By Wilson Saldanha, Shirthady/Kuwait
Daijiworld Media Network - Kuwait
Kuwait, Sep 17: A general thinking in the minds of people is 'Konkani is a language of Mangaloreans' and has a limitation due to which activities in this language are usually confined to a certain population. Still there has been many efforts throughout the world to represent this language through many associations. Many music CDs in Konkani are released, many competitions are conducted and many events are organized in India, Gulf and many other countries to make it international. Still it has failed to be an international language and limited to a community.
As an effort to make Konkani more popular, Youth Recreation Centre Kuwait has taken a step ahead. During Gulf Voice of Mangalore Season 4 semis on Friday September 19 at the American International School auditorium, Kuwaiti singer Mubarak Rashed will be performing a Konkani song. Even though many Indian Bollywood singers have sung Konkani songs earlier, there is no record of any foreigner doing so. It will be an exciting moment to listen a Kuwaiti national singing Konkani for the first time which will be a record in the history of Konkani.
Mubarak Al Rashed Al Azmi, a Kuwaiti national is a very big fan of Bollywood oldies and is popularly known as Kishore Kumar of Kuwait. He has sung many Kishore Kumar melodies during Indian events which have been liked by the crowd. Even though he cannot speak Hindi, his accent and clarity in uttering Hindi lyrics is commendable.
Mubarak’s love for Indian films began at a young age when he saw mega star Amitabh Bachchan on television screen for the first time. It happened long back when he was dining in one of the Indian restaurants; he liked the Hindi music which was playing there and started to hum the lyrics.
Mubarak’s initial experiments with singing were restricted to occasional humming within the confines of his room. With regular practice, he somewhat mastered the art of singing. Even though he admires Mohammed Rafi, he likes to sing Kishore hits as his voice resemble his. It took him almost seven years of watching Hindi movies continuously to understand the lyrics and sing in a fluent manner.
Mubarak's first stage debut was during 2008 Saregama performance. Since then, he has performed in many Indian stage shows inviting huge applause from overwhelmed audience. When I approached him to sing a Konkani song for GVOM, he hesitated and but was ready to sing a Kishore hit instead. When I sent a Konkani song with lyrics in Arabic and a video link, he changed his mind a little. When there was singing rehearsal for contestants, Mubarak agreed to come. Before entering into the practice room, we both sat in the car to check the lyrics as the words in Arabic script completely differ from Kannada/Devanagari scripts. After a 20-minute warm up, we entered the practice room. All the musicians were stunned to see him as this was confidential and they were asked only to prepare the music. When he started to sing all of them gazed in awe as it was a unique and amazing moment to see a Kuwaiti singing with perfect tune. His videos can be viewed on YouTube by typing 'Mubaral Al Azmi Kuwait'.
Let us wait and see how far he can meet the expectations and touch the hearts of the audience. Along with his performance, there will be bundle of entertainment scheduled to make the GVOM semi-final event more exciting.
After the competition visiting artistes Anitha D'Souza and Prashanth Raj along with previous GVOM Orson D'Souza and Gladys Lorena will entertain the audience with songs. Rib-tickling comedy by Kuwait's popular stage artistes Stephen Machado, Anil Menezes, Renny Menezes, Lucy Aranha and Rajesh Fernandes on jokes written by writer/ poet/ stage artiste Lancy Rodrigues is bound to create a riot of laughter. Scintillating dances by Desi Strikers who are popular for their theme dances and 7 piece live music by Kuwait's famous Konkani musicians 'Muzik Colllective' under the leadership of Kiran Gonsalves will be the special attractions of the day.