Doha: Iconic Singer Alka Yagnik Weaves Magic at ICBF’s 'Rhythm 2011'
Alexis Castelino
Daijiworld Media Network - Doha
Doha, Sep 16: Bollywood is never short of idols. Be it actors, dancers or singers, it has always thrown up a special talent that has swayed generations for long. While actors always have huge fan following, over the years there have been some singers who have acquired more fame, fans and goodwill than actors. While legendary singers Mohd Rafi, Kishor Kumar, Mangeshkar sisters Lata and Asha are still the top-most role models to any aspiring singers, there has been one more addition to this glittering list over the last two decades. The female who forced all and sundry to the dance floor with one of the greatest dance numbers of all time ‘Ek Do Teen’ Alka Yagnik has stepped into the shoes of Mangeshkar Sisters and has proved to be an able successor.
She again proved as to why she is rated as the top female playback singers for such a long time with her mesmerizing performance at ‘Rhythm 2011’ presented by Indian Community Benevolent Forum (ICBF) here on Thursday September 16, 2011 evening. It was one of the best shows ever and Alka Yagnik along with her troupe kept the audience spellbound with her enchanting performance.
Alka has reigned supreme in Bollywood in the last two decades while the Lata Mangeshkar and Asha Bhonsle still are the legends. She has bagged four film-fare awards and two national awards for her in her glittering career. Though she had belted out foot-tapping ‘Mere Angane Me Tumhara Kya Kaam Hai’ for the movie Lawaris in the early 80s, it was ‘Eik Do Teen’ that proved to be a chartbuster for her. She followed it up with ‘So Gaya hai Rasta’ and popular numbers of movie Qayamat se Qayamat Tak’, Saajan, Dewana etc. She has lent her voice to some of the most popular numbers such as Gazab ka Yeh Din, Aisi Dewan-gi, Bazigar oh Bazigar, Ghunghat ki Aad se, Bahon ki Darmi-yan, Pardesi Pardesi. She till today ranks on the top among the post Mangeshkar generation singers that began around the early 90s.
On Thursday evening she was again at her best as she presented hits after hits at the jam-packed Doha cinema. Her numbers such as ‘Tum Paas Aaye’, ‘Dekha hai Pehli baar’, ‘Bol Radha Bol’, ‘Ghungat ki Aad se’, ‘Choli ke peeche’, ‘Bol Chunariya’ along with the blockbuster dance numbers ‘Ringa Ringa’ and ‘Eik Do Teen’ delighted the audience who had come in big numbers.
She was accompanied on vocals by another Bollywood talent Charan Rana who belted out hit numbers such as ‘Ek Ajnabi’, Tere Mast Mast Do Nain’, All is Well’ etc along with some hit Marathi numbers. The Alka Yagik-Chetan duo literally had the audience dancing to their tunes as Doha cinema soon turned out to be dance floor.
The programme was organized by Indian Community Benevolent Forum (ICBF), an unique charitable organization under the aegis of Embassy of India, Doha is relentlessly working for providing financial, medical, legal, repatriation and various other types of humanitarian assistances to the needy and deserving members of Indian Community residing at Qatar. ICBF also regularly provides the items of daily needs to male and female inmates of Deportation Centre and jail, food supply to stranded laborers and arranges to send the mortal remains of the deceased as well as disabled/critically ill persons back to their home in India. ICBF has provided such assistances to more than 30,000 deserving persons during last 25 years
Hence in order to raise the resources of providing above financial assistance for needy and deserving members of the Indian Community, ICBF organized a musical programme ‘Rhythm 2011’ by Alka Yagnik and her troupe on September 15 evening.
Ashok Mishra a talented and well known stand-up comedian accompanied the troupe as compere and kept the whole evening alive with jokes and mimicry.
The troupe was well supported by Derrick Alexander on guitar, singer,Robin Fargose on key board,Krishnendu Mukherjee on bass guitar, Romeo Lewis on drums, Vikramijit Singh on octopad and Manish Thumbare on congo and dholak. The group was lead by manager Neeraj Mishra.
Evening began with announcement of sponsors who supported for the good cause by Arvind Patil and HPS Bhullar.MC of the evening Usha Ravi Shankar briefed about ICBF and programme. Nilangshu Dey, president of ICBF welcomed the gathering.
Stage progaramme was conducted by versatile Habbun Nabi. While the chief guest of the evening Ambassador of India Deepa Gopalan Wadhwa was escorted by ICBF president Nilangshu Dey, guest of honour Ambassador of Nepal Dr Surya Nath Mishra was escorted by general secretary Divakar Poojary,Alka Yagnik was esscorted by Mani Rathi, Anil Nautiyal CCO & Second Secretay Embassy of India was escorted by Devis. Dr Kunhammed, managing director of Focus Medical Centre and title sponsor of the show was escorted by Mohd.Easa. Along with the all managing committee members too were present on the dais.
Deepa Gopalan Wadhwa and Nepal ambassdor Dr Surya Nath Mishra released the broacher which contained the details of show and ICBF.also launched Information Booklet for Indians in Qatar.
Ambassador of India Deepa Gopalan Wadhwa addressed gathering and thanked all the sponsors for their support for the good cause and presented the memento to Alka Yagnik.
More than 1500 people witnessed the show
Main sponsors of the evening were SASCO, Safari Group of Companies, Behzad Group and Intertec while Focus Medical Centre was the title sponsor.
Ali International, Ramada, Lulu, Voltas Limited, Qatar UAE Exchange, Doha Bank, Gulf Incon, Mega Mart, Petrotec, Cape East, Galfar and Trust Exchange were the co-sponsors while Air India, Advanced Technical Services Company, Emerald, AlMuftah, Al-Sulaiman Jewellery, Emad Traders ,Jumbo electronics, Satco International, Centre Point, Mannai Air Travel, Kuwait Airways, MEBD, FFC, DEIMAJ Group, Al-Jazeera Printing, Hamptons, Grand Mart, Petropac Qatar, We serve Group, NGK, Visual Plus, Insulation Engineering Company, Doha Grand Hotel, Qatar Meta Coats, Qatar Design Consortium, Brunel Energy, Ready Mix Qatar, Al Khaleej Modern Lights, Al-Muftah rent a car, Castle Constructions, Global MF Batteries, and Grand Mart were the associate sponsors of the show.