For a character so layered, full of whims and surprises, devoting only bhajans to Lord Krishna on Janmashtami seemed like a gross disservice to singer-composer Shankar Mahadevan.

So, recently, when the National Institute of Performing Arts (NCPA) asked Mahadevan to perform at Shyam Rang, the concert on Lord Krishna two days before Janmashtami, the artiste sat down to think of a twist in the tale.u00a0“I thought, the easiest thing would be to sing some bhajans in his memory, but that would limit the performance to classical music,” says Mahadevan.