City folk got nostalgic at Ilaiyaraaja’s concert

All roads in the city led to Gachibowli Stadium on Sunday evening as over fifteen thousand Hyderabadis thronged the arena to witness Ilaiyaraaja perform live. The legendary musician, whoscored music for over 1,000 films in his illustrious career, stepped onto the stage to a rockstar’s welcome with thunderous applause and fireworks after a short audio-visual presentation with Chiranjeevi’s voiceover.

Wearing his signature white shirt and vesti, Ilaiyaraaja took the audience down memory lane presenting iconic hits like Aamani Paadave, Suvvi Suvvi, Matarani Mounamidi, Matemantramu, Aye Zindagi Gale Laga Le and others. Singers Manu, Karthik, SP Charan, Sunitha, Swetha Menon and others kept the enthusiastic crowd on their feet. Talking about his composition of O Priya Priya from Geetanjali during the concert, Ilayaraaja said, “I’ve never done this before, but today I’m revealing it for you, Hyderabad.” Explaining the layers of music writing involved in his compositions, he added, “This life wouldn’t be sufficient if I start explaining the background work that went into composing thousands of songs.” He also paid tribute to director K Viswanath and lyricist Sirivennela Sitaramasastri.

Tollywood actors Nani, Sai Kumar, Raghu Babu Tharun Bhascker, actresses Lakshmi Manchu, Eesha Rebba, Varsha Bollama, Shivani and Shivathmika Rajashekar, music director Devi Sri Prasad, directors Harish Shankar, Buchi Babu Sana, anchor Suma and others were seen enjoying the concert. DSP had a fanboy moment as he went onto the stage. “They say music has no language; even Ilaiyaraaja sir has no language; he is not limited by city, country or language,” he said. The nostalgia was palpable among the audience. The evening ended on a high with singers and musicians coming together to present the song Singarala Pairullona from Dalapathi in a power-packed finale.