other than Ilayaraja". Of course, the audiences' response for the song was quite notable! Personally, I consider myself honored to have watched this beautiful musical feat happening a few feet away from my own self! When I casually read that this song was sung in Bay Area, I didn't know what I was missing, and I knew what I might have! I can't thank the organizers enough for giving me just this one opportunity! (Was this all? No, there's more to come!)

"Another established music director, who's original", Vidyasagar gets introduced thus, as "one of the finest composers" who started off his career in Telugu, went on to make it big in Malayalam and eventually in Tamil too. As Mallikarjun joined him for a bit or two, and as Sailaja crooned as the female lead, SPB rendered his favorite composition by Vidyasagar, also adding that it was his (original) co-singer "Janaki-ji's favorite too". Remember the soothing melody in Arjun-starrer movie Karna that was also dubbed into Telugu by the same name? As the trio rendered the Tamil version of the song (malarE, maunamaa! maunamE vEdamaa!...), the audience thoroughly enjoyed the melody. Mallikarjun's talent was specially notable in this and some other songs where he was drawn in by SPB to exclusively render the aalapana in the interlude.

It was again time for Mallikarjun to prove his own mettle, and of course, it was for Gopika Purnima too! Thus, they come together again, as Balu reveals, "I told you the problem that these people have. Now, he'll sing one of my songs!" As Mallikarjun and Gopika Purnima render the Rakshasudu number maLLee maLLee yidi raani rOju... again after the concert in Bay Area, SPB could be seen tapping his foot and watching Mallikarjun keenly, finally appreciating the young singer by playfully singing his name "Malli, Malli!"

Thus, when the audience were introduced to all the singers' talents with at least a couple of renditions each, it was time to prove how talented each of the "orchestra dozen" were! The first one to reveal his talent was the keyboard player Chinna, as SPB pointed the audience specifically to how beautifully he had been playing strings on keyboard just like that! To demonstrate the talent vividly, SPB chose to sing, with Sailaja, the Hindi number "Oh Maria!" (from the 1985 movie Saagar, rendered by himself and Asha Bhonsle) led by a solo guitar bit beautifully composed by R.D. Burman. Like SPB asked Chinna, one could actually feel a real guitar being played right there as one listened to it with closed eyes! Soon as the lead guitar bit was played on the keyboard, the audience couldn't stop clapping loudly for the talented artiste right then even as SPB started singing! Of course, the audience definitely came back to notice SPB's talent as he cheerfully tweaked his voice to a child-like tone when he pronounced "Mummy sE pooChoongI..." and "Oh, my daddy! kah kar...". Mallikarjun and Gopika Purnima too joined for chorus towards the end of the song, as the lead singers still continued to conclude with the actual song.

After the keyboard player, it was the turn for percussion artistes there to exhibit their skill. For this, SPB chose Ilayaraja's composition for Dalapathi. He explained that when the song was originally recorded in Mumbai, with an ensemble of 120 musicians, all the musicians, listening to the composition, put the instrument aside and gave a big round of applause to the maestro for a never-before composition that put them in a trance! He confidently pointed to his troupe on the stage, "a ten percent of the original number here, now", and pointed to the audience to carefully note how greatly they can re-create the magic originally done by the Master! With Mallikarjun, Gopika Purnima, and Sailaja adding their voices to the chorus in the interludes, Balu and Sailaja sang sundarI, kannaal oru sEdi... (Tamil for sundarI, nuvvE nEnanTa... of the Telugu dubbed version), as the orchestra really didn't give the slightest hint of shortcoming of 90% of the original ensemble to the enthralled audience! Particularly, Swami with percussion pads and Krishna with conga drum and percussion pads were at their best, as the orchestra Manager Phaninder too joined them with the conga drums. Paulraj and Venu with the tablas, Ravishankar with the flute (also aptly using the steel flute at times during the song) joined them, while Praveen and Chinna are at their best on the keyboards. SPB duly thanked all the orchestra members for the great rendition of the song, while the audience resonated their applause with his!

