Illayaraaja's One Man Show : Gathering of His devotees
I was fortunate to be in One Man show - Illayaraaja's Concert held here in chennai...I was there from around 6 to around 11 pm when it ended but i wished it would carry on...I hardly could see the happenings on the stage from where i was sittin...But the aura of his presence was enough to make me sit for 4 hrs without having food or water considering the fact that i didnt have lunch and a frugal breakfast...
The show was held in grounds of a school in Royapettah...The event organising was not upto the mark...there were some mess ups like when Raaja made his entry there were fireworks display...nothins wrong abt that but a sensible person would like to hear Him singin rite that too after an hours wait...But these guys go on blasting fireworks for more than 5 mins within which the audience got bored and a bit irritated...The sound engineeering was bad considering the fact that the orchestra was of Lakshman Shruthi....Could hardly hear Bass guitar for all the songs and that too when songs like Naan thedum were played....Overall we people at back could not hear the first few songs properly and people got so irritated that they started shouting saying to increase the volume and this volunteer comes n says theres a problem with the mid speaker....Highly frustrating shuld say...
Comin on to best part of the show...Of course it was Raaja....he sung for around 3 hrs continuously breaking in the middle jus to give some anecdotes...but for 3 hrs he didnt leave the stage was standin on the stage till the show ended around 11 pm...Man at this age would you believe it...The show started with a devotional number from Bhavatharini and after couple of devotional songs Raaja made his entry...He sung Janani to begin with...no points for guessing...after that it was pure Raaja's magic...Raaja(from Agni Nakshathiram), Thendral vandhu, Ilamai enum poongatru, Naan thedum, Nila athu from Nayagan(raaja called Yuvan's wife to sing with him for seconds and she did) were some songs...expected Poomalaye but was missed though the orchestra played karoke track in the beginning...
Few lyricist like Mu.Metha, Pazhani Bharathi talked abt Raaja...he stood unfazed by all the praise...He is created to create music and thats what hez doin...brilliantly....He rendered 3 versions of Maanguile...jus for fun....and when abaswaram Ramji(MC for the show) asked how yuvan would compose for the same song he gave a version which was hip and would have def caused a sensation if it featured in an album...
Above all these things the people present there were not jus mere fans...It was a gathering of His devotees(including myself)....I've never seen or known a MD been called Thalaiva and who commands so much Love and respect from his fans...You cant see this kind of loyalty to anyone else and it is a proof of his miracle...Any music director can have fans but to have followers u gotta b Isaignani(Musical genius)..And He is one...only one...