CHENNAI: Paying a musical tribute to A R Rahman on his 46th birthday at Star Rock recently, Staccato, a band specialising in ARR and Illayaraja’s music, played some of ARR’s best hits. Kandukonden Kandukonden, one of their initial numbers, made it loud and clear that the evening was not going to be another poor imitation of Rahman’s wizardry. Gowtham Bharadwaj, who was on the lead male vocals, shone throughout the night, especially in this song, making more than just a few of the female fans go gaga. Providing stiff competition to Gowtham was the lead female vocalist Vandana, who established her talent in the number, Jiya Jale, from the movie Dil Se. Sources say Music director G V Prakash has already offered a song to Vandana in his next film.With Athangara Marame, Strawberry Kanne and Munbe Va, the band, which had recreated the orchestration, proved more than once that they meant serious business. The singing and instruments came alive in perfect harmony on stage. The band members — Bala on percussion, Manoj on violin, Shallu on the bass, Sabharish on the guitar, Cavaquinho, Karthik and Vikram Sarathy on keys and Ellavarasan on the drums — came together to recreate some of Rahman’s best work to near perfection. Vikram, one of the founding members of the band, has released his debut music album for the film Peruman. A surprise performance of the evening was that of Manoj, the violinist, who sang Aaromale from the film, Vinnaithandi Varuvaya. Manoj had no trouble doing justice to the song. Effortlessly singing the difficult song, he earned the band some brownie points. It might have been difficult to match Manoj’s brilliance, but Gowtham drew in the audience with his medley of Ennavale, Thendrale and Mannipaya, some of Rahman’s best melodies. The transitions between the songs were so smooth that if you had been even a tad drunk, you would have blissfully assumed that it was one good song from Gowtham and his band. Popular singer Sakthisri Mahadevan, in her cameo performance, doled out an effortless July Matham. The night ended too early for the pleasantly buzzing fans, as the band played their last two songs — Rukumani and Humma Humma. The event highlighted that adoration for Rahman will never die out here in the city.
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