Sunday, August 3, 2008

Go Go Elango!


The chief judge for Astro Vaanavil's Super Star actually invited me up to his room for this interview. Can you imagine that? But in all sincerity, he was just looking for a more comfortable place for us to chat, in case anyone gets any wild ideas.

The interview was pretty uneventful actually and I had to get him to warm up (please don't get any wild ideas again). He had actually prepared a handful of notes chronicling his career and highlighting all the concerts he had done. It was a great afternoon. We had gone to sit at a nearby mamak stall and he was singing out all his hit songs to me. I think even the mamak guy was wondering what we were up to.

But the crucial question was, since he was chief judge and it was his job to look out for people's mistakes, has he ever made a mistake on stage himself?

"Of course! We are all human," he replied.

"But we know how to cover up lah. Let's say if I miss a beat, then I'll make up for it in the next line so to even up the count," he said.

"And this can be very tricky when you are doing live performances with classical Indian dancers. If you don't know how to even up the beat, everything from the musicians and the dancing will be off! The dancer won't be able to finish her steps, the musicians will all fall out of tune and it will be your fault!" he pointed out.

"But we are experienced musicians. As for the dancers, well they know how to cover up also. So in the end everything usually turns out alright," said Elango.

And talking about allright, just to let you know that I really appreciated you singing live for me allright! Go, go Mr Elango!

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