When Hariharan Sang along with the sound of waves at the Elliot’s Beach!

One could not have asked for more! An evening at the Elliot’s Beach- Cool and breezy! An enclosure, lit up for the occasion; and decorated with flowers. The temporary podium stood against the relentless waves and Hariharian was there to enthrall the crowd with his Gazals. The ambience was just right. Of course, I have a different view about the audience. I think, Chennai is yet to get into the nuance of the Gazals.

Hariharan began with a few numbers from his album ‘Kaash’- ‘Kaash aisa koi’, Maikade bandh’….. The first half was good. And there was a break. During the break, someone who claimed to be a singer and an ardent follower of ‘Hariharanji,’ tried miserably to sing a Gazal. The rendition could be easily voted as the disaster of the evening. No wonder, someone from the audience was heard commenting that this girl is either from the sponsor’s family or from the times of India family (with all due respects to the ToI for gifting such a magnificent evening to Chennaites).

The break saw many people leaving; disappointment was writ large on some people’s face: That Hariharan did not sing those filmi numbers from Roja or the likes. Well. I do like Hariharan’s filmi numbers but would not have enjoyed them as much in what was billed to be an evening of gazals with that maestro. In any case, half the chairs in that enclosure were empty when Hariharan decided to take a short break. He deserved that after rendering one of his difficult numbers like Patta patta, butta butta'.

The first half, certainly, was good; but the second half was excellent. The one Gazal which was dedicated to his wife in raag Darbari left our eyes damp; the pain of separation was conveyed in the lyrics as well as his rendition. Even my husband, who refused to get a packet of popcorn for his wife, had moistened eyes!

Hariharan did play to the gallery once or twice: May be it was meant for the gen-next. A section of the audience did relish that and also enjoyed Hariharan mixing gazals and quawalis (Mere hi naam aaya hai yeh jam mehfil mein). They were seen clapping and whistling cheerily. That was all fine. But then, there was a silly girl who kept nagging; unfortunately we were sitting in the row ahead of her. She was irritated with the Gazals and wondering aloud; “ivaru eppo tamil pattu pada poraru” at the end of every gazal. After a point, she decided to register her protest, she was talking on the cell phone, loud enough, to disturb us and others who did not belong to her league. And much later, she did a wiser thing: just walked out of there to our relief!

And all the while, three boys, in their teens (who were hired for that purpose) were seen carrying the vacant chairs and gathering them in one place even while we were engrossed in the Gazals, the sound of the waves and the blowing wind. The boys were indifferent to all these because they were engaged only to clear the place in the night itself; before they went home for dinner and before they slept at the mid night after the work. Hariharan who? The only entertainment they had was blasting balloons that were flying into the enclosure from the rest of the beaches.

The memorable evening ended at 10 PM; Hariharan made it known that he should stop singing at the stroke of ten and the police would stop him otherwise!