Even as Rajhesh Vaidhya’s veena picked up the strains of ‘Iravum nilavum’ from the movie ‘Karnan’ with music by Viswanathan-Ramamurthy, young vocalists took the melody forward with ‘Ennuyir Thozhi’ from the same film. What followed was a musical journey through 69 years of Independence.
When the brilliant Stephen Devassy joined him on stage, sparks flew as they vied for the honours.
Maham Parampara presented past Sunday at Image Auditorium another edition of ‘Freedom Raagam’ featuring Rajhesh on the veena and Stephen on the keyboards with their band of players, as Madhuvanthi Arun helmed the production.
The vocals were by youngsters Malavika and Dhanyasri.
The first half of the show saw Rajhesh’s veena leading the vocalists in a spurt of film melodies.
Not surprisingly, after the first medley of MSV songs, it was Ilayaraaja’s turn to take centre stage and one sailed through the maestro’s hits from ‘Ninaivo oru paravai’ to ‘Kannan oru kai kuzhandai.’
This writer's personal favourite was an amazing string of songs by different Hindi film composers beginning with O.P. Nayyar. Then there were Shankar-Jaikishen, Lakshmikant-Pyarelal, Khayyam, Salil Choudhury and Vishal-Shekhar. ‘Deewana hua baadal’ was followed by ‘Ankhon hi ankhon mei,’ ‘Kabhi Kabhi,’ ‘Ajeeb daasthan hai yeh,’ culminating in ‘Suhana safar’ and ‘Om shanthi om.’
The second half of the show moved on to the theme — the spirit of freedom. And that ushered in ‘Roja’ and A.R. Rahman. Stephen’s celebration of A.R. Rahman, Vidya Sagar, and Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy was greeted with considerable appreciation by the audience.
Revelling in jazz-style creativity, Stephen and Rajhesh excelled in this session of tracks. ‘Chinna chinna asai,’ ‘Thoda thoda,’ ‘Nenje nenje’ and culminated in ‘Thamizha thamizha.’ Here the instruments took over as words faded and rhythm assumed new meaning.
Reaching creative heights in this last session, Rajhesh worked single-stroke breathtaking artistry on the veena, while Stephen displayed high-octane energy on the keyboard. Malavika and Dhanyasri showed promise at the show, which would have been enhanced by a little crispness.
