The Hindu : Singers raise voice against war

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Mar 28, 2003

Southern States

Southern States - Kerala-Thiruvananthapuram

Singers raise voice against war

By M. Dinesh Varma

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM March 27. Famous singers and fledgling talents raised their pitch against the brutality of war at a concert here on Thursday evening, stringing together a musical anthem for international peace and prosperity.

K.J. Jesudas, led from the front in the `anti-war musical concert', rendering "Aruthee, Kollaruthee... " penned by O.N.V. Kurup with the music scored by the playback singer himself.

The musical event was organised by Swaralaya as a novel way to mobilise protests against the U.S.-led war on Iraq.

There was classical Carnatic, vintage verses from Vayalar Rama Varma, and poetic visualisation of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers as mutually vibrating stringed instruments striking common chord, as the anti-war sentiments symbolised a melodic, and morally vibrant, denouncement of war on humanity.

The Carnatic stalwart, Perumbavoor Ravindranath, rendered a Thyagaraja composition, to the accompaniment of Jesudas, M.G. Radhakrishnan, Kaithapuram Damodaran Namboodiri and Kavalam Sreekumar.

Jesudas later rendered "Sangeethame...", M.G. Radhakrishnan, a song from the film, `Sarassaya' opening with the sloka `Uthishta jagratha... ', and K.P. Udayabhanu once again dropped glimpses of the vintage value of his voice rendering "Radhamadhava...", while Bhavana Radhakrishnan crooned "Lokam muzhuvan sukham pakaran... ''

The immortal lines of Vayalar reverberated in G. Venugopal's rendition of "Chottamuthal chudale vare..." Vijay Jesudas's choice for the evening was "Manushyan...", yet another Vayalar masterpiece.

Kaithapuram's "Agniyil sruthi cherna ridra veenakal... " alluded to the commonality of the Tigris and the Euphrates as he scoured through a range of ragas ranging from Nilambari to Bhairavi, to assert that collective prayers had the power to bring about peace in distant Iraq. He also conceived an Upanishad-derived kirtana expounding eschewal of war and embracement of amity.

There was a trans-cultural mix of Malayalam folk ballads, Hindi songs and Tamil songs as well as English chartbusters.

Budding talent, Kalyani, with an exposition of the Celine Dion chartbuster from `Titanic', proved yet again that sooner or later she should belong to the playback fold.

Aparna Rajeev, grandaughter of O.N.V. Kurup, gave an impressive rendition of Subramania Bharathi's "Odi vilayadu pappa...", a song that is so strongly associated with the freedom struggle.

Among others who sang were Kallara Gopan, Saraswathy Sankar, Shemi Samad, Nikhil and Yasin Nissar.

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