Bridging the north-south divide

Close to a few hundred Chennaiites gathered on Sunday at the Karnataka Sanga, T Nagar, to attend a musical event that paid rich tributes to South Indian musicians who had left their indelible mark on Hindi film music. Aptly titled South India's contribution to Hindi film songs, the event organised by Manabendra Smaraney, transported audiences to the 50s and 60s when Hindi film music was at its melodious best. About 30 songs were sung by singers of  Manabendra Smaraney, a musical group named after late composer Manabendra Mukherjee. Playback singer Shruti Jauhari, a faculty member from AR Rahman's school of music, led the group even as she sang evergreen hits of music director Shankar of Shankar-Jaikishan duo, C Ramachandra and Adi Narayan Rao, among others. Some of the lilting songs she sang included Mujhe elzaam yeh bewafai hain, Kuhu kuhu bole koyalia and Jiya bekrar hain.The event was also dedicated to South Indian musicians of today who had scored music for Hindi films. Singer Sanket sang Surmayee Ankhiyon Mein of Ilayaraja from the movie Sadma. It was easily the performance of the evening. Priya, a budding talent from AR Rahman's school of music, sang Choti see aasha from Roja. Ashish, a singer-cum-tabla player, sang the song Mitwa, composed by Shankar Mahadevan of the trio Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy for the movie Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna. Before every performance, Shruti gave interesting anecdotes on the song she was to sing. For example, she said the song, Ae mere watan ke logon, which was the last number for the evening, was composed with both Lata Mangeshkar and Asha Bhonsle in mind. However, it was sung by only Lata, and hence, some lines were repeated. There were also some goodies for certain members of the audience who answered questions on  the songs. Other singers included Ripan, Piyali, Vedanth, Sharada, Tanmoy  and Subashini. They rendered good support. The best performance from the group was Mud mud ke na dekh from the movie Shree 420. Tanmoy sang one of the best solo songs of the evening — Mera joota hain Japani from Shree 420. The best duet song was sung by Shruti and Ripan. They sang  Pyar hua, ekrar hua... from Shree 420.