BENGALURU: Undeterred by the much-maligned traffic, a large number of Bengalureans headed to the airport on Saturday evening. No, not to catch a flight, but to experience a musical extravaganza presented by some of the biggest names in Indian music.
The live concert of music maestro Ilaiyaraja, held at Kempegowda International Airport, saw him come to the city as part of his world tour. The event also featured live performances by Usha Uthup, SP Balasubrahmanyam and Madhu Balakrishnan.
The music composer enthralled the audience with his popular Kannada, Tamil, Telugu and Hindi hits. His fans from Karnataka had a riveting experience as they listened to the singers lend their voice to some of his famous Kannada songs, like Endha Soundarya Nodu, Vegam Vegam Pogum Pogum and Jeeva Hoovagithe.
Titled ‘Isai celebrates isai,’ the concert, held by Mercuri Group with The New Indian Express as the media partner, was attended, among others, by Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa and Bengaluru Police Commissioner Bhaskar Rao. As SPB and Ilaiyaraja took the stage together, the 15,000-strong audience was taken to a time gone decades ago, and the era of Rajkumar rushed back to their minds. After rendering some songs that were filmed on the late actor, Ilaiyaraja also talked about Rajkumar’s fame and his performances.
The event featured more than 40 songs in different languages. The live orchestra, comprising 100 musicians playing various instruments, apart from the chorus and main singers, built a mesmerising ambience as the Ram Ram song from Hey Ram was presented. After the song, Ilaiyaraja revealed that his son, Karthik Raja, had played a major role in composing the orchestra score for the song.