It was great to see many of you at our event last Saturday : SP Balasubrahmanyam live in concert with Lakshman Sruthi. Enclosed is an event synopsis, our personal journey and experiences leading to the event and our gratitude to everyone who made this happen !
As always, we are so grateful for your punctuality to allow us keep to event plans. We started at 5:15 pm, with the audience paying their respects to Balu Sir’s mother with a silent prayer. Following this was a brief introduction to I for India and our partners, and then welcoming each member of the Lakshman Sruthi orchestra team. After a few invocation songs, the entire auditorium warmly welcomed with a countdown and standing ovation the one man…the legend … Padma Shri, Padma Bhushan Dr. S P Balasubrahmanyam !
What then followed was nearly 4 hours of pure magic with some heart to heart warm conversations, emotions, lots of laughter and interaction with audiences …and of course a blissful musical immersion across over 5 decades of his Tamil cinema playback. Balu Sir captivated the audience in his own warm, humble and personable nature - handling the event compere, audience interaction, song requests, humour and life experiences sharing - all so seamlessly woven into the performances.
An event without a break really helped the flow, and the songs just kept flowing and ticked every possible wish list - old, new, soulful melody, melancholy, classical based songs, foot tapping dance numbers, audience requests … and more… leaving everyone fully satiated and in a blissful trance.
We concluded just after 9:30 pm with a brief felicitation to Balu Sir and Lakshman Sruthi team. We were also touched by their appreciation and felicitation for our efforts to make this concert a reality. Balu Sir and Lakshman Sir also had great words of praise for the audience on their warmth, appreciation and cheering throughout the event. We certainly enjoyed watching Balu Sir and Lakshman Sruthi teams on stage, and equally relished the informal off-stage fun moments and social interactions with them all !
We are truly grateful to Balu Sir for being so accessible and supportive throughout the planning of this entire tour. Most of all, we have all been overwhelmed by his love and kindness to return to the U.K to perform for us, despite such a difficult personal situation mid-way on this tour. Our sincere thanks are also due to Shri. Raman Venu, Shri. Lakshman Venu and the entire crew of Lakshman Sruthi for placing their trust in us and agreeing to our invitation to host this large manual orchestra event.
We also express our appreciation, thanks and gratitude to the Hexagon Reading (Charity Gordon, Rick Bull and the entire team) for such an excellent venue. We also wish to thank Brindan and his team from Pro System Services for the spectacular sound, lighting and LED arrangements for the event.
Our sincere thanks also to Flashon Photography for such a splendid event capture of as always. We are sure that you all want to relive the experience !! … please find below a link for a virtual tour:
A show of this magnitude and grandeur simply would not be possible without the support and confidence given by all our strategic partners. We wish to express our sincere thanks and gratitude to the following partners for their unflinching support towards making this event an overall success:
Last but not least, thanks to all you patrons and members of the I for India community for filling the venue to capacity and being such a wonderful audience. Well done to each and every one of you, YOU ARE ALL BIG CONTRIBUTORS to the success of this legendary event !!