Rachit Bhatia and team excel in Dil Chahta Hai II
Venkat Raman
Auckland, October 12, 2023
The fact that New Zealand has homegrown talent that deserves to be encouraged and promoted here and elsewhere and that performers who close ranks and support fellow artists with a sense of humility and spirit of fraternity receive wide public support was proved at Dil Chahta Hai show held last weekend.
Rachit Bhatia, who led the event with a group of fellow performers at Dorothy Winstone Centre of Auckland Girls Grammar School on Saturday, October 7, 2023 deserves credit for success.
He sang several numbers from the 1960s to 2023 and regaled the young and the old.
Stutie (Junoo) Sharma, who was the Master of Ceremonies, was at her career best. Apart from engaging well with the audience (packed to capacity) and prompting them to join the performers in the chorus, she invited them to dance to the numbers and joined them.
Her vivacity appropriately matched the mood of the singers and members of the orchestra and the songs rendered reverberated well with the growing enthusiasm of the people.
Not stodgy, no entropy
Dil Chahta Hai II did not suffer a stodgy audience. There was no entropy here.
The programme began with ‘Om Deva, Deva Om,’ a devotional number from the Hindi film Brahmastra, sung by Kapil Bhagat. He did justice to the song, as much as performers Arijit Singh, Amitabh Bhattacharya and Jonita Gandhi did to composer Pritam and producers Karan Johar, Apoorva Mehta, Namit Malhotra, Ranbir Kapoor, Marijke DeSouza and Ayan Mukerji in the 2023 film. Brahmastra has been planned as a trilogy and it would be to the credit of Rachit and Kapil if they are given an opportunity to perform in the ensuing parts.
Arpita Chanda, a popular singer from our community brought back the memories of Guide (a novel by the late R K Narayan) and its lilting songs tuned by the late Sachin Dev Burman. She rendered ‘Piya Tose Naina Laage Re,’ doing justice to the composer and Lata Mangeshkar who rendered the song for Waheeda Rehman on whom the song sequence was picturised. Arpita is undoubtedly one of our gems and we have watched her career move from strength to strength.
Rachit did equal justice to S D Burman when he rendered a while later ‘Tere Mere Sapne Aab Ek Rang Hai,’ which Mohammed Rafi sang for hero Dev Anand.
Ritika Puri performed ‘Kehna Hai Kya’ from Bombay and other songs.
Dr Sanchit Bhatia, younger brother of Rachit, a practising dentist in North Brisbane (Australia) was at the show as an enthusiastic singer, adding to the rhapsody.
His rendition of ‘Na Tum Jano, Na Hum,’ an emotional song from ‘Kaho Na Pyar Hai’ was convincing.
Rachit chose ‘Ramta Jogi’ from Taal as his entry song earlier and was rewarded with resounding applause and went on to execute ‘Tere bin Nahin Lagda’ rendered in 1997 by Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan setting a record in the industry. Calls for an encore prompted him to render another song of Nusrat a few minutes later – ‘Tere Bin Nahin Lagda’ (sung by Tanishk B, Rahat and Asees K for Simmba).
An engaging artist
Rachit held the evening with hundreds of his admirers clapping and reminiscing as he rendered a medley of songs by Mohammed Rafi.
Beginning with the Title Track from Chaudhvin Ka Chand, Rachit took his admirers on a musical journey into the past. This Reporter remembers the stir that the song caused (in 1960) among the movie-going public and lovers of melody- the breathtaking song made Chaudhvin Ka Chand a box-office hit. Written by Shakeel Badayuni and tuned by Ravi, the song was picturised on Guru Dutt and Waheeda Rehman and won the Best Lyrist and Best Male Playback Singer honours at the Filmfare 1961 Awards.
Rachit brought back the memories of Mohammed Rafi with ‘Tere Mere Sapne’ (from Guide), ‘Na Ja Kahin Ab Na Ja’ (Mere Humdum Mere Dost) and ‘Ehsaan Tera Hoga’ (Junglee) who lent his voice for superstars of yesteryears- Dev Anand, Dharmendra and Shammi Kapoor.
