Benny Dayal

The only exposure that I had had to this artiste was through some youtube videos.  I was not very impressed with his looks, his dance or even his music.  So I was ready to give him a miss when he came to the campus this evening.

I eventually left my home mainly to be with my wife, sons and my nephew, not really planning to attend the concert since we did not have enough passes and I was reluctant to ask my students for more.  And then I ran into my colleagues Haritha and Dinesh who agreed to give me an extra pass that they had.

And I am grateful to all of them who got me there this evening.

BD is a complete package by himself.  From his trademark caps, prominent specs, colorful shoes, baggy track points and the black bindi to the firing of the dry ice gun at the end of one of the songs everything about him was calculated to lighten up the mood for the audience. 

And he has a band that rounds off the package very well.  He provided wholesome entertainment for all of two hours or more. 

He sings with equal ease across several languages - Hindi, Tamil and Malayalam.  As a singer he is not in the same league as Harish Sivaramakrishnan, Suraj Santhosh of Masala Coffee or many other lead singers of new generation few bands.  Not does he even try to mimic up to the original singers whose songs he renders.  But then he sings well enough for the crowd to tap a toe or shake a leg or jiggle the whole body, as the pace of the song may dictate.

So we stood right in the front enjoying his music as much as anybody else in that crowd did.  That is not the reason for writing this post though.

I came back as a fan of BD because of his qualities as an entertainment professional that I liked.  First and foremost he played ass off, to borrow an expression that used once many years ago.  He was honest and conscientious to the core.  He did not pause for a minute between songs.  The music just kept flowing non-stop.

He put the audience in the front of his evening.  When the audience chanted the name of one of their favourite songs he responded, "I will sing that song.  And every other song that you came here hoping to hear.  Why am I here?  I will not let anyone go disappointed."  The ring of sincerity in what he said touched me.

I have heard many bands on the campus:  Indian Ocean, Farhaan Akhtar, Vishaal-Shekhar, Euphoria, Parikrama, Millenium...just to name a few that I can remember.  None performed with the level of sincerity that BD brought with him except perhaps Parikrama.

I admire BD for also having the courage to sing songs from languages other than Hindi and Punjabi.  I use my words having the courage carefully.  A band that sings in any language other than these two would fear losing the audience.  BD seemed to be unaffected by such concerns.  To be fair to the crowd they did not seem to mind even though they could not relate to the Tamil songs in the new album.

Finally he delivered on the promise that he would have a song for everyone.  He did.  There were songs from across the decades past, songs across languages.

I came back a complete fan of BD.

In an interesting post script Salim-Suleiman played this evening.  I chose not to go, partly because I was exhausted from the last evening and partly because I anticipated that it would be the usual Bollywood cultural hegemony in display.

Dont get me wrong.  I have grown up on a healthy diet of Hindi film music.  Some of the songs I cherish most even today are from old Hindi movies and Urdu ghazals.  In the past few years TV channels have converted Indian entertainment into a mono-cultural Bhangra-Punjabi pop mashup. 

I believe this hegemony is because of a certain community that dominates the entertainment industry.  I further believe that this country has a rich diversity of culture and yet very few of the other states get to showcase their talent - be it the north east, or the rest of much of the north or the west or the south.

And I was glad I did not.  Much of the audience walked off midway because the band just could not engage them.  And that was another powerful vindication of BD's sincerity and his connection with the audience.


Nanni....Namaskaaram...