July 15 , 2006

SwaraBrahma Sri Mani Sharma, a well known composer, musician and south Indian music director with over 250 movies to his credit in various south Indian languages, accompanied by various musicians has taken over the minds and hearts of many a Dallas Telugu to the lilting tunes and popular percussion beats. It was simply an electrifying and mind blowing show!

TANTEX (Telugu Association of North Texas) presented yet another great program for its membership in the form of this great musical evening. Last evening the Trinity High School (Euless, TX) auditorium was filled with overflowing capacity of 1200+ audience who were taken to grandiose musical heights by the excellent music, lighting, sound effects and mimicry by Sri Mani Sharma’s group. The group included Mani Sharma as the music director, “Indian Idol” semifinalist Karunya, renowned singer & voice-over artist Smt. Sunitha, famous playback singer Smt. Vijayalakshmi, upcoming young playback singers Sri Mallikarjun and Sri Vinod Babu. The team also included Sri Sai and Karthik on drums, Chinna, Saagar on keyboard, Raghava on sound mixing and Vinod on guitar who enthralled the audience with their hot movie numbers from movies such as Indra, Tagore, Kushi, Pokiri, Athadu, and Samarasimha Reddy etc.

The program and the artistes were introduced by Sri Hari Kishen, the famous mimicry artiste. He introduced Sri Mani Sharma as an incredibly humble and extremely talented individual who cares for the younger generation of artistes. The stage was well decorated and had all the high-tech trappings for a great audio-visual show including robotic lights, backgrounds etc. The program started sharp at 7:00 pm and ended at 10:00 pm.

Sri Mallikarjun started the program with “Rama, Rama Raghurama” from movie “Sri Anjaneyam” followed by several hit songs such as “Andaala Aadabomma (Samarasimha Reddy)”; “Ammayi Sannaga (Kushi)”; “Ghallu, Ghallumani (Indra)”; “Bham Bham Bole (Indra)”; “Raamma Chilakamma (Choodalanivundi)”; “Neetho Cheppanaa (Athadu)”; “Dole Dole (Pokiri)”; “Devuda Devuda (Pokiri)”; Ippatikinka Naa Vayasu Padahaarey (Pokiri)”; “Manmadha Manmadha (Tagore)”.

The repertoire of songs also included oldies such as “Aaresukoboyi (NTR hit from Adiviramudu)”; “Prema Yatralaku (ANR/NTR hit from Gundamma Katha)”; “Mayadari Sinnodu (Amma Mata)”; “Joru meedunnavu Tummedaa (Siva Ranjani)”.

Sri Hari Kishen provided brief interludes with his captivating mimicry acts which included political satire, movie satire and most interestingly the 2 ½ minute long multi-character cliff-hanger scene from “Jurassic Park”.

The finale was a medley of songs including “Nenu Saitam” hit song from movie “Rudra Veena”. All the audience joined the artistes in singing Indian national anthem “Jana gana mana”.

The hall reverberated with Jai Hinds and standing ovation for the memorable program by the artistes.

The program concluded honoring the artistes by TANTEX President Sri Raja Reddy and Smt. Lalita Murthy (Trustee). Sri Manisharma was felicitated with a large rose garland by Sri Prasad Thotakura who coordinated the entire event successfully. Sri Raja Reddy presented Sri Manisharma with a plaque and Smt. Lalita Murty presented Smt. Manisharma with bouquet. Smt. Udayagiri Rajeswari was also recognized by TANTEX for her excellent services to Gaana Sudha Radio program.

In his vote of thanks, Sri Suresh Manduva (TANTEX) thanked all the major sponsors such as IndyaFusion Restaurant, Gallop Technologies, Tara Energy, Horizon Travel, Infovision Inc; FunAsia, Pasand India Cuisine, Intellisoft Technologies, Texas Healthcare; Dr. & Mrs. Rumalla, and several other philanthropic supporters in Telugu community. He extended his thanks to the local families who hosted the artistes – Ramakrishna & Beena Lavu; Srinivas and Uma Yalamanchi; Nagaraj & Anuradha Marri; and Ramki & Anu Chebrolu as well as all the TANTEX Executive Committee members and entire TANTEX volunteers & membership.