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Singing the city's praise
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Several teams came up with songs describing the city at the "Anthem of Chennai" contest
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PHOTO: R. SHIVAJI RAO
WINNING TEAM Members of Aishnam
Ebb-Kander's "New York, New York" was popular much before it became the city's anthem. To the best of one's knowledge, until recently, there has not been a contest that sought to find a suitable hymn of praise for a city — essentially, from amateur musicians. Seen in this light, the `Anthem of Chennai' (organised by VIBA) can be called unique. The hunt was for a song that would instil a sense of pride in anyone who has made Chennai his home.
The finals, at the Chennai Trade Centre, was a close contest, with three of the judges (T.M. Soundararajan, Srinivas and Sudha Raghunathan; the other two, M.S. Vishwanathan and Vasanth left early) finding themselves at their wit's end after the 11 finalists had performed. The three big time singers wanted to take a closer look at six teams before they could give their verdict, which meant that it was midnight when CTC's gates could be locked.
Aishnam, which was the first to appear on stage, was lucky (and also unlucky) to have its song called the "Song of Chennai." Sudha Raghunathan was only echoing the collective sentiment of the judges — "Chennai deserves a better anthem". The judges decided the title-winning song was the pick of the lot, but it fell short of the anthem status. "We should just call it the `Song of Chennai'."
While the judges were disappointed with the lyrics, they could not pick holes in either the music or the presentation. Considering they had a tough time selecting the winner, they created special prizes.
If Aishnam (Vinaya, Nidheesh Gopalan, Sindhu Rajaram, Siddharth, Siva, Naresh, Aalaap Raju and Anita — a mix of sound engineers and professional musicians) walked away with the top honour, scoring well on all parameters, Base-N-Beats (comprising students from SIET) finished second, thanks to its peppy song that touched upon a good number of the city's attributes — such as Sivamani's magical drums, Rajnikanth's inimitable style, Spencer's Plaza, the crowded beach and so on.
Sautraanyka (a group of doctors, most of them from Sri Ramachandra Medical College and Hospital) and ThoughtZ (a motley group of college students who chose this title because "every achievement begins with a thought and `Z' represents their zeal for Chennai") shared the prize for the `Best Musical Composition'.
The school band Sangeet (from Padma Seshadri Bala Bhavan) was the surprise package, with two of its main singers studying in Standard IV and VI and the group making two presentations of the same song — one in Tamil and another in English. This effort was rewarded with a Special Jury Award.
Prakash of ThoughtZ bagged the "Best Musician' title, for the ability to use the guitar as the veena. The judges, who made almost all the teams feel good about having participated in the event, would have done better if they had managed to devise special prizes for comperes Nilu and Fatima Babu, whose elegant style contributed to the event's charm. So did the ramp routines, especially `Trio-Guna', which showcased the colours that go with three moods (Rajvik, Tamasik and Satvik) and the one that turned the spotlight on the vanishing half sari.
PRINCE FREDERICK
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