Mehfil-E-Sham brings out the nostalgic best

By Manju Mittal

Sydney came alive on Sunday February 2, 2014 with a Mehfil-e-Sham organised by India Club. The event held at Epping Centre. Guest of honours were in the evening Consul General Mr. Arun Goel and his wife Alka Goel, The Hon Mr. David Clarke MLC Parliamentary Secretary for Justice and Mrs. Marisa Clarke. The program began with speeches by Shubha Kumar the president of India Club, Mr. Arun Goel and The Hon Mr. David Clarke.

Meena Mahanty Kumar started the evening with the sizzling number’Aaj ki raat’ from Don with her very fresh and soothing voice. The passionate duet followed by Meena and Thiru ‘Naam gum jayega’ from movie Kinara.

Meena Mahanty Kumar with Thiru

Arun Nanda entertained the audience with his beautiful song ‘Janam dekh lo’ from movie ”˜Veer Zara’ also another old hit song ‘Gulabi aankhe jo teri dekhi’ from movie ”˜The Train’. It was an interesting choice and he captured the audience’s attention with his vocal brilliance. A  Rajesh Khanna nostalgic number set an exciting, passionate romantic mood for the evening.

Voice of India Monika Geetmala’s broadcaster Shailja Chandra was MC for the evening who warmed up the audience with humorous stories. She welcomed artists of the evening Vinod Rajput, Pushpa Jagdish, Suhas Mahajan and Reena Mehta. Vinod Rajput and Reena Mehta started off to a thundering applause with the soft romantic number  ”˜Chura liya hai tumne jo dil ko’.  Well the evening was in for songs that stole our hearts.

Another enjoyable song was ”˜hontho pe aisi baat main daba ke’ by Reena Mehta. Reena’s beautiful delivery along with the timbre of her alto vocal range brought out the sweet deeply flirtatious quality of the song. Despite being very sick Reena did her best to perform that shows she is really dedicated singer and performer.

 

MC Shailja Chandra

Suhas Mahajan’s solo song ”˜Yeh sham mastani’ was amazing he performed a few Kishore Kumar tunes and treated us to his hilarious impressions of Rajesh Khanna. Equally hauntingly nostalgic were the duets ”˜Do pal ka dilo’ and ”˜Ek pardesi mera dil’ by Vinod Rajput and Pushpa. Vinod Rajput touched a chord with his melodious renditions. He has been conjuring up magic with his songs and enthralling the audience. His performance of old song ”˜Nakhre wali’ was hilarious and he made female audience sing along as they clapped and eagerly participated. Pushpa Jagdish then came on the stage with the soft romantic number ”˜Aage bhi jane na tu’ she made couples dance along. She sang few other memorable numbers ans Suhas Mahajan followed with ”˜Chaudhavi ka chand’ to a rapt audience. Old songs have deep seated emotions and memories attached to them right back to our school days. The evening ended with song ”˜Radha tera jhumka’ by all four singers, made audience dance and sing along.

 

Reena Mehta with Vinod Rajput

This musical evening experience was very different as singers encouraged interaction with the audience in an informal atmosphere thus the listeners felt involved and evening turned out to be quite entertaining from the audience’s perspective. Also the listeners get the best out of each performer as they bring out their best when many singers are performing.

Great audience and good food are the ingredients for a memorable evening. After Mehfil-e-Sham delicious dinner was served by Ajay Raj Maya Da Dhaba was icing on the cake. Running the sound system Dimple DJ did an excellent job. Organisers of the Mehfil President of India Club Shubha Kumar and Akshay Kumar gave Sydney a memorable musical evening and did an excellent job in organising the mehfil.

”˜Sari duniya ke ranjo gham se dur, taaro ki duniya se aaye kuch sitare, gunguna rahe they wo sab, hath mein un sabke na tha koi saaz, subhan allah kitni meethi hai aap sabki awaz….’ as I went home I didn’t realise I was humming all those songs that had surfaced from my memory of long gone days. Thanks to a great Mehfil-e-Sham.

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