lifestyle SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 7, 2014 K S Chithra’s musical odyssey through past and present Al Mulla Exchange serves a musical feast on Onam By Sajeev K Peter brought her national and state awards as best playback singer. varnante’ from the Malayalam film ‘Nandanam’ and ‘rajaham- pushpam mathram’, ‘oru madhura kinavin lahariyil’, etc, Teenu Chithra is the recipient of the Padmashri Award and 31 differ- same’, she rendered a few songs on demand from the audience. rendered contemporary hits like ‘koottile mainaye,’ ‘vijanathayil l Mulla International Exchange served a sumptuous musi- ent state awards. Her dexterous voice and unique ability to ren- The singer is also involved in several philanthropic endeavors paathivazhiyil’ and ‘olanjaali kuruvi’ etc while Thomas sang, ‘Tamil cal feast to their Indian customers when it presented a der classical, folk, devotional, or fast numbers with effortless like the Sneha Nandana, an effort to lend a helping hand to the numbers such as ‘engeyum, eppozhum’ and ‘Guruvayoorappa’ Adazzling musical show by the illustrious Indian singer K S ease makes her a favorite among both music directors and audi- financially challenged musicians of yesteryears. Sneha Nandana etc in addition to a few Kishore Kumar hits. Chithra and her troupe on the occasion of Onam festival. The ences alike. Incidentally she is also the only female artist to have was launched at an event called Chitra Pournami, a star -stud- three-hour-long musical odyssey through the past and the pres- worked on the maximum number of songs for A R Rahman. ded event to commemorate the singer’s 30 glorious years in the Tribute ent led by the Little Nightingale of South India enthralled the The audience received her songs ‘padaraiye, padippariye’ music industry. The singers also paid a rich tribute to the legendary com- audience in the packed auditorium of the American composed by Ilayaraja and ‘Kannalane’ by Rahman with thun- Three upcoming playback singers-Nishad, Teenu Tellence posers of Indian film industry such as Devarajan, International School, Maidan Hawally on Friday and yesterday. derous applause. She also sang the song ‘piya basanti re’ from and Thomas, also accompanied Chithra on stage presenting a Dakshinamoorthy Swamy, Naushad, Bombay Ravi, Baburaj, K The name K S Chithra is one that has been deeply her blockbuster album followed by a few Hindi film songs. After wide range of compositions from different music directors. Raghavan, Shyam, Raveendran, Johnson and Kannoor Rajan by entrenched in the Malayali psyche. Her ‘manjal prasadavum’ or singing some of her most sought after numbers like ‘karmukil Nishad sang evergreen songs such as ‘harimuraleeravam’, ‘oru singing a medley of their evergreen compositions. ‘kaarmugil varnante’ are songs that perfectly capture the Versatile musician Anoop with his refined harmonic style led essence and flavor of this Malayali spirit. Spanning a career of the orchestra with his keyboard while flute and saxophone were over three decades, the versatile singer continues to regale audi- played by Biju. Shaji played bass guitar and Sumendru played ences worldwide. lead guitar while Malaimari Sasi provided rhythm pad support. Chithra opened with one of her favorite songs Tabla and mridangam accompaniments were given by ‘Keshadipadam’ as a dedication to her mentor and the legendary Ganeshkumar and Harikrishnamoorthy respectively. singer S Janaki. Before foraying into Tamil and a few Hindi num- Earlier, in his opening remarks, Rajesh Gairola, Divisional bers, she rendered a few of her Malayalam masterpieces like General Manager, Exchanges, Al Mulla Group Holding Company, ‘manjal prasadavum’ ‘maaleyam maarodananju’ ‘chentharmizhi’ said, “Onam is one festival that binds us all together as it conveys etc, setting the tone for the rest of the concert. the message of unity. The spirit of Onam is such that it tran- Chithra began her early lessons in music under the tutelage scends all religious barriers and reminds us all that we all are of her father, the late Krishnan Nair, who encouraged the singer human beings,” he said. to pursue her dreams. Her gurus in Carnatic music include Dr K He said, “This musical show ‘Onam celebration with K S Omanakutty who has been a pioneering influence in her singing Chithra’ is the 84th event Al Mulla Exchange is organizing in the career. She ventured into the field of playback singing at the ten- last three-and-half years in our efforts to get closer to our cus- der age of 16 when she sang for M G Radhakrishnan in 1979. tomers.” Chief guest Binu in his speech said, “Al Mulla Exchange Since then, Chithra has sung easily over 20,000 songs in all major in the only exchange company in Kuwait that organizes cultural Indian languages. shows for their customers.” He said Al Mulla