The enfant terrible of modern Indian percussion, Ananthan Sivamani, launched his first album Mahaleela at Mumbai's Hard Rock Café on Wednesday night. Why did he take so long to come out with an album? "An album titled Amma was supposed to come out in 2000, but somebody stole my bag with all the recording and backup material while I was on my way to Chennai to mix the album," he says.
Mahaleela, subtitled "My journey through life", is a collaborative effort with long-time friends and artists such as Shankar Mahadevan, Hariharan, Ustad Zakir Hussain, Louis Banks and Niladri Kumar, and its 12 tracks include Infinity, inspired by his daughter Vashika's birth nine years ago. The songs are varied in their style and rendition, with the classical and the contemporary being fused in the signature Sivamani style. He now plans to shoot videos for some of the songs and will be spotted alongside AR Rahman playing bongos with African drummers. Originally from Chennai, Sivamani has been living with his wife and two children in Mumbai for the past two years. And though he travels often, if he happens to be in Mumbai on a Tuesday, he performs at the Siddhivinayak temple for the 5.30 am aarti . "The atmosphere there is wonderful. It's great playing with the temple percussionist Ravi," says Sivamani. But something seemed amiss at Hard Rock Café as his montages of Tirupati deities and spiritual gurus eerily flashed next to Posh Spice's red-hot mini and Elton John's glittering platform heels. http://www.expressindia.com/latest-news/beaten-track/397334/ -- regards, Vithur
