It was a feast of duets, with three good singers- Vaiju Chandavale, Shalaka Ghaisas and Manjiri Latkar, accompanied by a decent set of male singers. Organised by Rajabhau Tikhe. A bit short on Kishore Kumar duets, saw a couple of rare ones like those of Shailendra Singh (from Do Jasoos- Purvaiyya leke chali meri naiyya), and Mukesh.
Yet another free music show- Pune's hidden treasure! This time I heard a good rendition of Aaj kal tere mere pyar ke charche.. (Mrunalini Chavan and Nitin Pendse) and also Yeh mera dil yaar ka Deewana from the performers.. some pics.
Bendre, the Emcee, was pretty good.
Could be inching towards the 30th in the last few weeks. But they are addictive. This one- on 29th July 2026- was dedicated to Mohammad Rafi, one of the great singers to have given us some immortal melodies. I liked his upbeat numbers with Shammi Kapoor the best. They had a rumbunctious quality unlike his other songs, which were good too.
Prasad Kulkarni, Monali Dubey, Sagar Atre and Mamata Borgaonkar did a good job. Others were Ok.
Ek pardesi mera dil le gaya by Prasad Kulkarni and Mamata.
Saw this musical show yesterday. Was familiar with two of the singers, who turned out to be the best- Ghafar Momin and Monali Dubey.. they sang a few good oldies, like Dil Pukare from Jewel Thief.
Another singer -Abhay Peshwe- was good too. He sang Phoolon ke Rang se..
The emcee, Ghanshyam Agarwal, had a great command of Urdu and Hindi, and was engaging! Also humourous at times.
A nice outing, all in all.. it was free too.
Zindagi ek safar hai suhana from Andaz, the most upbeat song about Life.. yodeling at its best.
Geet gaata hoon main, gungunaata hoon main.. from Lal Patthar, a serious film with some good songs.
Tum kitni khoobsurat ho.. from Jangal Mein Mangal.. a soft romantic number
More often, Shankar Jaikishan were know to team up with Mohhammad Rafi, and created some great melodies in his voice for Shammi Kapoor in particular.
Badan pe Sitare from Prince and Aji aisa mauka phir kahaan milega are two examples.
It's been a while since I participated in the game of songs we call Antakshari. Usually played with Hindi film songs, because most people would know a few, and can participate. Quite a successful attempt, as it went on for a hour or so, and we did not run out of songs, though it took some effort to remember them on the spot. You are supposed to do this from memory, not by Googling them. Pictorial evidence-
Though I am a bigger fan of Kishore Kumar, there are some superb songs sung by Mohammad Rafi that I like a lot. A sample-
1. Nazar na lag jaye kisi ki rahon mein.
2. Gulabi ankhen jo teri dekhi
3. Bekhudi mein sanam
4. Nisultana re pyar ka mausam aaya
5. O haseena zulfonwali jane jahaan
6. O mere shahe khuba o meri jane jhanaana
7. Main kahin kavi na ban jaun tere pyar mein ae Kavita
8. Baharon ki baraat aa gayi..
9. Jiya o jiya o jiya kuchh bol do..
10. Main zindagi ka saath nibhaata chala gaya..
I pronounce it the Japanese way- confirmed it from a couple of online sources. It is a mic on which pre-recorded songs exist, and you connect it to a TV for amplifying the sound and also display the lyrics which you can sing, while the music plays.
It's a great party tool, and I used it a lot while I was in Nagpur. Introduced a few colleagues to it to, and they took to it. Use it occasionally even now, as my family is into some singing of Hindi tunes from films. In our childhood, the popular game of Antakshari was played every chance we got, and that required no equipment. You just sang a couple of lines, and someone else continued.
It's easier with the karaoke mic, as the lyrics are visible, and the music plays along. There is a visual clue to guide you in the pace of singing, and there are a few variations possible. A song book tells you which songs are available, with their number, to select one to sing. I have managed to make quite a few people sing with it, who otherwise wouldn't.
A great invention, popularised by the Japanese and Koreans, who have a lot of bars using it. In India, I have seen a few in Goa.
Went to Chennai for a few days, after quite a while. I used to attend a December conference at Great Lakes Institute for a long time. This ...
