Entertaining Chennai audiences and raising money for the Satkaarya Trust, “Musical Montage: Sounds of the 60's and 70's” featuring Kash, Murali, Allan and Vaidhy saw the reunion of the former IIT band on stage at the Museum Theatre. With the Madras Musical Association Choir and Blue Note as backing band, the four members — two currently residing in the U.S. and two in Mumbai — performed again in the city for the first time in 45 years.
With a programme compiled by Augustine Paul, the MMA's choral director, the show included a large sampling from Simon and Garfunkel, popular classics such as ‘Bohemian Rhapsody' and ‘Proud Mary' and medleys from ABBA and The Beatles. Yet, despite dipping into a catalogue of now ‘older' songs, it was also an evening of firsts for the band: “It's like a dream,” laughed Murali to the audience, “45 years later, and people are actually paying to see us! This has never happened before. And, it's the first time we've performed with either a choir or a backing band as well.”
In spite of their absence from the music scene, the band had clearly not been forgotten. Song after song was greeted with delighted admiration and appreciation from the audience, whose ongoing claps and hoots were ample evidence of a successful show.
A particularly nice part of the evening, aside from the sincere and excellent performances, was the choice of songs themselves — ranging from the cheery heartbreak of ‘Cecilia' to the contentedly romantic ‘Our House', the tracks were so different from the general sentiments that current dominate mainstream charts that it made me nostalgic for a time I had never known.
The majority of these songs were positive, and above all nice to women — a welcome change from currently popular tracks such as David Guetta's ‘Turn Me On', in which the majority of the words simply consist of the repetition of the elaborate and elegant phrase ‘turn me on'.
With a repertoire most apt in terms of raising money for a trust designed to helps destitute girls, the highly enjoyable, feel-good evening culminated in the success of raising over Rs. 2 lakh for Satkaarya.
And, whilst I'm aware of the folly of idealising the past, the brief suspension of time that occurred within the walls of the Museum Theatre that night was most enjoyable, and above all, created a very cheerful, positive atmosphere, that I'm sure left it's audience smiling long after the last note was sung.
