Rolls Voice

The Hindu, T.Lalith Singh, August 19, 2002

The celebrated singer was in his elements.  A packed Ravindra Bharathi burst into applause after his every rendition.  Yet, he sought an another round of applause.  “Another round, because I am round and rotund,” he chuckled and brought the house down.  Guessed the singer? Right, it was none other than the irrepressible S.P.Balasubrahmanyam.

Those who flocked Ravindra Bharathi in great numbers for ‘Sur Sandhya’ were indeed treated with an evening of melody.  The event of South Central Railway Women’s Welfare Organisation had good old Balu dishing out some memorable numbers in the company of young and upcoming singers such as ‘Gangadhar, Mani Nagaraj, Ramana (Ooru Manadira’ find) and Nitya Santoshi.

The celebrated singer took the audience on a trip laced with nostalgia with several songs, beginning with ‘Ye divilo virisina parijatamo…’ to some vintage Telugu classics.  And for the young audience, Balu came out with ‘Dekha hai pehli baar…’ and ‘Dil deewana…,’ runaway hits of Bollywood star, Salman Khan.  The high point of the evening was his soulful renditions from the movies, ‘Shankarabharanam’ and ‘Geetanjali.’  The young singers perfectly complemented Balu and presented a wide range of songs from recent movies, including ‘Lagaan,’ ‘Indra’ and ‘Manasanta Nuvve.’  Mani Nagaraj clearly was the winner among the younger lot with her beautiful presentation of ‘Bole re papi hara…’ and then joining Ramana for ‘Mitwa, sun mitwa…’.

‘What’s my mother tongue, people keep enquiring,” said Balasubrahmanyam.  And with a pause, gave the reply, “music is my mother tongue.”  The celebrated singer was all humility when he described himself as a learner in music and said, “forgive me if there are mistakes.  I keep correcting myself.”  Not given to disappointing the audience and their requests, SPB presented Rafi’s ‘Chaudvi ka chand ho…

Know who sat through the evening to enjoy Balu’s numbers?  The Governor, C.Rangarajan, and the Union Minister of State for Railways, Bandaru Dattatreya.

Vintage Balu at his best.  Rolls Royce..er..voice!