Saarang – The True Colors of India

Saarang – The True Colors of India, presented by Madras Chorus, a live musical band in the Netherlands embellished the Indians staying in the Netherlands with a spectacular musical evening which they haven’t witnessed so far!This was the official launch of the Madras Chorus band at a PAN India level trying to emphasize the fact that music has no language, its the only power which can transcend all diversities and unite people under one common roof. Saarang literally translates to multicolored and its said that when music and colors come together, there is happiness all around. On the same premise, it was an attempt by the Madras Chorus band to spread joy and happiness by uniting the people of India, creating a home far away from home. Madras Chorus band also attempts to provide a premier class stage for the real talent from real life.

The musical event Saarang had everything in it to make it an evening which the Indians in the Netherlands hasn’t witnessed so far. Talented and experienced singers,  dancers, musicians along with the perfect lighting, sound and ambiance of the venue topping it with some spontaneous fantastic hosting stole everyone’s heart at Saarang.The idea minds, think tanks behind the making of Madras Chorus and conceptualizing the event Saarang, Ravish Pattabi and Mithun Hariharan, addressed the audience with answers which everyone in the last two months have been looking for( looking at all the teasers about the show that had been making the rounds) ,setting a classic example of two people who dreamt big and made it happen which was highly appreciated by everybody present in there.

Saarang was an evening consisting all the right ingredient in the right ratio making it a trendsetting show in the Netherlands and it was a fantastic to see people from different states of India enjoying the show together! To add to it more, there was also some Non-Indian audience who stayed through the whole show awestruck.

Various dance forms, traversing from classical to folk to contemporary styles on the tunes on Indian classical and cinema based music. There were several eminent and experienced dancers who graced the stage with their spectacular performance.  Shyama Warrier, Kishori Sakhi and Vaijeyanthi Pancahpegesan who performed a splendid jugalbandi of three Indian classical dance styles like Mohinattam, Odissi, Bharatnatyam respectively. There were also Navras Dance Academy, Fusion Beats, Vyshak Dance group, John-Vaijeyanthi group rocking the stage with their professional dance moves of different styles with a mix of all language songs.

There were songs traversing from classical to folk to cinema based genre. Team Madras singers all trained in classical music like  Harikrishnan , Vasudevan , Arun Veerakumar, Supriya Sreeram , Sangeetha , Namrata Nair , Monidipa Bhattacharjee, Sushmita Krishnan , Suvradipa Bhattacharya started the event with a song ‘Mile Sur Mera Tumhara , tho sur bane humhara’ which instils a sense of pride and unity amongst Indians taking us all down the memory lane reinforcing the fact that India is Unity in Diversity Personified .

As its customary to start the event with lighting of lamp, the chief guests for the evening Rithika Mehra ( Bridging the Gap Foundation ) and Vinod Sehdev( President of NIA) together with the idea minds of Madras Chrous & Saarang, Ravish Pattabi and Mithun Hariharan inaugurated the show by lighting of the Kuthuvaluku (lamp).

The lighting of the lamp was followed by an age-old tradition of starting the program by seeking the blessings of Almighty, a song invoking the blessings of Lord Ganesha, a Carnatic based genre beautifully sung by Harikrishnan and well orchestrated by the entire Madras Chorus band.

The Madras Chorus band’s orchestra team including Mithun Hariharan (Lead musician and keyboardist), Sreekanth Madhavan (Lead at Percussion ), Sarath Sashidharan( Lead Drummer ), Ben ( Celebrity Bass Guitarist ) and Kaushik Bhattacharya ( Lead Guitarist) was a complete stand out as they played so flawless and with complete synchronization amongst themselves, the singers and the entire audience .

There was a beautiful Bengali Medley traversing from the famous Rabindra Sangeet to the hits of RD Burman, rendered by Monidipa, Suvradipa, Sushmita. It followed with a spectacular fast-paced Indian classical Trans music jugalbandi to the lyrics of Indian cinema music accompanied by the entire orchestra team sung by Harikrishnan, Vasudevan, and Sangeetha.It was a treat to ears for sure.

There were songs sung by different singers in Team Madras Chorus in all different Indian languages and the songs selected for the show was just perfect. It had all the popular numbers which every Indian could relate to, irrespective of the language. The songs ranging from Konjam Nilavu, AR Rahman ( sung by Sangeetha), Ek do teen ( sung by Supriya Sreeram), Dum Maro Dum ( sung by Suvradipa) , Kishore Kumar Medley ( sung by Venkat Adapa who is said to be an reincarnation of Kishore da ) , Laila o Laila( sung by Namrta Nair), Appidi podu ( Tamil fast popular number sung by Vasudevan & Sangeetha), Rock on song( sung by Vasudevan and Arun Veerakumar), Jhimki Kamal ( Malayalam popular number sung by Harikrishnan, Vasudevan, Arun Veerakumar accompanied with lovely dance moves by Shanthi Nair & Ashwathy Arun from Fusion Beats) , Madilo ( Telugu hit number sung by Vasudevan and Namrata Nair) to name a few. The pick of the event was the title song from Sultaan sung by the Team Madras Chorus male trio Harikrishnan, Vasudevan, Arun who swept the audience by some fantastic powerful singing and stage presence!  The evening also saw a vocal-instrumental jugalbandi on songs like Tum Tak, Urvashi, Oh Haseena which made it irresistible and hard for the audience to be not dancing . Fusion Beat Team were engaging the audience by getting them together on the dance floor and making them dance to all the songs with some fantastic yet simple dance steps all through the evening.

The hosts of the show Priya Ravish( in-house host for Madras Chorus), Surmeet Singh Lamba & Vinayak Desai from Serious TimePass Films kept the audience entertained and lively by their fantastic spontaneous hosting skills. Noone could resist their laugh and cheer when they were on the stage hosting, very well appreciated by all making Saarang, a truly high voltage event.

The food stalls put up by Lekker India (Eindhoven), Invitation Restaurant, BakenBash kept the people gearing up for their energy levels all through the show. The official sponsors of the show were Pepper Trail & Chitram TV in association with the media partner 8 colors and press & digital partner INDYANA Magazine who together helped put up a great show!

Well supported by perfect lightings, fantastic sound arrangements, super ambiance, Saarang was a show which has been truly a trendsetter show at a PAN India level and will be talked about for quite some time now.PopPodium Duycker, Raddhiusplein 5, 2132 TZ, Hoofddorp is a venue which the music lovers would not forget for quite some time.

People have been pouring in their heartfelt appreciation at the Madras Chorus homepage and looking forward to Team Madras Chorus to come up with more such wonderful trendsetting events at PAN India in the future too!