CHENNAI: The second day of the Bharat Sangeet Utsav at Narada Gana Sabha had a unique presentation with an engaging game of antakshari. Breaking away from the strict kutcheri format, all those present at the hall enjoyed the light-hearted segment due to its refreshing style. The participants were divided into two teams — Team Todi and Team Bhairavi, both Carnatic ragams.
Antakshari brought out the child in each artiste. They sang songs of composers like Thyagaraja, Papanasam Sivam and others. The game, mediated by anchor Subhasree Thanikachalam, made the singers think on their feet. In one of the rounds, she gave them unconventional clues to ragams and the participants were asked to guess the ragam and then sing any tune in that ragam. The audience also actively participated in the antakshari, with many trying to guess the right ragams along with the participants.
The antakshari also had a round where both teams were given clues on Tamil film songs that had a classical touch. In the dumb charades round, one player from each team had to enact a song, making their team guess. They were given two minutes to guess as many songs as they could. In the last round, both teams were asked to sing Tukdas and Thillanas. This saw the teams sing one song after the other in a quick volley.
Team Todi with Saindhavi Prakash, Suchitra Balasubramanian and Vidya Kalyanaraman won the antakshari. Team Bhairavi consisted Savita Sreeram, Padma Shankar and Vasudha Ravi. Group productions were held after this event.