Exchange has 54 branches across Kuwait offering the best rates in town. Dexterous voice The ‘chinna kuyil,’ who is the recipient of six Indian national awards, the highest number of awards for any female singer, also Renowned Indian singer K S Chithra and her troupe members perform at the American International School, Maidan sang a few Tamil and Hindi film songs, some of them which Hawally. — Photos by Yasser Al-Zayyat The audience at AIS auditorium cheers as Chithra’s troupe performs. Al Mulla Group Holding’s Divisional General Manager Rajesh Gairola and Al Mulla Exchange Country Head John Simon pose for a photograph with Chithra and her troupe. Goodbye Texas: Zeppelin’s Robert Plant comes home to England obert Plant has come home to England from Texas. The ‘Ultimate song’ ‘Crazy life’ Led Zeppelin frontman has been pining for his roots- In the mid-1970s, Led Zeppelin was the biggest band in Plant is now happily installed back home-once again Rfamiliar landscapes, the distinctive “Black Country” the world, filling vast stadiums and selling millions of records. among familiar people and places. His recent return from accent of where he grew up and people who call him “Planty”. The eight-minute single “Stairway to Heaven” is regarded by Austin, he said, had nothing to do with the end of his relation- And the legendary singer-songwriter, 66, considered by many many as one of the greatest rock songs of all time. But the ship in 2013 with US folk singer Patty Griffin. Instead, it was one of the greatest rock vocalists of all time, is back in creative group, which was formed in 1968, has played only a handful more to do with a natural end to some of his US collabora- mood. He wrote nine of the tracks on his latest album “lullaby of concerts together since the death of drummer John tions and a dose of plain old homesickness. One track on the and... The Ceaseless Roar”, due to be released on Monday, his Bonham in 1980.Like Plant, Bonham was also from album, “Turn It Up”, speaks of being “lost in America” and “turn- first original compositions since the “Mighty ReArranger” in Worcestershire in western England, close to the former indus- ing into someone else”. 2005. trial area called the Black Country. The pair used to drive home In the end, he said recently, he felt he had to return in When Plant performed in Britain in August 2013, around 50 together to see their families after Led Zeppelin concerts. In order to “find out just how much I valued what I’d left behind”. percent of his set was drawn from the Led Zeppelin back cata- 2008, Plant definitively ruled out a reunion tour with guitarist “It’s a big, big homecoming so I’m stimulated and pleased,” he logue. A year on, he says his return home and a reunion with Jimmy Page and bassist and keyboard player John Paul Jones, told AFP. “I never really ran away. I just spent more time away... his “Mighty ReArranger” collaborators-his backing group the saying he was too old and wanted to concentrate on new I came and went, and came and went and I have done that Sensational Space Shifters has fostered an atmosphere in projects. since I was 17-years-old... (But) I found that I was missing my which he’s been able to “experiment a lot more”. The same year he began a tour of the US and Europe with home too much. My culture...,” the singer told AFP. “This is Together over the past two years they played in New bluegrass artist Alison Krauss. The duo’s “Raising Sand” collab- about lifestyle much more than about music... I’m in a position Zealand, Australia, Britain and Europe and the process helped oration won the 2009 best album Grammy. Plant calls his lat- where nobody really treats me particularly in a special way inspire him to create original music again. “We were always est work a “mÈlange”. “A lot of melodies arrived early in the where I live because I always lived here,” said Plant, who has a moving but using all the songs (old and new) and it was natu- process (of writing). We were just creating moods... all working grown-up daughter and two sons-another son died as a child. ral that we would take a break and start writing new stuff for the same thing, and that is the ultimate song,” he said. “My kids said, ‘hey come back’, so I thought it was the reward which was representative of 2014,” he told AFP by telephone Reviews have been favorable. One critic, Daniel Paton of for a crazy life.” — AFP This file photo shows Led Zeppelin’s former frontman, from his home in England. “There’s nothing to gain from just online music magazine OMH, called it “outstanding... a serious British singer Robert Plant, performing on stage at the playing stuff from the past so we had to create for the present work reflecting on landscape, memory, regret and the pull of Eurockeennes music festival in the eastern French city of and future,” he said.