Who said that boats necessarily have to carry you from one shore to another? Turn one upside down, club it with a pair of drum sticks and it thrums, booms and enthrals.
The broken boat from Madras Boat Club, roller skates, frisbees, table tennis racquets, cricket bats and oars were just some of the instruments used at the 11 annual concert of percussion school, Jus Drums, on Sunday.
The evening began with a dizzyingly synchronised performance by two young boys who could barely be seen beyond their instruments. Percussionist Murali Krishnan and close to 60 of his students from the institute performed songs such as Gananayakaya from Shankar Mahadevan’s album, Ilayaraja’s Putham Puthu Kaalai , Katrai Konjam from ‘Neethane en Ponvasantham’, A.R. Rahman’s Netru Illatha Matram and Kavithai Kelungal from ‘Punnagai Mannan’ among several others.
The versatile concert packed in everything from the signature music of Chhota Bheem to a piece where drums from around the world such as djembe, Korean buk and thudumbu took over the stage. The team, which had a performer who was just five, put together not just classic songs and medleys from Tamil and Hindi cinema, but also brought to life iconic advertisements to huge applause.
For the section on advertisements, the lights in the auditorium dimmed, and ‘Leo Coffee’, ‘Hamara Bajaj’ and ‘Washing powder Nirma’ advertisements played on the screen. Except, they were silent. The team rendered the signature background score not just of these advertisements, but also scenes and promos of movies such as ‘Thillu Mullu’, ‘Michael Madana Kamarajan’, ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ and the James Bond series.
Chief guests Aruna Sairam and Pete Lockett presented students with the Steve Smith Award for the most cheerful drummer, Umayalpuram Sivaraman Award for Excellence in Percussion and the L.K. Award for dedication to Jus Drums.
