On a sultry evening, a small group waits at the Kasturi Sreenivasan Trust auditorium. The setting is minimalistic – bunches of flowers pinned to the beautiful white drapes on stage. Atima Madhavan, a second-year BBA student from Symbiosis Institute, Pune, is all set to entertain a bunch of her friends and well-wishers. “Atima is doing a noble deed,” says pianist Darryl Atkinson of Adonai Academy of Fine Arts. “She is here on a month long vacation. In April, she expressed her desire to do something for our academy. We began working on ‘Melange' since then.” This show is being organised to raise money for the welfare of the academy and for underprivileged children.
Darryl seats himself at his keyboard, while the young and beautiful Atima comes on stage. Without much ado, she starts with You Raise Me Up , the first song for the evening. Her effortless rendition leaves the audience asking for more. She obliges. The classic These Are A Few of My Favourite Things from The Sound of Music follows, and that is followed by a 16th century Aria – Sento Nel Core .
With smiles, winks and a great voice, Atima charms her audience. She sings Blue Moon , a famous jazz composition by Richard Rogers. “I am really nervous. I think I will stop shaking after a while,” confesses Atima, before she breaks into the ever beautiful Amazing Grace , as a touching tribute to her deceased uncle. Judy Garland's signature song — Somewhere over the Rainbow — from The Wizard of Oz is next. “This song means a lot to me. I have wanted to sing this song on stage since I was 12,” she smiles. The Beatles' fans are treated to Yesterday while those of Les Miserables revisit I Dreamed a Dream.
Post-interval, Atima sings some sought-after tracks like Rihanna's Unfaithful, Evanescence's Hello and My Immortal and Oasis' Wonderwall . Abba's Dancing Queen and Deff Leppard's Two Steps Behind are also thrown in to make the session groovier. She also renders two popular songs from the 20s – Let's Do It and Embraceable You . The evening comes to a close with one of the greatest songs of all time — John Lennon's Imagine .
