Singers belt out hits of AR Rehman , Darbar at Swaratarang event

A galaxy of young and aspiring music artistes enthralled the audience at Vasantrao Deshpande hall on Tuesday, as they sang difficult and popular movie songs with commendable ease. Swaratarang Music Academy organized the ‘Hits of AR Rehman and Ismail Darbar’ tribute concert to give a platform to its talented students. The academy organizes such concerts every few months.
Well-known singer Niranjan Bobde, who worked on the concept and direction of the show, opened the concert with a melodious rendition of ‘O palan haare’, along with student Minal Dhoble.Inu Majumdar sang ‘Ek tu hi bharosa’, dedicating it to the martyrs of the Uri attack. “If all of us channelize energy towards one thing, the universe does listen, I believe,” she said.
Bobde presented a qawaali, ‘mere maula’ which had the audience clapping loudly, and Bobde even gave in to a ‘once-more’ cheer. The programme, apart from highlighting young local talent and giving them a platform, gave the message of one god despite different religions.
The performers sang difficult songs with commendable confidence and rhythm. Parvathi Nair, who sang ‘yeh tara woh tara’ had a childlike quality to her voice, no less than the original singer of the song from ‘Swades‘.
Gauri Shinde’s thumri from Devdas was well appreciated, while Sharayu Billa’s ‘dil hai chota sa’ won many hearts. Arya Rajpurkar sang ‘Ghanan’ from the Amir Khan movie Lagaan. Aishwarya Nagrajan, Isabul Hasan, Sanjivani Buty, Mangesh Deshpande, Pratik Jain, Sarika Thatte, Harshal Palkar and Nimisha Shrivastav sang other movie hits for the night.
Shweta Shelgaonkar anchored the show, comparing the skills and peculiarities of superstar composer AR Rehman and composer-violinist Ismail Darbar. Clips relating to the song were screened behind the performers and seven-star orchestra was roped in to accompany the singers.