Baithaks and Bhajan Mandali’s
have started dominating our musical landscape; and concerts have been pushed to
the background. Sunday gave us the perfect opportunity to make amends and in
fact we were spoilt for choice. We chose "saaz Aur awaaz" over
“sama hai suhana suhana”as it promised more variety; tribute to 3 legends as
opposed to 1. Presence of BK Birla and his Bhoole Bisre Geet (BBG) gang was a
bonus. We arrived at the venue well in time and caught up with Birla. He
introduced me to Vinayak Wad and not surprisingly we had a lot of common
friends. Shankar Jaikishan and SD Burman dominated our brief musical
discussion.
The evening started with invocation
of Lord Ganesha The compere Shalini made the session quite interactive by
asking us to guess the name of the song coming up by providing clues. First on the list was a song from Bahare Phir Bhi Aayegi sung by Rafi.
It was obvious to us as well as members of BBG but the opening bars of
music led us astray. We realized that they were playing Sholay theme music
before the actual song began. Vikram Dixit, began with “aap ke hasiin rukh pe” and
followed with another OP Nayyar composition, kiss na kisi. se kabhi na kabhi from Kashmir Ki Kali He did an excellent
job and sounded very close to Rafi. But when his turn to sing " ek ajnabi
Hasina se" came I noticed that he can sing Kishore even better. Shalini
announced that it was time to meet the “Hasina” and asked the next singer to
come on stage; Shruti Raghavendran. The applause form the BBG gang indicated
that she was not an “ajnabi Hasina”, but a familiar one. Shruti was joined by Kumaran and they
performed “jab deep jale aana” with gusto. While Shalini was having
fun, the BBG gang was one step ahead. Shalini was building a theme around the songs and quipped, “Hasina se mulaqat ho
gai aur saawam ka mausha hai. Ab aage kya hoga?” She was leading us to the next song but a mischevious BBGian responded "baccha" which had us in splits.
“Madhuban men raadhika
naache re” followed and it showcased Vikram’s classical training. Kumaran gave
an equally compelling rendition with the Rajesh Roshan classic “kaa karuun
sajni”. Aditya Vittal was the next performer and began with "o mere dil ke
chain". This 18 year old is buzzing with talent. This was followed
by 2 duets performed by Vikram and Shruti; “is mod pe jaate hain” "vo jab yaad
aaye". The latter was a tribute to composer Laxmikant on his
birthday.
Shalini asked us to guess
the next number originally sung by Rafi from Teen Deviyan. I initially thought
of “kahiin bekhayal hokar” and later guessed correctly that it is “aise to na
dekho”. Vikram negotiated the highs and the lows as well as the pauses in this
SD Burman stunner very smoothly. It was now Vikram’s turn to ask the audience
to guess a song from Baap Re Baap and ofcourse it was “Piya piya piya”. This is
a relatively younger voice of Kishore and Vikram managed to bring this hue
remarkably well. He and Shruti recreated the magic of this number with their
lively stage presence. Aditya returned with “mere
dil me aaj kya hai” and I was pointing to Sushmita that this song was made
almost 3 decades before the singer was born. Big credit to Aditya’s parents for
instilling interest in him. The first half of the
program ended with a dedication to BBG team with a lovely rendition of
“madhuban kushbuu deta hai” by Kumaran.
A short break ensued, which we
enjoyed with Sandwiches while interacting with members of BBG. We rejoined, and it was announced that Vikram was
going to sing 5 songs straight. Vikram began with a song from Night in
London. When the audience rightly guessed as Nazar na lag jaaye he
responded " exactly". “mere saamne waale khidki men” and “main huun
jhuum jhum jhumroo” followed. Sushmita's favourite Raaga is Shivaranjani and
she was delighted when “mere naina saawan badho” was performed. It was
lapped up by the audience and they demanded an encore, which was obliged. Shaildenra's words in Talat
Mahmood’s" hai sab se madhur vo geet jo dard ke sur men gaate hain"
never sounded more apt. It was now time for peppy songs and orchestra by Suresh
and team stood out. The Violin in “dard-e-dil dard-e-jigar dil men jagaaya
aapne” and the Saxophone in “badan pe sitaare lapeTe hue” got the audience pumped up. Kumaran and Shruti were in unison with “ Jaan-e-man tere do
nayan” and “tuu jo mere sur men”.
Vikram joined them for “mohabbat
bade kaam ki chiiz hai' and the atmosphere was charged up as a couple started
dancing. “inteha ho gaii” and “hamko to
yaara teri yaari” got the crowd onto their feet and the entire BBG group started
dancing. I noticed that “o Hasina zulfon waali” got Sushmita tapping her feet
and we joined the fun. The concert ended on a high note with audiences singing
along to the beats of “jai jai shiv Shankar”.
All the singers and members
of the orchestra led by Shankar did a wonderful job. It was gratifying to note
that the compere mentioned the names of the composer and lyricist along
with singers and movie name without any errors. It was nice to hear the mention
of Asab Bhopali’s and Shamshul Huda Bihari’s; not exactly household names in
the public domain.
“vo jab yaad aaye bahut yaad aaye” was a nostalgic
reminder of radio listening era as well as ode to Delhi days when concerts were
a staple diet. Here’s looking forward to an encore.
