Trying to once again become more regular with this series. Three songs this time, two of which are pretty old but still worth listening to, or revisiting as the case maybe.
For video 1, I decided to pick up something suited for the season, given that Wimbledon 2015 kicked off today morning. And the best one I could think of was this video that was apparently released as a promo for the 2008 men’s singles final between Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal, one that the latter one in a record-breaking five-setter (my favourite final though is the one from the year after, also a brilliant five-setter; I happen to be a Roddick fan). Coming back to the video, this one has Federer and Nadal reciting excerpts of Rudyard Kipling‘s famous poem If, lines from which are inscribed above the entryway to the Wimbledon Centre Court. There is a certain charm to hearing the two champions read out those lines, especially with that majestic background score. Music which happens to be the piece from Shekhar Kapur‘s Elizabeth: The Golden Age called Destiny Theme, composed by Craig Armstrong along with A R Rahman!
Song 2 is from two years back, a video that I happened to revisit recently (thanks to a prompter from @kitha_n) and fell in love with. So the video is of singer Sid Sriram (famous in India for his renditions for ARR, Adiye in Kadal and more recently Ennodu Nee from I) singing one of his original compositions called Loveshine (he hasn’t credited the pianist in the video, unfortunately) at Rockwood Music Hall in New York. It is a nice song, that draws a lot from his characteristic singing style. Where it becomes awesome is around the halfway mark, where he launches into a carnatic ad lib; the transition is smooth, and the rendition exceptional.
The last song is the only current one (thanks to @giri1208 for the tip-off); from Aakash Gandhi who in a manner of speaking, launched singers like Jonita Gandhi and Sanam Puri. This time he picks up Jeet Gannguli‘s title song from Hamari Adhuri Kahani. And singing the song is Aditya Rao, whom you might remember from Shankar Tucker’s cover of Mann Mohini (Yuvvraaj). Aditya’s Raghu Dixit-like voice and style sort of contrast with and are not as effective as Arijit’s original rendition, although there is no doubting the fact that Aditya is a competent singer. What makes the cover really tick is Sahil Khan‘s work on the flute, everything else basically milks the charm of the original piece.
