Dorothy Winstone Centre, May 25 at 630 pm
Venkat Raman
Nobody is giving away anything, rehearsals continue with veterans perfecting their skills and as the show nears, some whispers reach our ears: “This would be a show with a difference, at a scale so high that even the organisers doubt if they would be able to repeat it.”
Loyalty is a precious and hence a rare commodity but Sandhya Badakere of ‘Swar Sadhana Academy of Indian Music’ and Ravi Shetty of ‘Ravi Shetty Concepts’ have remained loyal to a number of people and organisations including Indian Newslink and all of us have continuously reposed our faith in them and returned that compliment.
Which is why, ‘Suneheri Yaadein Pancham Magic’ (Tribute To RD Burman), scheduled to be held on Saturday, May 25, 2019 at 630 pm at Dorothy Winstone Centre, Auckland Girls Grammar School will be unique, reverberating the compositions of a great musician perhaps forever.
Tickets, priced at $20 are now on sale.
About SPCA
Ms Badakere said that a part of the proceeds of the Programme have been earmarked for the Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA).
“SPCA does a splendid job of protecting animals. It costs about $40 million a year to take care of the tens of thousands of animals that need our help. With less than 1% of government funding, SPCA relies on our generosity of the community,” she said.
Mr Shetty that each year ‘Suneheri Yaadein’ presents something new and interesting.
Local talent to the fore
“We are presenting Greg and Amity on Saxophone and Trumpet along with our band. We will have a Rhythm Range comprising Kristifer Kumar (Percussions), Navneel Prasad (Tabla), Nigal Kishore (Electric Drums, Congo, Bongo and Percussions), Ron Kishore (Octapad and Percussions) and Vivek Anturkar (Tabla); a Keyboard Segment with Cloyd D’Mello and Hemant Thaker; a Brass Section featuring Amity and Greg Rogan on Saxophone, Clarinet and Flute; a Strings Segment with Darshan Lange (Rhythm Guitar), Ravi Shah (Lead Guitar) and Vishnu Sreekumar (Bass Guitar),” he said.
This year’s Programme will feature 12 singers, including Gopal Nair, Guncha Singh, Joseph Jose, Kanik Mongia, Mayuri Bhole, Rachit Bhatia, Ravi Shetty, Ritika Badakere, Sandhya Badakere, Shikha Shethia, Siddhi Nigudkar, Srisha Iyer and Vibha Trivedi.
“About 50 people are involved in ‘Suneheri Yaadein Pancham Magic 2019,’ and we have been working like a family,” Ms Badakere said.
About RD Burman
I met RD Burman in Bahrain in 1989, with several other Hindi film heavyweights of the 1980s including Asha Bhosle, her daughter Varsha, Rishi Kapoor and Neetu Singh prior to their Concert and sitting down with them, learnt a little more about the great composer.
Like his father, Sachin Dev Burman, RD was a creative genius, capable of enlivening the lyrics with deft use of musical instruments and voices of singers to high levels of professionalism and audience acceptance.
He improvised as he set tunes to various film sequences, engaging in serious discussions with directors, lyricists, members of his troupe, singers and sometime even with common people. His repertorie was so strong that his songs would write the fate of the film concerned; and even those that bombed at the box-office would be known for their lilting music, making RD Burman one of a kind.
Strong family linkage
It was perhaps of the strong linkage of music that ran in his family (his mother Meera Dev Burman was a lyricist) that RD composed his first song when he was just nine years old. The song, ‘Aye Meri Topi Palat Ke Aa,’ was composed for his father’s 1956 film ‘Funtoosh.’
He also composed ‘Sar Jo Tera Chakraaye’ when he was a child SD Burman is reported to have included it in the soundtrack of Guru Dutt’s ‘Pyaasa.’ He played Mouth Organ for the song, ‘Hai Apna Dil To Aawara,’ composed by his father for ‘Solva Saal’ (1958).
Salil Chowdhury, another great music composer described RD as ‘by far the stand-out talent among the younger line of composers.
“He was at all times innovative like me, at all times experimenting like me. In fact, I would go step further and rank him alongside all the top composers of my generation, such was his range and variety,” he said.
RD Burman was credited with having introduced the Electronic Organ to Indian films and making Electronic Rock popular in the Indian film industry.
He composed music for 331 including and was known as ‘Jet-Set, Trend-Setter.’
