‘O Some‘ crowd for O S Arun ! - O.S.Arun

‘O Some‘ crowd for O S Arun !

One of the early childhood tales, we all have heard is that of the Hare and the Tortoise. The moral of the story was: Slow & Steady Wins the Race. Many years later, I modified this story to suit my corporate training programs. After all, that is creative liberty coupled with occupational needs. Fortunately, nobody accused me of distorting the story. The reason being that I am not a famous personality ....yet !
My story extends beyond the tortoise winning the race. After losing the hare does some root cause analysis and realised that being competent is not enough, and one needs self discipline and focus in order to win. So, the hare suggests another race in which it doesn’t relax but just runs with grit and reaches the goal post in no time. Now, the tortoise realises it’s limitations, which is even if it runs to the best of its ability, it can never win against a determined hare. So, it smartly calls the hare for a third race where it suggests a change of the goal post, which is on the other side of a river. This time, the tortoise swims across the river, since the hare can’t swim, he is left standing on this side of the river bank . The story goes on but let me stop here. It was just to explain how it’s a brilliant strategy to change the playing field to suit one’s competencies. And that’s precisely what O S Arun has done !
He has successfully created a place for himself where he has less or no competition. 
I was at his concert at Bharati Vidya Bhavan to see the crowd completely connecting with him. Infact, he announced that we could sing along with him loudly and boldly, which is not possible in a Sanjay or RaGa concert. His genre of music is a mix of Carnatic, bhajans & light music. Most important is that it is appealing to people.
One of his early songs was ‘ Palisamma Muddu Sharade’ composed by Purandara Dasa. It was just in my last post that I had lamented how people sing Purandaradasa’s compositions so infrequently. The interesting thing about Purandaradasa’s compositions are that everyone sings them in a Ragam of their choice. Bhakti is essence of his compositions not so much Chittaswaras or complicated notations. Neither Purandaradasa or anyone around him put it on record as to which Ragam he set every composition or maybe he simply didn’t care. Probably for him music was a means to reach God . 

Arun’s next song was a Marathi Abhang which was set in Raag Mishra Mand. It’s called Raag in Hindustani not Ragam as in Carnatic. Just like its Krishn not Krishna, Ram not Rama, Ravan not Ravana. See, it is not difficult to learn Hindi ! 

Arun got the entire audience involved converting the place to bhajan mandali. He is certainly a people’s person with his own following. 

He sang verses from Jayadeva’s Ashtapathi in Ragam Vasantha (mind you not Raag Vasant). Following this was a song I had never heard ‘ Ododi Varuvan Murugan ‘ written by Mrs Natarajan, nor had I heard of her ! Arun simply had the audience eating out of his hand. His next song was Calcutta Gurumurthy’s ‘Mylai Viraithodi Odivaa Valli Manala ‘ set in Ragam Charukesi. I must say, it’s interesting to listen to rarely sung compositions such as these. 

It’s only sensible for the organisers to have O S Arun as the last artiste of the day. The audience were just demanding so much more that he had extend his concert. One of the requests was ‘Vishamakara Kannan ‘ and he was so animated himself that it was like watching a dance performance. Undoubtedly, he enjoys whatever he sings and that is infectious as far the audience goes.
He planned to end the concert with a Marathi Abhang by Sant Ramdas on Raghava but the audience would not be satisfied until he obliged them with the Abhang ‘ Bhakta Jana Vatsale , O Vittale ‘. 

Incase anyone is curious to know how the story of the hare & the tortoise moves forward and who ultimately won the race, keep reading my blogs and I will sneak it in somewhere ! 

About the Author:

Sandhya Shankar belongs to a well respected business family in Chennai. She is a Life Skills & Corporate Trainer by profession. She is an avid reader and a natural writer, who has written several poems and articles. She even presented her poems as a reading at the British council. She has keen interest in all art forms  and has explored many different forms of painting like stained glass and Tanjore being among them. 

Music being her first passion, she had her formal training under Terakotti Chandrasekharaiah at Bangalore and later briefly under Mrs Champa Kumar. She is a regular visitor of concerts, theatre and other live performances. Her witty reviews have gained a loyal and interactive readership for their sound technical commentary and relevance for every kind of melophile, from the casual-goer to the ragam expert, frequenting Chennai’s rich music scene.

(*The views and opinions expressed herein are those of the author and not necessarily those of Music of Madras.)