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Delhi gets ready to pay a tribute to K.L. Saigal. Set to lend his voice to timeless melodies is upcoming singer Vikas Khanna.
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Photo: Sandeep Saxena.
Vikas Khanna on song in New Delhi. Photo: Sandeep Saxena.
TWO YEARS ago a programme on commemorative stamp on Mohammed Rafi, Mukesh and Kishore Kumar and Hemant Kumar was held by Swar Sansar in Delhi. Legendary singer Manna De was honoured too. Before he came to sing, a few lesser-known singers sang some songs. It made a number of impatient listeners, who came to listen to Manna De, vacate the packed venue gradually. But suddenly they were seen going back to their seats. The reason was the song "O Duniya Ke Rakhwale" sung in a mesmerising voice by an unknown singer. The trick of the organisers worked and the audiences was left asking for more before the ailing legend could hit the venue with his enchanting melodies.
Manna De patted the singer on his back and said, "You will go places in the field of music". The singer was a young Canada-based boy Vikas Khanna, whom many might have seen in Pepsi, Liberty footwear, LML Trendy, Cosmopolitan magazine advertisements too.
This singer, whose father Mukesh Khanna is also a trained singer, will be heard in Delhi this coming Monday during the anniversary celebrations of legendary singer K.L. Saigal at PHDCCI auditorium, which will be inaugurated by L.K. Advani. Says this 23-year-old singer who idolises Mohammad Rafi, "I will sing some old Rafi saab's songs as a tribute to Saigal."
Classical base
What may surprise many is that despite living in Canada where he does not find many Urdu speakers, he has been able to maintain his vocabulary. He is also being trained in Hindustani classical (vocal) by Guru Arvind Kumar. Such was Khanna's passion for music that he "left his cushy job" in Canada and has come to India on a "one way ticket to Mumbai to make it big in singing". He excels equally in Western music and the proof is his winning Annual All India Inter-School Western Music Competition a few years ago. This computer sciences graduate has also done concerts in Netherlands, Canada, U.S. and U.K. He has an album Versatility where he sings the originals songs of Rafi, Kishore Kumar and Udit Narayan.
This handsome man has no dearth of confidence either. "If I had participated in the Indian idol contest, I am sure I would have made it among top five. But in Canada I didn't get to know that." This confidence emerges from his being original, a trait that he thinks is his unique selling point. "I don't copy anyone. Though I idolise Rafi saab but I never try to copy him."
RANA SIDDIQUI
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