Dubai Tennis Stadium was the perfect launch pad for a musical time machine on Friday night. South Indian singing legends S. P. Balasubrahmanyam, famously known as SPB, and K.S. Chitra, took the audience back to the ‘90s and ‘80s. They were ably assisted by SPB’s sister S.P. Shailaja, a singer, dancer and actor, and Nishad, an up-and-coming singer.
The event, The Legends in Concert, organised by Oberoi Middle East, kicked off on a soft note with SPB starting his set with Sankara from the Telugu film Sankarabaranam and Chitra with a song in Malayalam. The tempo picked up immediately, as SPB asked fans to fasten their seatbelts, with back-to-back songs from films starring the South Indian superstar Rajinikanth — Rakkamma Kayathattu (Thalapathy) and Aalapol Velapol (Ejaman) — and Chitra and Nishad rendering Malargale (Lovebirds).
True to its name, the concert, celebrating a multilingual India, saw the legends produce spotless performances in Malayalam, Telugu, Kannada, Hindi, though the majority of the songs catered to the Tamil audience, who were in large numbers. The band, from Thiruvananthapuram, complemented the singers so well that there was hardly any difference between the live performance and the original versions of the songs.
SPB’s versatility was in full view as he played numerous roles on stage with ease. The talented singer, music director and actor, who is also proficient in many languages, showed the audience a different side to his personality with his wit and humour, which he used even to wriggle of trouble when a technical issue hampered his headphones. Though Chitra did not speak much, her rendering of the songs spoke volumes.
SPB chided himself for becoming a slave to technology and spoke about how years ago, an entire band and singers would assemble to complete a song, but how it can now be manipulated any which way one wanted.
“In fact, once I completed a song without even knowing who the female singer is,” said SPB, who is entering his 50th year in the industry. He has also sung more than 40,000 songs under famous music directors such as R.D. Burman, Ilayaraja and A.R. Rahman, while Chitra has more than 20,000 songs to her credit.
He thanked fans for boosting his energy levels, which did not diminish a bit in the four-hour performance, and even acceded to their requests by impromptu rendering of Mannil Indha Kaadl Andri from the film Keladi Kanmani, where he completes an entire stanza without taking a break.
It was a while before he did a song from a Kamal Hassan movie, but when he started Rambam Bum Arambam (Michael Madana Kama Rajan) one could hear numerous people tapping their feet to the tune. He followed it up with another Hassan song, Idhayzhil Kathai (Unnal Mudiyum Thambi).
During the course of the evening, SPB paid glowing tributes to his favourites — Mohammad Rafi, R.D. Burman and Asha Bhosle — and also conveyed a strong message on the importance of staying a good human being.
He also paid rich compliments to South Indian actress Saritha, who was at the concert, with a famous melody Kanaa Kanum Kangal from Agni Satchi, directed by K. Balachander. Saritha made her debut in Marocharitra, the Telugu movie directed by Balachander, which was remade in Hindi as Ek Duje Ke Liya.
