CHENNAI: For people who have been following Malayalam songs or most South Indian music from the 80s, singer Jollee Abraham, who had given beautiful renditions for music composed by music directors such as Ilayaraaja, K V Mahadevan, Salil Chowdhry, Shyam, Shanker Ganesh, T Rajender and Deva, might not be a stranger.
The reason why he is being talked about now is because of ‘Musi-Care 2015’, the Cultural and Charitable Trust’s gospel music concert, which was conducted on Friday. The concert was unique, not because of the fact that it was completely devotional, but because it was non- stop devotion offered to Christ, for 12 hours.
As people stepped inside the St George’s School grounds one by one, they knew that the concert was going to be a stairway to experiencing god’s presence, through the songs that were sung. It all started with Jollee setting off the devotional mood with the song Dheiva Nanmaigalai Ninaithu Parkiren, and then his daughter Reshma Abraham joining in to instill spiritual fervour among the audience, with a song titled Mikavum Makazhchiyudan Dhevane tuthitchiduvom, among other songs. The popular song Karthave devargalil Umakopanavar Yaar gathered much response from the crowd, as most of them started humming the tune and praising the lord.
Also, this was not a one-sided performance, as one would have expected it to be. Keeping with the current style of concerts today, Jollee made the show quite interactive, as he got the audience sing the lines intermittently with songs such as Dhevanukku Aaaradhanai. His voice, which reminded one of KJ Yesudas, but had an individuality of his own, made the audience listen to the music with full devotion.
The energy, with which they had started the concert, remained the same throughout the day, which started at 6.30 pm and continued till 6.30 am. The audience were equally elated till the end of the programme, as they were in the beginning.
As they say that music knows no religion and boundaries, singers from the film field also became a part of the event, to further add to the spirit and grandeur of the event.The 12-hour long concert, which has been going on for 15 years now, has in the past seen the participation of MS Viswanathan, KJ Yesudas, SP Balasubrahmanyam, PB Sreenivas, S Janaki, P Susheela, Vani Jayaram, KS Chithra, Unni Menon, Vijay Yesudas, keyboard player Stephen Devassy, among others. This year, singer Mano, Sunitha Sarathy, actor Rajesh, MLA JCD Prabhakar and Asia’s strongest man Manoj Chopra were seen at the event.
Perhaps the best part was that the tunes were so infectious, one didn’t have to know them to hum along.