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Simply Saigal
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On the occasion of K.L. Saigal's birth centenary, Delhi paid a melodious musical tribute through a set of talented singers. RANA SIDDIQUI reports.
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A MELODIOUS EVENING: Singer and M.P. Manoj Kanoria singing "Aik Bangla Bane Nyara" as a tribute to K.L. Saigal in New Delhi. Photo: Sandeep Saxena.
OLD IS gold, they say. And a Saigal nite at the National Co-Operative Union of India auditorium in New Delhi this week proved it true once again.
Titled "Saigal Tujhe Salaam Sadi Ka", the tribute to the legendary singer, K.L. Saigal by a set of singers not quite known to Delhi but have done their rounds of singing all over the globe, simply left the audience spellbound.
The evening of melodious songs, ably conducted by film writer Rajeev Shrivastva, also took care of the audience with musical taste of the kind other than Saigal by including popular numbers of Kishore Kumar, Hemant Kumar, Mohammad Rafi, Geeta Dutt, Manna Dey and others.
"Sur Aur Geet", a book dedicated to Saigal and other singers penned by a veteran Hindi writer, Harinder Shrivastva, was also launched by L.K Advani and Vasant Sathe.
As the audience did not know the singers too well, there was not much by way of expectation and demands. So each entrant on the stage proved to be a pleasant surprise.
A-21-year-old Sagar Khendurkar from Mumbai, who is associated with the Kalyanji-Anandji group, enthralled the audience with his skill by flawlessly imitating Saigal.
To an applauding audience, he sang Saigal's "Gham Diye Mustaqil", "Main Kya Janoo Kya Jadoo Hai" and other popular songs. Member of Parliament and singer Manoj Kanoria, who has done 15,000 music shows all over the world, sang "Aik Bangla Bane Nyara" and surprised the audience with his skill of singing in female voice as Lata Mangeshkar, Asha Bhonsle and Shamshad Begum. He also imitated the voices of Adnan Sami, Anoop Jalota and a few others. While a young Vikas Khanna from Canada sang Saigal's "Babul Mora" to a rapt audience.
An apt platform
It was Mohammad Rafi's earnest desire to sing with Saigal but in Saigal's lifetime, Rafi got a chance to sing with him only in chorus. So, to pay tribute to the singer on Rafi's behalf, Vikas sang "O Duniya Ke Rakhwale" and "Tere Mere Sapne" to the audience swaying to his melodious voice.
In programmes like this where you expect a discerning audience, the organisers often inflict their choices to get a seal of approval from them. Hence, in its `Sabras' section, it introduced some young singers of lesser calibre too who played a spoilsport.
Besides, the audience got to know Advani's love for Hindi films and Sathe's skill at singing Saigal in his college's days. "I sang in a Saigal competition in 1944 in my Nagpur Mahavidyalaya and got the first prize," Sathe disclosed.
Though the audience also appreciated other gifted singers as Jyotsna Rana, Bharti Singh, Sanjay Talwar, Narender Bhatia and Mukesh Khanna, but then they didn't want the golden evening to lose in glow. A half-filled auditorium by the end of the evening said it all!
RANA SIDDIQUI
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