The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh / Hyderabad News : Sivamani dazzles at CBIT

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Oct 05, 2008
ePaper | Mobile/PDA Version

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad

Sivamani dazzles at CBIT

Staff Reporter

Performs at the launch of youth festival ‘Carpediem’

Starts performance by blowing a conch
Performs non-stop for a little over an hour

— PHOTO: NAGARA GOPAL

Magical beats: Drummer Sivamani performing during ‘Carpediem’, a youth festival organised by CBIT on Saturday.

HYDERABAD: “Come on Hyderabad, scream again,” shouted the anchor into his mike and the crowd, mostly engineering college students, gathered their energies to let out a huge roar welcoming the most-awaited star of the evening – percussionist Sivamani.

And in he stepped in front of the enthusiastic 1000-odd crowd – dressed entirely in black – waving at them as he sauntered towards his equipment.

Performing solo at ‘Carpediem’, a national-level youth festival of Chaitanya Bharati Institute of Technology, he started off his performance by blowing a conch as strains of devotional Indian music played in the background.

Rock concert

Earlier, the concert opened with the song – ‘You don’t have to be a star’ performed by a Bangalore-based band ‘Slain’ that won the national-level rock competition ‘Slash’, held in the morning. Bollywood heartthrobs Sunidhi Chauhan and Pritam Chakraborthy were the other stars who performed at the event.

As the show progressed, Mr. Sivamani moved on to other genres - traditional, folk, rock etc, his performance capturing various moods. As he went on a percussion marathon, performing non-stop for a little over an hour, the audience gaped in wonder as magic flowed off his fingers.

Steadily increasing his rhythm from a low tempo to a higher one, he showcased his dexterity with the various percussion instruments that ranged from drums to kanjeera to tabla to congo to …

His eyes said it all – deeply fixated – as if in a trance, he just performed, as a tribute to art, as if percussion was his only passion.

Suddenly, as if on instinct, he descended off the stage, which caught the organisers unawares, as youngsters scrambled to get a closer look at the percussion guru. Adding to the fun, noted film director Shekar Kammula and the ICL cricket team – Hyderabad Heroes – trooped in unannounced at the event.

Returning onto the stage, he went on a drumming spree as chartbusters from Rang De Basanti, Muthu, Boss, Jodha Akbar karaoke’d’ in the background.

And when the song ‘Loose Control’ from the RDB boomed from the speakers, the crowd lost its control with even the volunteers going wild, letting out cat-cries, the joy on their faces saying it all.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Andhra Pradesh