I submitted the following message yesterday but it has n't appeared anywhere so far. Hence this reposting. Regards, Sreenivas ================= >From sreeni Thu Jan 30 01:20:06 1997 Subject: Re: Sri Ghantasala gAru malhE puttAru !! To: ghantasa@cs.wisc.edu Date: Thu, 30 Jan 1997 01:20:06 -0800 (PST) In-Reply-To: <32F00EB3.5E8A@wnm.net> from "kandadai" at Jan 29, 97 09:00:03 pm > Talking of "another" Ghantasalas, I have seen/heard so many people back > in Andhra orchestra groups singing similar to or almost like G. Though > they might be good at a song or two, in general, they were not able to > imitate all the songs of G identical to G's voice. Somewhere, somehow > they would falter and show their true colors. I agree with Krishna and am very sceptical about such comparisons (and the singers). Its certainly not the first time I am hearing about some "apara G". Madan Mohan Parigi wrote here a while ago about "good imitators" (my paraphrasing!) of G in Hyderabad music circles. During the years 1986, 1987 I have seen/heard four young people singing "rasika raaja taguvaarala ..." (from jayabhEri) and "SivaSankari" (jagadEkaveeruni katha) in mega musical nights in Madras (I think I wrote about these programmes once. A relatively new Telugu assn. in Madras succeeded those days in bringing almost all play-back singers of Telugu cinema on one stage, along with a lot of new talent). You felt G were alive! But you have n't heard anything about them after that. My question is: if there is good (and enough) talent, why don't we see it making it to the top? Could someone pl. enlighten me! I don't know how true is the saying that SPB is responsible for todays plight. Even during the heydays of G, others (AMR, MSatyam, PNR, PBS) could survive and got decent no. of songs. But can we name a singer in post-1974 period who survived for more than 3-4 years? Regards, Sreenivas