MANGOSTEEN MELODIES:
A Concert of Basheer's Favourites
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MUSEUM THEATRE, Egmore, Chennai
27th Jan 2008 7:30 pm

‘“I have with me more than a hundred gramophone records; they are in English, Arabic, Hindi, Urdu, Tamil, Bengali. There is nothing in Malayalam. There are some who sing well in Malayalam. One can buy records of their music; but the music score is bad. When will Malayalam have a good music director? Such as Pankaj Mullick or Dilip Kumar Roy? I asked myself, whose record shall I play first tonight? Pankaj Mullick, Dilip Kumar Roy, Saigal, Bing Crosby, Paul Robeson, Abdul Karim Khan, Kanan Devi, Kumari Majumdas Gupta, Khurshid, Juthika Ray, M.S. Subbulakshmi….” Vaikom Muhammad Basheer, in ‘The Blue Light’, from Poovan Banana and Other Stories, Translated from Malayalam by V. Abdulla

Basheer’s collection of gramophone records eventually grew to nearly two hundred, including Mappila songs and songs from the films made based on his own stories – Mathilukkal and Bhargavi Nilayam. On our group’s trip to Beypore, we had the privilege of spending an hour sifting through this famed collection, now stored in plastic buckets near his old easy-chair and gramophone.

‘Mangosteen Melodies’ will feature favourites from Basheer’s collection, brought to life by talented performers – Anil Srinivasan, Arjun Thomas, Athira Krishna, Bindhumalini, Chandan, ‘Darbuka’ Shiva, Naveen Iyer, Shweta, and Vedanth Bharadwaj.

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