Birthday boy cuts two cakes

SINGER SRINIVAS can consider himself blessed. He got to cut two cakes on his 42nd birthday this Wednesday. That's granted when you are a celeb and the cakes are sponsored. But to have SPB sing for you, that too twice on the same day, is God sent.

When SPB does it, he starts with his trademark treble, brings in the improvisation and ends with a soprano like crescendo. No wonder, Srinivas was gushing praise about him - the humility of a previous generation.

The two were sharing stage with another great of Generation-EX, M.S. Viswanathan, and a promising singer, Ananthu Narayanan, at the launch of their Tamil Ghazal album, `Sangeetham Santhosham', at Spencer's Plaza.

The event went about in the great new tradition of book releases. It was the music lovers' equivalent to the book lovers' reading sessions. Where fans get to actually meet the authors, buy their products and get them autographed live. Except that, here the masters were genuine about their love for their album and their album, so what if it was a launch.

For long, said MSV, he had wanted to do a ghazal-type album in Tamil. In what he termd `Liberty to Lyricists', he asked Kamakodeyen, lyricist, to pen the songs first. The selected lyrics were then set to music in the spirit of ghazals, and was born ``Sangeetham Santhosham'', the title inspired from MSV's hit number ``Engayum, Epothum, Sangeetham Santhosham'' from ``Ninaithale Inikum''.

The two stops at Spencer's for the cassette launch were at Landmark and Music World. MSV animatedly detailed the cassette, its concept, how it came about, and the ghazal tradition of pain, romance, suffering and preaching. He also had words of praise for his protege and assistant Ananthu Narayanan, who has two songs in the album (and is looking for a break as a singer).

After the speeches came the mandatory autograph sessions, with a Music Today spokesperson putting a price on the star signatures - ``You can get autographs only if you buy the cassettes''. But thankfully for their fans, the musician-singers were signing away on anything thrust onto them.

It was the right hunting ground for star signatures, especially when the big names were so obliging. To have MSV, SPB and Srinivas talking to you, joking around like they were your long friends, is not an everyday experience and the crowd of visitors and employees of Landmark, Music World and nearby shops just loved it. A bit of disappointment - Sujatha, also part of the album, could not make it to the launch.

The ghazals were not new to SPB. ``I don't believe MSV has done ghazals for the first time. He has done plenty in films; just that they weren't labeled as ghazals.'' Very true when you hear the songs, where the uniqueness of the format has more to do with the selection of themes than with any particular musical style.

SPB then got into his mood for music, hesitantly though, when fans asked him to sing a few lines from the album. He didn't want to do that; it wouldn't be right, he said. ``Hear it and buy it. No, buy it and hear it.''

But, he said `yes' to a suggestion from MSV, and started with ``Engayum, Epothum, Sangeetham Santhosham'', and merged it with a line from his song in the album, ``Kathal Vilasam un Kannin Prakasam'', singing it first in normal mode, then improvising the same lines in ghazal. ``It's the kind of song someone young like Srinivas would sing to a girl.''

By Feroze Ahmed

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Section  : Features
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