Jazba Band and Absolute Event Tech pay tribute to the legendary Lata Mangeshkar

By Manju Mittal

Here is a little sneak review of a mesmerising concert in tribute to the great Indian legendary singer, Lata Mangeshkar. Sydney’s talented singers and musicians captivated the house full audience at Pioneer Theatre, Castle Hill recently. Absolute Event Technology (AET) presented the event  hosted by Avijit Sarkar. In Sydney, Covid-19 restrictions have just been lifted. Inside the Pioneer theatre on Saturday March 12, it seems restrictions never ever existed, function hall buzzed with so much energy, all smiling and mingling each other as if out of some jail.

We have lost the nightingale of Indian Cinema Lata Mangeshkar in February this year. She was the legend of Bollywood playback singing. Lata, by calling her melody queen or malika-e-tarrannum, we honour her, as she rules our hearts for good six decades. Lata is such a name which will be forever remembered fondly during her life and even more so now that she has gone we pining even more listening to her songs through youtube, spotify and other digital sources.  We listen to her songs when we are sad, happy, feeling spiritual or even otherwise. Lata’s voice creates a magical atmosphere to each listener: ‘Tumhari awaz hi pehchaan hai’.

It has been my good fortune that I was able to share special moments with the legendary Lata Mangeshkar when I did a telephonic interview on  March 16, 2017 when I called her at her residence in Mumbai. We had a heart to heart cosy conversation which I will cherish forever.

Sydney’s well known handsome and talented anchor Kartik Mohandas was Emcee for the evening as he warmed up the audience and welcomed the artists who were eager to relive the Lata phenomenon.  Concert commenced with the hauntingly beautiful song ‘Kahin deep jale, kahin dil’ by the very talented well-known Pushpa Jagadish, she is described as the Lata of Australia. Pushpa grew up in an environment soaked with music. Pushpa was a top rated artists for All India Radio and Doordarshan for 12 years before she moved to Sydney. She has given a number of public performances entertaining Sydneysiders.

Pushpa also included other hit songs of Lata ‘Ek pyar ka nagma hai’, ‘Yeh zindgi usi ki hai’, ‘Aaj phir jeene ki tamanna hai’and ‘Hontho pe aisi baat’. Listening to her soothing voice was a sheer delight on this night. The passionate duets of the evening followed by Pushpa Jagadish and Avijit Sarkar ‘Tere liye’ from movie Veer Zara and ‘Dil deevana bin sajna ke’ by Sadiq Rehmani and Pushpa.

Charming Rucha Lange is a wonderful singer and indeed has some resemblance to the mystical Lata as far as the voice goes, she captured the audience’s attention with beautiful hit number ‘Aapki nazro ne samjha’, ‘Bahon mein chale aao’, ‘jiya jale’ and ‘Pyar kiya toh darna kya’, what a high pitch that was. Her performance not only took Lata lovers of pure classical music down the memory lane but also she left audience asking for more.

Vikas Kolar took the stage next and his rendition of with the soft romantic Lata’s popular song ‘Lag ja gale’ was a standout. Vikas Kolar is a talented singer who knows the art of mesmerizing. He performed a few hit duets with Pushpa and Rucha such as ‘Yeh dil tum bin’, ‘Aisa desh hai mera’, ‘Luka chuppi’ and many more.  Another enjoyable song was ‘Inhi logo ne’ by Shivangi Vyas Doshi with her very fresh and sweet voice.

Rucha sang few other memorable numbers of Lata with Avijit Sarkar and Sadiq ‘Pyar hua iqrar hua’, ‘Do pal ka’ and ‘Tum aa gaye ho’ and many more.

While the audience had anticipated singing talents, the magic of live Jazba band sound was brilliant. Avijit recognised their skills and praised each performer Tabla master Abhijit Dan, Sadiq Rehmani on guitar, Akbar on Keyboard, Rakesh Swami on Drums and Sanjeev Raja played other instrument.

Another highlight of the show was medley by all the performers. Rucha Lange continued the mood with the song from movie ‘Veer Zara”. Pushpa, Rucha and Shivangi, they all did befitting justice to the songs of Lata Mangeshkar.

This has been the most delightful Saturday evening I have had in months. Great audience and great food are the ingredients for a memorable evening. Well, the food stall from Jaggi’s Restaurant serving delicious food, lassi and chai at reasonable prices filled the hungry stomachs. AET presented delightful evening ‘Tribute to Lata‘ and thus gave Sydney an evening to remember for a long time. Hoping it will become a regular feature for us every year by the Jazba band and AET in memory of great Lata Mangeshkar.

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