Everyone turned a singer when all the music lovers came together at SITRA Auditorium on last Saturday, 07.12.2019. The Maaditorium team was yet again welcomed with a demand for a second show in the afternoon just like how when they announced their first show in the city, there was a massive response that an afternoon show was added the very next day.
“It was insane that our first show got sold out within minutes. We had around 400 to 500 people with amazing energy. We can never refrain ourselves from mentioning the evening show in every city we perform. How the crowd pulled off Urvasi Urvasi was such an amazing experience! We tried it previously in Bangalore and Chennai but the only place where it worked out so well was at Coimbatore!”, Badhri Narayanan Seshadri who kickstarted Motta Maadi Music says excitedly.
The crowd never failed to amaze them this time too! ‘Oru Dheivam Thandha’ from Kannathil Muthamittal, ‘Kandukondein Kandukondein’, ‘Nila Kaigiradhu’, even ‘Jalsa Pannunga da’ are difficult numbers which the crowd pulled it off effortlessly”, says Badhri. The audience were thrilled with the musicians, especially the flautist, Ashish Venkateswaran who was a show stealer. He scored amazingly well in the song En Kaadhale. The setlists for the both shows ranged from Maestro Ilayaraja’s Valaiyosai, Inji Iduppazhagi, Chinna China Vannakuyil to the recent number like Darling Dambakku. The audience never hesitated to leave their seats and shake their legs to songs like Kaasu Mela Kaasu, Appadi Podu, En Aasa Mythiliye.
“The evening show had ‘Arajaga energy’. We are happy with the number of parents who came to the shows compared to the previous ones. Who knows we might do an edition of ‘Bring your Parents’ like we did in Chennai, out here in Coimbatore as well, since we have got that kind of support”, says Sundaram Vasudevan, a co-ordinator and entertainer at the event.
I was curious to know how did all the performers come together. “I am a full-time musician since 2014 and six of the performers are all my friends from the band, other three of them joined us later who liked the idea of Motta Maadi Music. The band performed only originals and not covers. One evening, we thought of jamming on my terrace and we all came together. Within an hour, crowd filled up nearby terraces and there were all singing in unison our favourite Tamil numbers. It was surreal! The next time, we put up an open invite on Facebook. We were expecting six hundred people but thousand-two hundred showed up! With the enormous crowd, the police had to intervene. That is when the idea of Maaditorium occurred to us. Our event managers, Spade Events came up with the quirky name Maaditorium is maadi and auditorium put together”, he narrates happily.
When asked whether they still perform their shows at motta maadi, Badhri says in Chennai, he has his house to perform such shows and they do it once in four or five months. “When we go to other cities, logistically it is very difficult”, he says. “Our biggest milestone till date is that we sold out 2 shows each of 1500 tickets in Music Academy. We planned for 1500 tickets alone at first but the tickets got sold out in just five minutes. At first we thought of it as a glitch! That show will always be special”, says Badhri.
We always wonder from where do even these people possess such an energy, he says. “For us, as musicians, this is our job but for people coming in as non-musicians, synching to the idea of it and then singing is tremendous”, he says.
With almost twenty-eight songs performed in 3 hours, the crowd wanted a once-more of Ullala from Petta. The team is performing next in Pondicherry for the first time in Kamban Kalai Arangam. When asked about any new ventures that they will be coming up with, Badhri says, we are not disclosing it as of now but we have got a very interesting concept other than Maaditorium and we will be bringing that to you people in Coimbatore during March or April.”
Team Motta Maadi Music is planning their next show in the city during the month of February which they say is going to be grand. “To accommodate more people is the idea because we are very confident, we can do a show with more than an audience of thousand. We can’t wait to get back here to perform, for when we went back after our first show in Coimbatore we were very sure that another base has been set for us apart from Chennai and Bangalore!” smiles Badhri, signing off.
Article and Photos by: R.Jayashree