A R Rahman music magic by the Natraj Academy students, a night to remember!

By Neena Badhwar

A R Rahman Magic concert truly was a night when magic on stage was created by the beautiful singers of Sydney under the banner of Natraj Academy as Jazba band energetically accompanied them with their instruments, even singing in chorus to the main singer.

One song after the other followed of A R Rahman’s music, said, Avijit Sarkar, “It is quite difficult to replicate on stage as Rahman is a complicated musician, a genius who is singer, composer, sampler, all in one. He lives in the song, in ”˜taal se taal mila’ he took 58 nights.”

But to the audience, full to the brim at the Redgum Centre hall, it was a concert thoroughly enjoyable right up to the last delivery ”˜Dil Se Re’ by Rajesh.

It was a delightful performance that captivated the audience through all their senses, ears, eyes, body, mind and the soul.

”˜Maula Mere Maula’ from the movie ”˜Delhi 6’ by elegant Indrani was the highlight. The accompaniment by the instrumentalists took all to a heightened visual as well as aural experience.

“A R Rahman uses Chinese music, even an Egyptian singer by going beyond the Indian boundaries, he fuses, he mixes. What he can do in his studio he himself cannot recreate,” said Avijit, as he worked furiously on his dholak, percussion.

Says he after the concert, “I come from the ”˜old school’ but I am very happy the way the students carried out the performance.”

Songs came one after the other, one above the other, ”˜Neem Neem’ by Tasneem, ”˜Rangeela Re’ by Shailja, ”˜Taal se Taal Mila’ by Devanshi and Neeti, ”˜Chhoti si Asha’ by Razia, ”˜Ringa Ringa’ by Akaknsha and Mamata, ”˜Dum dara dum dara chashme’ by Meena Mahanty,  in a magical sequence.

A R Rahman, we hear, is coming in a couple of months, but Natraj Academy has surely filled a gap by its talented team of students that it has trained and developed, who work very hard, almost spending four to five hours every day rehearsing besides their regular daytime jobs. One can say that our local talent performed even better than all those overseas concerts that come calling at our shores and charge hundreds of dollars and are packed one after the other, overlapping at times, why not support our own local talent, we must, I say.

To have spent so much time together, the students of Natraj, a social network and an academy based on music, sounds of which binds them together on a platform, can only be termed an ensemble of ”˜very lucky’ people. The chorus team was made up by Amit, Aditi, Poornima, Shailja, Sumedha, Tasneem, Poornima, Mamata, Kerman and Sadiq. If the lead singer was one of them then others keenly chorused for the singer thus music that was superb in its creation on stage. ”˜Mitwa O Mitwa’ from the movie Lagaan by Amit, a consummate performer, he came on stage with his cricket bat dressed like Amir Khan and was a delight to watch and to listen.

The Jazba band, Sadiq Rehmani on guitar, young Vishal Lakhia on keyboard, Seemantho on Bass guitar, Rakesh Swami on drums, Abhijit Dan on tabla and percussion, Parag Tijoriwala and Sanjeev Raja providing side effects, was tied to each other with an invisible magic thread as they accompanied not just with their instruments but sang along in chorus to create music that was, what can one say, just magical.

 

Short URL: https://indiandownunder.com.au/?p=9424