While admitting he did call a few others as "one of the finest composers" earlier in the concert, he named yet another such composer - Keeravani. He added that he had to choose such fine composers when he had to pick only a few from thousands of songs in his long career as a playback singer: "Don't worry why I call everyone that he's one of the finest...", he clarified. Keeravani was a different kind of music director who worked for different kind of movies too, such as Sree Ramadasu, he said, also citing his Annamayya as the first occasion for a Telugu music director to win the National award. Remembering both the great poets and devotees of the past, Annamacharya and Ramadasu, he however chose a song that was not written by either - it may be that he wanted to display Keeravani's talent as a composer too by not choosing songs originally composed by these musician-poets or the later musicians! Giving enough introduction thus, Balu rendered the devotional number antaa raamamayam... from Sree Ramadasu, as the other three singers joined him for chorus, calming the audience with his divine voice praising the Lord Rama.

Philosophical he was, and more of that he became after this song, SPB sincerely acknowledged how much the "first generator of energy" audience were for him, also naming his own troupe of orchestra as the "second generator of energy", especially at times such as these, when the whole team is going around the country giving concerts all over the place and not even having enough sleep in this hectic schedules, and sleeping in the airplane as everyone on board wondered "What's with these sixteen Indians?!"

Counting that for some rest, he effortlessly took to singing again, this time choosing another melody of Ilayaraja from Tamil in the form of andi mazhai porigiradu... (Rajaparvai), and of course, not before he explained how beautifully Vairamutthu penned the lyrics for a blind man "seeing" the beauty of his lover as raindrops from the heaven. (Wondering if there's a Telugu equivalent for the movie? Yes, of course, it's Kamal's Amavasya Chandrudu, and the song is sundaramO sumadhuramO....) While Sailaja takes to substitute Janaki's voice of the original, Mallikarjun joins in for an aalaapana again and Gopika Purnima has her share in the chorus alongside Sailaja.

It might seem that Gopika Purnima was sidelined all the while, but an opportunity that's to come now compensates for all that. S. Janaki's national award-winning song is for her to carry on her shoulders all alone. (Sailaja and Mallikarjun have their part in the chorus, though.) SPB, in his usual way, took to the microphone to give out the details of the song, stepped back on a second thought, and literally pushed Gopika Purnmia gently towards the microphone, reminding her that it's actually her job to tell all the details of a song that she's supposed to present to the audience. A shy Gopika Purnima tells she's going to sing vennellO gOdaari andam... from Sitara in a low tone, and looks towards Sailaja for help with other details, who, like her brother, had all the details right at the tip of her tongue. (It may be remembered that Sailaja rendered this song in the Bay Area concert.) Gopika Purnima did a very good job, so much that she received an ovation even during middle of the song, but the song seemed to have gone in a faster tempo than the original.



It was 10:05 p.m., and a 10-minute break was announced, during which, SPB requested the audience particularly, that they're given this time to take some rest and not be bombarded by people, assuring that they'd stay for a while after the show. I was backstage during this break too, and at least one family did meet Balu during this time. I felt that he might have known them earlier, but waited to see his reaction anyway. There was no sense of displeasure or discomfort as he spoke to them earnestly. And, I also got an opportunity to see the human he is!


Singers and instrumentalists talk backstage during the break


Sitting on a chair a couple of feet away was an old lady who was also with the couple that met him. She rose up as her folks pointed to her while speaking to Balu, and the singer hurriedly said, "arerE, peddavaaru, koorchOnDammaa!" even before she was trying to say how much she liked his songs. He assuredly spent a minute or two with this family before he came back to the dais! Greatness is not just of an artiste, but is of the human too, I observed, though I knew of it earlier! (I wished to speak to him too, but I restrained myself with some difficulty. After all, I am a fan too, and I missed several such opportunities in Hyderabad and Vijayawada, but I thought it shall not be right on my part to try talking then.)

