All faces in the packed-to-capacity Tagore Theatre looked glum and every eye lachrymose. The occasion was the first death anniversary of Bharat Ratna Lata Mangeshkar, affectionately known as the Nightingale of India, who passed into eternity on February 6, 2022. Memories of Lata’s melody came alive at the mega musical show organised at Tagore Theatre, Sector 18, Chandigarh on February 5.
The programme, christened ‘Alive Forever Lata Mangeshkar’, was organised by Musical Waves in association with Rotary Chandigarh Midtown and Patheos Welfare League. Bollywood’s proverbial ‘baddie’ veteran actor Ranjeet, graced the musical evening as celebrity chief guest.
Sharing his fond memories with the Lata Mangeshkar, veteran actor Rajit went nostalgic as he narrated an incident dating back to the days of his earlier days in the dream city of Bombay (now Mumbai). “I had my first encounter with Lataji at an award function. The moment she spotted me on the stage, she called me out through some one. I was aghast. I went to her and introduced myself, timidly though. She immediately turned witty and said “You are doing good” adding Par Koi Achha Kaam Kar lo (Do some nice stuff), leaving all around in splits. He also dedicated a song to her as an invocation to Goddess Saraswati –Jindagi ke safar mein guzar jaate hai jo mukam, woh phir nahir aate (film Aapki Kasam – 1974)
As many as 15 acclaimed singers from Punjab, Haryana and UT Chandigarh regaled the music lovers with their scintillating renditions, one after the other. They handpicked some of the popular numbers immortalised by the Swar Kokila Lata Mangeshkar, and the iconic music legends like Mohammad Rafi, Kishore Kumar, Mukesh and Manna Dey, who ruled the golden era of divine music bequeathed by them to the generations to come.
Prominent among those who doled out some of the choicest musical numbers of the legendary singers of the times included Param Chandel, Brijesh Ahuja, Tarun Chandel, Rajesh Ulfat, Vikas Singla, Deepak Garg, Abhijeet, Rani Suman, Sangeeta Sehgal, Komal Bhardwaj, Guri Kaur, Vaishali, Rutvi Singh, Dr Swarthi, Dr Pradeep Bhardwaj and Dr. Gurpreet Singh Mavi.
However, the show-stopping renditions of the musical soiree in the memory of goddess of music and muse, which included the invocation song Tum aasha vishwas hamare, tum dharti aakash hamare doled out by Komal in her dulcet voice; Naam gum jayega chehra yeh badal jayega, meri aawaz hi pehchan hai… (film Kinara – 1971) a duet by Brijesh Ahuja and Sangeeta Sehgal; Meri kahani bhoolne wale, tera jahan aawad rahe… (film Deedar -1951), Madhuban mein Radhika Naache re, Girdhar ki muraliya baaje re… (film Kohinoor – 1960) and Chehre Pe giri julfen keh doa toa hatta dun mein gustakhi maaf.. by Dr Gurpreet Singh Mavi (film Suraj – 1966), forcing the audience to groove to the melodoius tunes of the bygone era. Suresh Nayak, a prominent face in the field of music, arranged the music score.
