BENGALURU: In the 80s and 90s, every girl’s ideal of a husband or a lover was Anant Nag or Ravichandran. “Both were so expressive in their love,” says Rajani R, founder of MARS Entertainment. “If Ananth Nag dropped petals from a helicopter for Elliruve in Bayaludaari, Ravichandran drove a sleek car into the living room of a mansion to woo his lady love in the movie Jaana”. This Sunday evening, MARS Entertainment organised a tribute to these living legends and icons of romance at Chowdiah Hall. The New Indian Express was a media partner for this event.
The event, titled Geetanjali - 2, had local singers such as Supriya Raghunandan, Sangeetha Ravindranath, Shruti Bide, Badari Prasad, Kumaran Muthuraman and Govind Kurnool performing 26 songs from the 28 they had lined up. “As the organiser, I was also particular about promoting local talent,” says Rajani, adding, “This is perhaps the first time a Kannada-driven show got such a big stage, like the Chowdiah Hall.”
Rajani says that she was overjoyed by the overwhelming response she got from the audience. “The moment of the evening was when Supriya Raghunandan sang Thangali Eli... people kept asking for an encore, and there was a repeat performance,” says Rajani. To create a romantic ambience, the lights in the auditorium were switched off and the audience was encouraged to switch on their mobile phone flashlight and wave to the rhythm of the song.
After 14 songs or so, the organisers asked the audience if they would like a break. The answer was a resounding no. The event, which was three and a half hours long in all, continued without an interval.
Rajani says a large part of its success was because of the compering by Harish Nagaraju from Public Music TV and the orchestral accompaniment by Sangeeth Thomas and team. “Harish had done such thorough research on the songs and kept the audience engaged with interesting trivia,” says Rajani, adding, “the orchestra’s performance was absolutely breathtaking.”