The Saintly Subramaniams!

Kavita Krishnamoorthy Subramaniam figures high up in the list of my favorite singers ever since I heard her singing "Hawa Hawaai" more than 2 decades ago! She continued to enthrall all of us singing gems like Pyaar hua chupke se, Ikraar karna, Aankhon ki Gustaakhiyaan, Maar Daala and Dola re Dola. I can go on writing about her Bollywood songs and the numerous awards she has won! All through she has been a humble person and I even remember her accepting the Filmfare Award for 2002 and gushing that she was happy that the jury recognised the talent of the little (then!) Shreya Goshal who shared the award with her- that is the spirit of a true musician!

After her wedding to the violin maestro Padmabhooshan Dr. L. Subhramaniam, she bade good bye to films and the only connect that I had to her voice was her occassional appearance on television. When I heard that JTPAC was scheduling their first programme- a concert of the Subramaniams- I literally jumped with joy! And here I was with my mom looking forward to see Kavita Subramaniam on stage.

As actor Lakshmi Gopalaswamy finished introducing the Chief Guests (Consul General of USA, Chennai and his wife) and John Thomas and Mohanlal finished their brief speeches, Kavita marched on to the stage and in that silky voice of hers expressed her happiness over singing at such a grand theatre! And off she went with her invocation song- the skilfully composed Lakshmikant- Pyarelal gem- "Om Namah Shivay" and we were transported to another world itself!

But that was just the beginning- following Kavita was Louiz Banks and his team- the leader on the keyboard, his son Gino on the jazz drums and Alwyn Fernandez on the guitar- who enthralled the audience with the skilful rendition of 2 jazz numbers. I had heard a lot about Louiz and had enjoyed most of his legendary ad jingles and it was great to experience him first hand and understand what a fine talent he was!

The floor was open to Bindu Subramaniam, daughter of the legendary L Subramaniam who sang 3 English numbers- one of which was "Wake up Rebecca". The best was the first number which had her being accompanied by her brother, Ambi singing traditional "Jathis" to the English song!

Next in line was the legendary violin maestro along with his son and they presented 4 compositions in total- "Conversations" which these days is being played violinists across the country and the final piece "Ganga" composed in Mohanam, originally for a concert with Lord Yehudi Menuhin which had him being accompanied by Kavita and Bindu on vocals! If you were attending the concert, you will agree that it was for no reason he was hailed as the "God of Indian Violin" or the "Violian Chakravarthy", he literally created magic with his violin and the thaniyavarthanam with the Indian percussion artistes (K Sekar on Tavil; K Gopinath on Mrudangam; Giridhar Udupa on Ghatam and G Satya Sai on Morsing) took the crowd by storm. There was not even a single person who was not swaying to the music and tapping their feet!

Kavita dragged Ambi into accompanying her for the lilting AR Rahman number "Tu Hi Re" and also sang a Malayalam song deftly composed by Dr Subramaniam! Those were the most beautiful hours in my life so far and I am sure the entire audience would agree- for it was a 5 minute standing ovation that the Subramaniams received at the end of the concert!

I am really looking forward to more such events at JTPAC :-)