One of the busiest playback singers of the Tamil Cinema, who is also making waves in other in Indian languages, will be in Auckland for one-night concert.
Karthik, who has sung more than 2000 songs in Tamil, Telugu and Kannada, will perform at an evening of song, dance and music on Sunday, October 26 at 6 pm at Dorothy Winstone Centre, Auckland Girls Grammar School.
Curiously, the proceeds of this show will go towards the costs of funding the remaining stages of the construction of the Temple of Lord Murugan also known as Karthik, in Otahuhu, South Auckland.
Shakthisree Gopalan, an upcoming vocalist will accompany him on stage.
Suren Surendran, well-known in the community as a proficient singer (and as the founder of ‘Swarangal,’ a musical group) is organising the forthcoming concert, on behalf of the New Zealand Thirumurugan Temple Society. Indian Newslink has been promoting the Society since its establishment in 2000.
Versatile musicians
Mr Surendran said that Karthik started his professional career as a backing vocalist and has since been working as a playback singer.
“As well as rendering more than 1000 songs in Tamil, he has been working in the Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam, Bengali and Hindi films. He is also a qualified and celebrated Carnatic musician and recently appeared in the ‘Thiruvaiyaru Carnatic Music Festival,’ telecast on Tamil television channels. He also appears in many television shows such as ‘Neengalum Vellalam Oru Kodi’ (the currently suspended Tamil version of ‘Who Wants to be a Millionaire?’)
Pop & Rock
He said that Shakthisree Gopalan combines in her the talent of writing songs and performing in Indian contemporary, Pop and Soft rock genres.
“She is a lead vocalist for the freestyle band group called ‘Off The Record,’ formed in 2009. She won the ‘SS Music Voice Hunt’ title in 2008, following which she entered the industry as a playback singer. She has sung several A R Rahman compositions including ‘Nenjukkule’ from the Tamil film Kadal,” Mr Surendran said.
New Temple
Located at 145 Church Street in Otahuhu, the construction and other cost of the Temple would be about $3.3 million, including future expenses of $600,000.
Society Vice-President Sathiyaselvan said that the property (about 2305 sq m) is being developed as a Temple Complex with a multi-purpose community hall.
“The Murugan Temple was relocated (from Ellerslie) to the new premises and established a temporary ‘Balasthapanam’ (Installation) in December 2013. The first stage is now partially complete and the Maha Kumbhabhishekam took place on June 8, 2014. The trustees and management committee are presently considering various fundraising opportunities to enable them to implement Stage Two of the construction plan of completing the temple facilities and then move to the community hall,” he said.
According to him, the Society has about 700 devotees who attend the functions and festivals through the year.
Social values
Mr Sathiyaselvan said that the Society aimed to provide a place of worship for the community to enhance religious and cultural values, establish an educational foundation for teaching of culture and human values (to both adults and children), maintain a library, provide health education and clinics, active participation in charity work and help immigrants to integrate with the mainstream community.
