Grooving with Geetha Madhuri

 It’s a cool, breezy night. We wait with bated breath at our tables, only partially lit by the warm, dim yellow lights around. But the moment Geetha Madhuri walks into Luno Lounge Bar and Kitchen, the whole place just lights up and the crowd clamours to greet her. After all, who can miss the opportunity to let the celebrated songstress’ melodious voice bless their ears? Such is the musical prowess of Geetha Madhuri, who, along with her live band, set the stage on fire right from the start.

As soon as she sang “Mahanubhavuda veraa nuvve naa mahanubhavuda…” from Mahanubhavudu, we fell in love with her voice all over again. And when we heard Geetha render Bombay Jayashri’s evergreen Manohara, Hindi speakers emotionally mouthed Zara Zara and Tamilians mouthed Vaseegara.

Perhaps it is the beauty of this melody — no matter which language it is sung in, it still evokes the same sentiments. And Geetha did complete justice to this song, just like she did to Ilaiyaraaja classics like Kammani Ee Premalekha and Aakasam Enatido and AR Rahman’s Urvashi Urvashi and Muqabla. Yet again, these songs brought the whole crowd together.

Versatile as Geetha is, we waved our arms above our heads to hear her version of the Tamil song Munbe Vaa and old Hindi hits like Dum Maro Dum, Ram Chaahe Leela, Yeh Mera Dil Yaar Ka Diwana, Piya Tu Ab Toh Aaja.

When she sang Laila O Laila, she smoothly transitioned back to Telugu with SP Balasubrahmanyam’s Oka Laila Kosam. But the singer was utterly clear that she wouldn’t be the only one singing. Apart from Harsha Vardhan Chavali on male vocals, we gave ‘crowd vocals’ as Geetha sang one line and made us sing the next. It was powerful, really, the whole crowd singing in perfect synchrony.

When did the crowd go absolutely wild? When she sang her Chamka Chamka and Jai Balayya, and of course, the latest trendy song from the movie Devara: Chuttamalle. At this point, many got up from their tables, went closer to the stage, and started dancing.

Indeed, good music doesn’t only satiate the ears — it makes all senses dance with joy. Geetha’s band — Praveen Kumar Ch on drums, Psrk Pavan on violin, Maanas Kanukollu on keyboard, Nithish on electric guitar, Chowhan Shankar Singh on percussion, Danny Lanka on bass guitar, and sound engineer Varun — produced sheer magic on stage that night for over 50 songs.

The music was so good that we couldn’t stop begging for more; by the time Geetha ended with Mustafa Mustafa and Padhametu Pothuna, no one realised that almost three hours had gone by. Indeed, such is the musical prowess of Geetha Madhuri.

The singer told CE that she felt elated after her performance. “I performed songs in different languages tonight but the Telugu songs are undoubtedly my favourite. I had a lot of fun and was also relaxed because of how experienced each player in the band is. When I’m clueless, I ask them to play music, and then I get an idea of what to sing,” she added.

Geetha gave her musical pennies for thoughts, expressing, “My life revolves around my music but I’ll be honest, it isn’t 100% of my life; it is 75% and the other 25% is for my loved ones. And though I was a judge on Telugu Indian Idol Season 3, I believe I was more of a guide. In fact, many participants were more talented than me.

The only difference between them and me was experience. For aspiring singers, my advice is this: Learn, practice, gain experience, and be patient. Have presence of mind, which means, always have a second option in life. I think this holds good for any profession.”

Story by Nitika Krishna