Dinner was served in the adjacent room during this break, and the program resumed at 10:20 p.m. Calling himself a servant of music, an ever-obedient Balu called for the "Prince" Mallikarjun to take over again with his own song this time. He teamed up with Gopika Purnima to render manmathaa, manmathaa! maama putruDaa!... from Tagore. Not just in the West, but in East too, he entertains the audience with not just his voice but with his dance too during this song! I was truly impressed by his energy and enthusiasm, as he moved back and forth at the microphone, dedicatedly dancing while Gopika Purnima sang her lines and shaking his legs as much as he can even while he held the microphone for his own lines. Of course, he also gracefully replicated the much-praised "veeNa" step from the original choreography for the song, all the while encouraging the audience to clap along, and did we all really need that prompting to appreciate his skills!

SPB comedically regretted that though he might have had the enthusiasm to dance like Mallikarjun, he was not ready to do that because the stage cannot bear him dance! But, there was something else that he could, he alone could, gracefully perform, and here it comes! I was looking forward to hearing this song after I read the report on the San Jose concert, and I was wondering if I'd miss it in New Jersey, but here it was! SPB's taaLi kaTTu SubhavELa... from Anthu Leni Katha was a truly solo performance, in my humble opinion! Of course, there was this loyal 12-member orchestra, but he had an orchestra of his own vocal cords during this song! Everyone of us might have heard the original rendition, but after he captivated the West with his feat, the East was waiting for this feast too! The multilingual and multitalented artiste takes to mimicry on a large scale as he chirps like birds, lands an airplane, becomes a "female" flight announcer, play the auspicious baajaa bhajantreelu, and does what not! (I, having forgotten to carry my voice recorder along, could still capture the mangaLavaadyaalu bit on my mobile phone - with all the noise - and am being bowled over by his talent ever since, hearing that repeatedly several times a day!) Truly, this was my personal favorite, probably even more than the Sagara Sangamam song I earlier raved about! With the latter, I liked it every time I heard it and was always amazed at the extent of his voice, but the former, it being a relatively infrequently-heard song, made me look for new dimensions to define the extent of his voice! Hats off to the versatile artiste! The audience definitely felt more or less like I felt, of course, and showered him with all the applause! Not just music, but all his talent seemed one language that everyone there understood regardless of their native tongue! Still, for those inquisitve readers out there, he switched between Telugu and Tamil as he sung it all.

Gopika Purnima and Balu had not come together for any song yet, right? So, here they go, with sippi irukkudu muttam irukkudu... from Varumaiyin Niram Sivappu, Tamil for kannepillavani kannulunnavani... (Aakali Rajyam). Like SPB said before the song and continued the same way all through, the performance was like the original challenege between Kamal Hasan and Sridevi on the screen - one could see that in Balu's dialogues and expressions, some of which he improvised right then! The spontaneity with which they conversed in Tamil was impressive. When Gopika Purnima said "Sabhaash!" to SPB as a part of the song, the audience obviously burst into a cheerful applause! Followed pahlaa pahlaa pyaar hai... (Hum Aapke Hai Kaun) by the same pair of singers, and quite noticeable was Balu's native-like Hindi pronunciation that he's sometimes blamed for lacking.

This time, Mallikarjun came back to wield the microphone for a solo and announced that he'd sing a Kannada number. Sitting just by the dais, his face clearly read that he didn't expect such an overwhelming applause for the very announcement of Kannada! His choice was equally laudable, since it was a Kannada Kantheerava Late Rajkumar's number huTTidare kannaDa naaDalli huTTabEku... from Aakasmika. Truly, it's the theme that made the choice great! When he raised his voice singing "kannaDaa... kastUri", there was a really huge response from the minor Kannada audience group that the singer didn't even seem to expect the presence of! The high-pitched aalaapana at the end trailed off into the audiences' response, from all quarters this time! SPB thought this an appropriate time to remember the great person that Rajkumar was. He went on to say how Rajkumar, being a national award-winning singer himself, encouraged P.B. Sreenivas to sing playback for his roles! (Note: As a singer, Rajkumar has another achievement: He also sang playback to none other than S.P. Balasubrahmanyam himself in the Kannada movie Muddina Maava - probably the only occasion where an actor lent his voice for a singer!)

