The ambience is electrifying. The lights are dazzling. The dudes and the dudettes are simply classy and make Britney spears and Orlando Bloom have re-look on their fashion sense. There is appropriate security. The crowd rocks and there are no in-decent events reported. Saarang is cool. Not great, though.

There is a thin air of null and void that makes this year’s Saarang look a little dull. It’s the audience who have added color to this year’s Saarang. I ain’t concluding because there is still a cool performance of Guitar Prasanna‘s today in the Jazz show. I am not the complaining type but it’s just plainly visible for any Saarang frequenter. The organisers and the volunteers are the ones who have worked hard to make Saarang a success but then the selection of performers (inter college and pro-shows) should have been done with a little more care.

On the Bindaas Park, Hutch has a huge team of guys and girls who keep conducting the age old games. Last year, this Hutch team rocked. They didn’t do all the gimmicks like now. All they had was a small jam machine that was re-mixing songs with a DJ and the crowd loved to dance, dance and dance baby. Now, not only they bore the on-lookers but they also seem bored by doing this year-after-year. I am sure this is not Hutch’s marketing issue but they could have selected the ambassadors better. It was a common opinion and not just mine. How many times will we dance as a couple by folding the sheets of paper untill we step out? Change the game dudes and see the fun. This is not only true for the Hutch stall but also for the Nokia stall. Nokia, is the prime sponsor this year for the Saarang and has made sure all that they execute the promotion well.

Decibels 2005 –

The decibels show(inter-college western music contest) is one of the best things that happen at the Saarang. Not to forget Cluedo and the dramatics. I managed to watch the pre-lims and the finals. On the prelims conducted in the Bindaas Park, the teams either wasted time in setting up their musical instruments or talking about the music they loved to play. These days, most teams play own compositions which are sometimes better than the professionals. A band called Black Legions(I think!!), who had very little time to sing in the pre-lims because their lead guitar went out of shape, played good rock-and-roll of yester years. Their first song called Crash Course to Rock ‘N’ Roll which was an own composition was note-worthy.

On the finals, it was Guitar Prasanna and another guy(who arranged the Jesus Christ Super Star in Chennai) who were the judges. A female singer Nandita sang a Van Halen number which was clearly one of the best. Powder in Ash Tray, a band with amazing Vocals and great leads, walked away the with Decibels 2005 award.

Light Music 2005 –

Thiruda Thiruda might have failed in the box-office but it doesn’t mean the movie and it’s music would be forgotten. Thee Thee song from Thiruda Thiruda and Minsaara Poove from Padayappa were the popular ones. They were sung twice by two teams. Also Konjam Nilavu was attempted the MCC. That girl from MCC sang the movie so stlyishly that I was thinking she might win the best female vocalist prize.

Songs like Thee Thee and Konjam Nilavu are highly synthesized and it’s tough to reproduce them with just intruments and a keyboard. If only the college teams would agree with this, they might sing Illayaraja numbers and walk away with the awards. I am not tipping that AR Rahman music is tough to be re-produced. But with live audience and live sounds, for an amateur it might be a little tough to get that perfection.

Whereas Minsaara Poovey which has a cool combo of classical and synth music was welcomed by the audience. Also there is huge scope in the song to display voice modulations. I would anytime advice people to sing Megham Kottatum, Vannam Konda Vennilavey or even Illamai Itho Itho to walk away with the prize.

Rehana, AR Rahman’s sister and Saagar, Devi Shri Prasad’s brother alongwith Keith Peters were there to judge the music show. Rehana rightly said that the sound system was tuned for western music show and that’s probably why the teams had tough time tuning the instruments.

Will detail more on Saarang 2005 and KK light music show alongwith Prasanna’s Be the Change show, tomorrow. Also will upload pictures, sleeping the digi cam, by the weekend.