StEpHy & BeNnY DaYaL RoCkS KoChIn...

It was euphoria night for students of Adi Sankara Engineering college, Kalady, on Thursday night as singer Benny Dayal and instrumentalist Stephen Devassy hit the stage with a two-and-a-half-hour long power packed performance as part of their annual techfest - Brahma 2010.The concert named Rhythm of Lyf... was held at the IMA hall, Kaloor, and was scheduled t o start at 7.15 pm but it was around 8 by the time the acoustics was ready. The crowd that was hooting with impatience broke into a loud cheer when Stephen entered the stage with a casual ‘Namaskaram’ and his characteristic invocation to God. “The music that you are going to hear comes from above, not from us,” he said. A rhythmic fusion performance came first, with each of the instrumentalists - Nirmal, Josie, Josie and Shomi giving spectacular solos on the flute, saxophone, guitar and drums.An even livelier piece followed that had Adi Shankarites up on their feet.The bundle of energy that he is, Benny’s entry itself had the crowd app l a u d i n g .Benny began his performance with the song which launched his career - Madurakku Pokathedi - followed by Endrendrum which had the crowd dancing like crazy from then on. It was difficult to watch Benny with a straight face, what with the series of outlandish hats he kept changing, the occasional Malayalam words and bharatanatyam steps he sprinkled his performance with. But beneath it all was a superb voice and of course, the most breathtaking moves.The best part of the concert was that the duo kept the energy levels sky high throughout the show and was in constant conversation with the audience.Stephen also delivered a few purely Western classical pieces, but only after explaining their significance. “Many of the popular melodies that you hear are often originally Western classical pieces,” he said, playing the well-known ‘Fur Elise’ by Beethoven. “This composition was dedicated to a woman in his life..Whatever is dedicated to a girl seems to come out really well,” he remarked, much to the delight of the women.The next song was dedicated to the departed legend Michael Jackson - a seamless blending of ‘I’m here with you,’ ‘They don’t really care about us’ and many more. On the whole, the concert overflowed with A R Rahman through and through, with the creative instrumental version of the best love songs of the past two decades going down very well with the crowd.The highlight of the show came with Benny’s delivery of Masakkali, in such a superb voice that the crowd almost swooned.By the time the concert ended around 10.30 pm, all were exhausted but not so much as to collect autographs or just a handshake from Stephen and Benny.
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