This was now a time for beloved Balu to start wrapping up things, the audience felt when he revisited Sankarabharanam and raised his voice: Sankaraa naadaSareeraaparaa..., and explained how it coincidentally rained when the song was actually done for the movie! There were still some songs that were surely expected of him, he knew, and continued singing further. Explaining how they used analog techniques back in Keladi Kanmani movie (O Papa Laali in Telugu) for the "breathless" song mannil inda kaadal anDri... (You guessed it: maaTE raani chinnadaani... in Telugu), he rendered the Tamil version nearly breathless this time too, though he initially admitted that he'd take breath and sing that in the live show. Followed a partial rendition of aaseya bhaava... from Mangalya Bhagya(Kannada version of mallelu poose... from Intinti Ramayanam that he reminded by singing one line in Telugu) as a revisit to Rajan-Nagendra, one stanza from the much-praised E divilO virisina... (Kanne Vayasu), and oh yeah, he did listen to the audience and promptly sang nEnoka prEma pipaasini... (Indhradhanassu) when he was asked to sing a Krishna's song earlier during the program, though he casually wondered aloud why a particular hero when the playback was anyway his. He stepped aside to give way to Mallikarjun and Gopika Purnima for their last duet on the stage, uyirE, uyirE... (urikE chilakaa...) from Bombay.

As the program reached an end, the organizers stepped on again, with Ms. Pratibha Pothulanka earnestly pronouncing the vote of thanks to all sponsors, audience, and organizers. The chief organizer Sree Sunil Nethikunta speaks how much he was looking forward to meet S.P.B. always, and how finally it happened now, with this concert, and touched the feet of the veteran singer as the latter raised him up and hugged him earnestly. Even there, it could be seen that Balu was humble enough to move towards Sree Sunil, as the latter got stuck with the microphone that he, for some reason, failed to take along with him.

Now, Mallikarjun and Gopika Purnima had their last song, but where's Sailaja? She was to join her brother, in place of the original singer Anuradha Paudwal, to their last duet for the evening: "One of the last songs composed by R.D. Burman", said Balu, as they both crooned aajaa mErI jaan... from the Hindi movie titled the same.

On behalf of the singer quartet, Balu then thanked the organizers for the wonderful show and showered praises on their New Jersey hosts. The start of the show was same as the Bay Area concert, with the Sankarabharanam song and the conclusion was the same too, with the Major Chandrakanth song puNyabhoomi naa dESam... at 11:35 p.m. - the other three singers joined Balu for the chorus in the song, as Balu raised his voice imitating NTR and replicating the original. "Jai Bharat! ...God bless America!" concluded Balu, as all the sixteen members of the troupe bowed thrice to the totally satisfied audience!

Tailpiece: Given that it was near-midnight already, the exhausted singer quartet hurried off, unable to bear the tiresomeness. The orchestra members were still there, packing all their stuff for the next 20 minutes or more. At this time, notable was the fact that some listeners walked up to the stage and waited to congratulate the orchestra members. Understanding how exhausted the singers might be, and probably also tired themselves, no one seemed to have been disappointed that the lead singers left the place already. None, of course, seemed to complain that it was so late in the night, possibly also because the organizers were well-prepared for the delay, with a supper and a dinner arrangement right next to the auditorium.

Acknowledgments: My sincere thanks to the organizers, particularly Sree Sunil Nethikunta, who could secure a space for me in an almost fully sold out auditorium! And, I earnestly thank Sivaraj Valluru (son of another organizer Sree Surendra) who took personal care to make sure I got all the details I wanted, literally running around and asking people for things and answers I needed. He is to be thanked also for the pictures that he provided of the event.

By NaChaKi