Shammi Kapoor, one of the most popular actors in the Hindi film industry for five decades from 1953, was instrumental in the success of not only films but also songs and song sequences. His ability to follow the moves of choreographers brought life into the melodies tuned by famous music directors. One such was ‘Aaj Kal Tere Mere Pyar Ke Charche’ an immensely popular song of 1968 written by Shailendra for Shankar Jaikishan for ‘Brahmachari.’
Rachit presented the number with a high degree of professionalism.
Those of us in film journalism at that time will not forget the shooting of the song sequence with singers Mohammed Rafi and Suman Kalyanpur. Shammi Kapoor improvised and improved on the movements taught earlier (by Dance Master Herman Benjamin), co-star Mumtaz coped with his fast pace and Pran watched with jealousy. The movie was a major box-office success and brought six Filmfare Awards to G P Sippy (Best Film) Shammi Kapoor (Best Actor), Shankar Jaikishan (Music Directors), Shailendra (Best Lyricist), Mohammed Rafi (Best Singer) and Sachin Bhowmick (Best Story).
Tribute to a Guru
Rachit paid tribute to his Guru Amit Sengupta (whose programmes were promoted by Indian Newslink until a few years ago), requesting him to accompany him on the Harmonium to render ‘Madhuban Mein Radhika Naache Re,’ one of the most popular songs of the 1960s, still remembered for its lyrics (by Shakeel Badayuni) and melody (composed by Naushad Ali) and superb rendition (Mohammed Rafi). The scene picturised on Dilip Kumar (who passed away on July 2, 2021) has remained everyone’s delight.
The Rachit-Amit combination at Dil Chahta Hai was veritable. During an interview in the late 1970s, Dilip Kumar said that, ahead of the shooting of the song sequence, he learnt Sitar for six months from Ustad Halim Jaffar Khan (of Beenkar Gharana of Indore in Madhya Pradesh) so that he could ‘experience the tarana in the song.’
Amit was pleased – so did the audience – that his student rendered the song to near perfection. As he later mentioned, ‘Madhuban Mein Radhika Naache Re’ has transcended political differences across borders and hailed as one of the finest musical compositions.’
Rachit’s endowment as a songwriter was evident in two of his own compositions which he performed with sincerity- ‘Pagal Dil’ and ‘Usko.’ These two numbers were among the highlights of Dil Chahta Hai II. This prompted a music enthusiast to say, “Rachit Bhatia the Lyricist has arrived.”
Among the other notable songs rendered at the event were Yeh Dil Yeh Pagal Dil (Mafia), Tanha Dil (Original track by Shaan), Kya Kare Kya Na Kare (Rangeela) and Mitwa (Khabi Alvida Na Kehna).
The ever-popular Spiritual Sufi Qawwali Dama Dam Mast Qalandar reverberated through the auditorium as Rachit and his group chose to send the audience into raptures. The song, written in honour of Lal Shahbaz Qalandar, a revered Sufi Saint has been sung by almost all Hindi and Urdu singers in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh.
A family and group of melody and love
Although Rachit stole the show, Dil Chahta Hai II was a team effort, led by Rajesh and Renu Bhatia.
As well as the singers and the vivacious MC Stutie (Junoo) Sharma, the evening belonged to Crew Manager Aishwarya Bhatia, Stage Manager Dimple Vagal, AV Production Engineer Nikhil Bhuchar, Sound Engineer Chaitanya Rajapurkar), Stage Manager Dimple Vagal.
A special mention and statement of honour is reserved for the orchestra which was a major instrument of success of the programme: Hemant Thaker (Lead Keyboards), Cloyd D’Mello (Keyboard and Vocal), Nigal Kishore (Drums, Percussions and Vocal) Don Dilantha (Guitar), Everard Fernandes (Bass), Prashant Datt (Tabla, Dholak and Dhol) and Tomomi Johnston (Saxophones and Flute).
As the curtains were drawn, many were heard talking to the Bhatia family: “Please let us know the date of the event in 2024 because we would like to be with you. And yes, you may have to look for a larger venue, because hundreds of people who missed the show tonight would not like to repeat the mistake next year.”
