Great Evening..

What happens when you put established singers with reality show finalists on the brink of stardom? Plenty, as Coimbatore found out at the Kovai Isai Vizha, a grand musical show held at the Hindusthan College grounds. Renowned playback singers like Sr inivas, Anuradha Sriram, Benny and Mahathi came together with new talent discovered by Vijay Television on their highly popular shows such as Super Singer, Ungalil Yaar Adutha Prabhu Deva and Boys vs. Girls.

Why Coimbatore ???

Coimbatore was chosen as the venue for the mega show as, in the words of the organisers, “The response and the hospitality of the city are tremendous. We strongly believe that anything started at your city is bound to be a sure fire hit”. The show’s presenter Gobinath of Neeya Naana fame summed it up as “We want to give our best to the best people”. Folks came dressed in their Sunday best and were not the least disappointed. The stage settings were psychedelic and the sound was state-of-the-art, and all the way from Chennai.

It is not every night that you get to see singers and dancers perform live and have the satisfaction of egging on your personal favorites from the small screen. The show kick started with a mellifluous rendition of the song ‘O Saya’ from the movie Slumdog Millionaire and ‘Mangalayam Thanthunathai’ a divine song. The participants came on stage dressed in pristine white, waving flags and balloons, as a sign of peace and unity. The singers outdid one another. Each and every performance was a stand out, be it ‘Adiye kolludhe’ from the movie Vaaranam Aayiram or the Hindi ‘Masakali’ from the recent film Dilli 6.
The old and the new

The concept by Vijay TV was outstanding where almost all the songs were rendered by current playback singers paired with the top contestants from Super Singer. On one hand you had experience to lean on, and on the other you had young guns roaring to innovate. The top three finalists of Super Singer, Ravi, Ajesh and Renu gave a moving rendition of ‘Valayapatti thavile’ from the Vijay starrer ATM. Gobinath and Shivakarthikeyan kept the laughs coming in with their compereing. There were foot tapping folk songs like ‘Atha Athoramma’ from Mazhaikottai and ‘Maduraikku pogadhedi’ to funky numbers like the ‘Nee Marilyn Monroe’ which just happens to be singer Benny’s all time favorite and ‘Taxi taxi’ from the movie Sakkarakatti (an antique taxi was driven on stage as part of the act!). The presenters even got a couple from the audience to hug each other for a romantic song ‘Vellaikara mutham’ sung by Mahathi

Great moves..

The choreography by the finalists of Ungalil Yaar Adutha Prabhu Deva was showcased in the song Jana Gana Mana’. The city was made proud as three of the seven finalists of the reality dance show Sheriff, Sai Pallavi and Manoj Kumar are from here. The crowd watched spellbound as they performed a flamenco dance to ‘Pyar Ke Kahani Suna’ and a Michael Jackson number to the melody of ‘Chikkubukku Raile’. The Boys vs. Girls contestants showed that they were made of cool stuff, too. Junior artists like Rinson and Abhinaya joined the likes of earlier winners such as Michael and Priyadharshini and stepped it up with some breathtaking dance moves.

The 8000 strong crowd loved every moment of it. They hummed along with the singers, shook a leg during the dances and even those that were bashful indulged in a bit of head banging and foot tapping. The final performance was a tribute to AR.Rahman. The artists all gathered to sing and dance to ‘Yella Pughazhum’ and the Oscar winning soundtrack ‘Jai Ho’.

This event will be telecasted on Vijay TV on April 29 and 30 at 7 p.m.