OK, so I must confess that I had never actually heard of Suresh Wadkar before going to his Bollywood concert at the Cadogan Hall on 17 November 2012. This probably put me in a minority of one, judging by the audience's obvious knowledge and enjoyment of his songs. I also seemed to be a minority of one in (I'm pretty sure) being the only white English person in the audience, the rest being Indian (either Indian born and brought up - ie. Indian Indian or of Indian origin, born and brought up in the UK, ie. English Indian. There is a difference). Susen also had never heard of Suresh Wadkar, so I felt a bit better at my lack of knowledge.
The evening started with various introductions, thank yous and, slightly bizarrely to my mind, a short promo film from one of the sponsors for their luxury flats for sale in India (sorry, not sure exactly where). I couldn't help smiling as one of the musicians was introduced as having a degree in IT - of course! - the modern Indian professional. Then a very nervous-looking Padma came on - Suresh's wife. I was distracted by her dress, which I couldn't quite make out - it looked like a kurta top over a very full long skirt. I am sure it has a name but it was a new style to me. But when she started singing, her voice totally captivated me, almost entirely unexpected from someone so unassuming and obviously quite nervous. She has a high soprano voice, typical of many of the female Bollywood voices and which I now associate more with the older films of the 1980s and 90s. Still - the clarity of her voice, her mastery of the subtle intonations and scales of the ragas was amazing. If I had heard that music on a film, I don't think I would have heard the subtleties so clearly - the live performance really brought it to life, into 3D.
Then the man himself - 'her better half' as Padma so graciously introduced him. And he didn't disappoint - again, his mastery of his voice, of the subtle scales was a joy to hear. The duets with both Suresh and Padma were a delight, to see such accomplished singers in tune with each other. I just loved watching the accompanying musicians as well - so obviously enjoying their communication with each other and the audience through the beat of the music. One tabla player just seemed to smile the whole way through which was quite infectious.
My main criticism of the evening was that Suresh introduced the songs and communicated in Hindi (unlike his wife who had spoken in English). This was probably fine for the vast majority of the audience - but I certainly could not follow it, nor Susen - whose other language is Bengali. I did think it was a shame in that here he was in London, at a mainstream venue and yet his assumption was that no-one English would have been interested in his performance or in the audience. I am sure his English would have been near perfect so I don't think it was a question of not knowing the language but simply an assumption that he was communicating with a solely Indian audience (almost correct, but not quite!)
That aside, a very good evening. Neither me nor Susen recognised any of the songs - although many in the audience seemed to know them all. I think, as with his wife, his music dates back to slightly older Bollywood (pre-Shah Rukh Khan?) than I am familiar with and I must confess that towards the end, the songs and structure of the songs, seemed somewhat formulaic and to merge together. That may be a reflection of my ignorance of the songs rather than anything else. More please.
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