Talent made the difference

WHY DON'T MCs of mega shows, be it music and dance programmes or award functions, take a lesson or two from Vivek? The man is absolutely wonderful as a compere. With the right mix of hilarity, word power, and an appreciable sense of timing, he has the audience in splits most of the time.

This was once again made evident at Raju Sundaram's Mega Millennium star nite presented by Vijay TV's Vijay Utsavam and Milka at the Indian Airlines ground on New Year's eve.

But if even Vivek could not always control the crowd, though he did make a sincere attempt, it was mainly because the unduly late start had made the crowd irritable and restless. Any other compere would have lost his nerve, but Vivek held on with grit and smile. The compering began to get stale only when he started imitating too many actors, one after the other. Actress Anju who compered the show along with Vivek was equally good.

Clapping his hands most of time, unlike many conductors, and with a constantly cheerful demeanour, was music director Ramani Bharadwaj. Not that there was a full fledged orchestra that needed much conducting. He began with ``Unnai Paartha Pinbu Dhaan'' - not a very well rendered song. There were hiccups (!) in between and his voice went off key on and off, but Bharadwaj managed to complete it. In fact a few of the singers too foundered and found it difficult to align with the key, thereby showing that singing light music live is not all that easy.

Venkatesh who sang the hit number ``Satham Illadha Thanimai Kaetaen'' did a commendable job and was well applauded.

A glittering galaxy adorned the stage in the form of Simran, Suvalakshmi, Roja, Maheswari, Preetha Vijayakumar and many more. Raju Sundaram who has carved a niche for himself in the field of cine dancing proved his mettle on stage. Each number had been diligently rehearsed and hence flawlessly presented, down to the minutest of steps. Kudos to this innovative choreographer. His troupe and the stars who danced with him deserve credit for the success of the show.

A striking positive factor of the evening was that the singing and the orchestra were presented as separate items and the singers had no intrusion by way of dance. Similarly the numbers chosen for dance were recorded pieces and there was no live music on stage when the dances were going on, as it often happens. Thus the audience too could enjoy the dances and the songs without their attention being unnecessarily diverted.

When the show came to a close around 2.30 a.m. one could not help feeling that things would have been much better if our folks learnt the rudimentary lessons about beginning things on time.

Also it was rather strange that people who find it impossible to wait for a single minute at traffic signals could so patiently wait for hours on end, watching an empty stage that resembled a slumbering leviathan!

MALATHI RANGARAJAN

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Section  : Entertainment
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