17th TANA 2009 - Day 3

The 17th TANA conference which started two days back in Chicago, successfully moved to 3rd day with felicitation of living legend music maestro SP Balasubrahmaniam.

Muralimohan, AVS, Uttej, Rajeev Kanakala, Raghubabu, Kamna Jethmalani, Navneet Kaur, Apoorva, Paruchuri Gopalakrishna, Gummadi Gopalakrishna, singers Mano, R.P. Patnaik, Sunita, Pranavi, Sugandhi, Sumasri, Srikrishna, Sreenidhi, Maa TV Super Singers contestants Dheeraj (winner), Prashanth, Krishnakanth, Praveen Kumar, etc., and lyricist Sree Sirivennela Seetarama Sastry were among the prominent who were present on the dais. SPB's wife, Smt Savitri was also called on to the dais during the felicitation.

Balasubrahmaniam known for his oratorical abilities and here again he did not deceive the audience. He reminisced his past thanking all prominent personalities who helped in anchoring his music career. Strong emotions were prevalent among the audience as well as SPB when he narrated his marriage incidence.

During his moving speech, Balu also sang some verses from Viswanatha Satyaranarayana's "Andhra vaibhavam..", praising the Telugu language and culture. On the loud request of audience, he took off “SrutilayalE jananii janakulu kaagaa... “rather very aptly for the situation and continued to sing more of the song (Raagam taanam pallavi... from Sankaraabharanam). He also sang a bit from ‘Sirivennela’ – “Sarasa swara surajharii gamanamau…” and mesmerized the audience like he had been doing for the last 43 years!
Sirivennela also spoke in the ceremony and praised SPB’s contribution to music.

Late Jandhyala’s comedy play “Madhya Taragati Mandahaasam”, directed by AVS also stole the day. The play was enacted by Maharshi Raghava, Rajeev Kanakala, Rajitha, AVS, Jhansi, Raghubabu, Uttej, Paruchuri Gopalakrishna and Gummadi Gopalakrishna. The play was followed by classical and folk dances and the musical show by RP Patnaik, Mano, Sunita, Sumasri, Sreenidhi, Sugandhi and Pranavi.

In general this event has been a success which provided a platform to revisit different aspects like films, literature, music, dance,religion, spirituality, politics, etc. In short it did not deceive the audience, stated to be more than 12,000 and can be a catalyst to next year’s event.