Richa, Harpreet lift R.D. Burman awards

Richa, Harpreet lift R.D. Burman awards
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, January 23
At the end of every musical evening, one ends up wishing rhythms were not subjected to judgment. But as custom would have it, the process of declaring winners was repeated today at Tagore Theatre, which came alive with immortal musical compositions of R.D. Burman, presented by talented youngsters from the region.

Aided by prefect orchestration created on the space of performance by nine instrumentalists based in Chandigarh, participants in the 12 All-India R.D. Burman Award competition organised by Majlis Journalists and Artistes Association, competed for the three prizes each in the girls’ and the boy’s category.

While Richa Sharma from Ropar walked away with the first prize for her presentation of the R.D. Burman classic “Hame tumse pyaar kitna…”, which fetched the national award for Begum Parveen Sultana, Amrita Mishra and Esha received the second and the third prizes, respectively. Isha’s rendition of “Katra katra…”, the sensuous song picturised on Rekha in Gulzar’s Ijazat”, was particularly impressive.

Special prizes in the girls category went to Shikha Nanda and Suvanshu. The interesting part of the evening was that five out of six girl contestants were rewarded for their efforts.

Among boys, Harpreet Singh from Mohali was declared the winner, followed by Rupinder Singh who stood second. Bharat Lal and Kewal Utsav shared the third prize.

While the 16 contestants did their bit on stage, guest singers Brijesh Ahuja, Rajiv, Baani and Richa Sharma also kept the pace going. Among the timeless musical sequences of R.D. Burman presented today were “Ek chaturnaar,” beautifully rendered by Brijesh and Rajiv, “Raina beeti jaye,” “Mehbooba” and “Baahon mein chale aao”…

Instrumentalists also had a fair share in the evening’s success. In between the show, each one of them played separate pieces to exhibit their talent.

The orchestra group was headed by Raman Kant, music conductor of the show; Raman and Dr Arun Kumar were on the keyboard; Vavel Sharma on flute, Bubbles on the saxophone, Sushant Sharma on guitar, Chandy on the drums, Subhash on congo and Santosh Kataria on tabla. Judges for the evening were Brijesh Ahuja, Raman Kant and Reeta Sharma.

Chief Guest at the show, Mr H.K. Dua, Editor-in-Chief of The Tribune, introduced music in a rather nostalgic way. He said: “The organisers of the show have an tremendous sense of humour. Why else would they invite a person from a profession that strikes jarring notes. When we journalists praise politicians, it is sweet music to their ears.”