http://thewriteperspective.wordpress.com/2009/03/06/reliving-the-living-dream-concert/#more-67
Poetry and music; India and America, Martin Luther King and Gandhiji, Western
and Classical - The Living Dream concert organised by the US Consulate General
– Chennai, wove all of these seemingly disconnected strands into a tapestry of
hope and peace.
The event held last Wednesday night at the Venkata Subba Rao Concert Hall, was
arranged to honour Martin Luther King III – son of Martin Luther King, Jr – on
his visit to commemorate the 50th anniversary of his father’s prilgrimage to
India in 1959. His father was here to meet Gandhiji and learn about his methods
of non-violence so that he could employ them in the Civil Rights movements back
home.
The evening began with renowned Tamil poet Vairamuthu reciting his poem, The
Black Mahatma, which had specially been written for the occasion. The creation
was inspired by Martin Luther King, Jr, Gandhiji and Barack Obama. Alluding to
Obama, he wrote:
“Thy lofty dream has come true Martin Luther!
A black dove built its nest in the White House!”
What followed was a musical tribute by the students and faculty of A.R Rahman’s
K.M Music Conservatory as they presented two popular Rahman compositions. The
first one was the theme from Bombay with its underlying message of non-violence.
The piece began with a mellifluous Indian flute accompanied by the low,
muffled, subdued rumbling of two giant drums known as the Timpani. It was the
kind of rolling thunder before the first monsoons – a premonition of the wet,
grey days to follow. A synthesizer sustained a low bass note throughout,
creating a sombre atmosphere, and the joyous tinkle of the triangle and the
Glocken Spiel (a xylophone-like instrument) was deliberately lost in the
foreshadowing gloom, to accentuate it by contrast.
This is a sad piece. And when the flute side-stepped to give way to a quartet
of three violins and a cello, you couldn’t help but feel the knot in your
throat. Oh how beautifully they played! Well, created. Because that was what it
was, a most soulful creation, as if the four were weaving together an intricate
mat of such harmonious sorrow that it paradoxically made you feel peacefully
content. It was strange. And while the violins gently wept, the flute came back
in, improvised consolingly and led the quartet out to a lingering end…
“Jai ho!” the sixteen-member student choir shouted with such vigour and obvious
glee, pumping their fists in the air, that the gloom that had settled like a
thick layer of dust was blown away in a single breath, leaving the audience
gasping. The second song, performed to pre-recorded music, was Rahman’s
Oscar-winning song Jai Hofrom Slumdog Millionaire.
There was a drastic shift in moods as flashing, stroboscopic lights came on and
the student-choir, clad in black straight-jackets swayed to the rhythm, smiled
from ear to ear, snapped their fingers and pumped their fists high in the air
every time they shouted “Jai ho”! There was celebration in the air as they sang
to the Oscar-success of their idol, their teacher, their inspiration and
founder of their school. The thunderous applause at the end was a fitting
appreciation.
The next performance was a dramatic rendition of Martin Luther King, Jr’s “most
famous and stirring speech”, I Have a Dream, by Kamal Haasan. He had memorised
the speech and as he walked around the stage delivering it in his deeply rich
baritone, there was a photographic projection on two screens in the backdrop.
Photos of the most stunning quality – Gandhiji, Martin Luther King Jr giving
his speech at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC on August 23, 1963, and of
past and present Indian and American leaders – recreated history.
As Kamal Haasan ended his dramatic performance, with the final words “…Free at
last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!” the visual
projection in the backdrop shifted to a black and white photo of Barack Obama
in the Oval Office. And as the words still hung in the air and gently sunk into
the loud applause below, the photo dissolved from greyscale to colour. It was a
subtle yet poignant reminder that racial barriers were finally beginning to
melt and that the world was moving away from the black and the white to a
colourful future – well colourless if you will.
“Yes, my mouth is dry. The speech has the same effect on the speaker as the
listener,” said Kamal Haasan at the end.
Then, introducing and inviting Martin Luther King III on the stage, Kamal
Haasan said, “The son of a great man who is successfully following so far an
act that is very hard to follow is here tonight and Mohandas Karamchand
Gandhi’s grandson welcomes him. Yes, I think of myself that way,” said Kamal
Haasan as the audience laughed.
In his address, speaking about non-violence and the similarities between his
father and Gandhiji, Mr King said, “But perhaps there is a challenge for all of
us. And that challenge is how do we sustain and create a non-violent world.
Well it really begins with each one of us…immersing ourselves in the philosophy
of non-violence by not just talking but living it.”
He also spoke of peace and unity and how this can be achieved if we listened
and acted like rational, logical human beings worthy of being called “god’s
highest creation.” Instead, he said, we use force and act like animals and
indulge in conflicts over class, religion and caste when we are all created
equal.
He ended his address by saying, “this evening has been, I believe a great
revelation…We’ll go back to the United States with the message that
non-violence is alive and well and that non-violence is the way.”
The evening ended by a rendering of “vaishnava jana to” and “we shall overcome”
by the students of the KM Conservatory. The first is one of Gandhiji’s
favourite bhajans and the second is the song that followers of Martin Luther
King sang on that fateful day in August 1963. It went on to become the anthem
of the Civil Rights movement.
“We shall overcome” began with one of the faculty members singing it solo while
the students joined in later in a complex contre-chant. They sang in different
scales, deliberately used the off-beat and sung in rounds, one following the
other, in a cat-and-mouse chase that fitted so beautifully together. There were
50 or more singers and the way the voices blended together, was as much a
marvel to the ear as it is for the eyes to watch a jigsaw puzzle magically fit
together in a few seconds. Singing together, especially large groups, is a
difficult proposition, but they pulled off a veritable tour de force! The
background music was simple with a saxophone, a cello, a keyboard. There was
also a harp where buttery fingers glided over the strings as if stroking the
long hair of a little girl and putting her to sleep. It was mesmerising..
The choir then transitioned to the Hindi version of the song, the popular “hum
honge kamyab.” Here, tabla, mridangam and the flute joined in to give the desi
touch to a fusion of two styles. The Tamil version of the song was also sung.
English, Hindi and Tamil, flowed one after the other. It was three languages,
but the message was equal, the tune was equal and the magic it created was
equal. It was truly An Equal Music in keeping with the message of the evening.
The Living Dream concert ended to a standing ovation as the crowd joined in the
singing and clapped to the rhythm.
At the end, you couldn’t help but feel that you were walking out of a Living
Dream. It almost felt like a rude awakening from a slumber that the evening’s
performers had lulled one into. Sleeping during a concert would generally
indicate a lacklustre performance. But this one time it was not. This time it
wasn’t a sleep of boredom. This time it was a slumber of peace. A slumber where
you were dreaming such a wonderful life orliving such a beautiful dream that
you wished to be asleep forever…
