Popular music bands from three SAARC nations - Bangladesh, Pakistan and India - left President Pranab Mukherjee and an audience of over 200 people mesmerized and enthralled with their nine reverberating, lilting and foot-tapping tunes at the Rashtrapati Bhawan auditorium here on Wednesday evening.
The nearly one-and-a-half hour-long concert was a curtain raiser for the eighth edition of the South Asian Bands Festival to be held within the Purana Qila complex between November 7 and 9.
Chirkutt from Bangladesh, Zebunissa Bangash from Pakistan and Mrigya from India performed for the President and those invited for the event.
Chirkutt from Bangladesh comprising of Emon Chowdhury (guitar, Mandolin, Banjo, Ukulele and Narsingha), Pavel Areen (drums and percussion, Sharmin Sultana Sumi (vocal and lyrics),Pintu Ghosh (vocals, tune, flute, violin, harmonium and percussion), Didar (bass) and Tomal (rhythm guitar) started off with a patriotic tune from Bangladesh, followed it up with the song Khajna and rounded off their performance with the tune Khanamachi from the movie "Television".
Chirkutt in Bangla means a piece of paper through which messages are sent. There genre of music is epic fusion.
The band was formed in 2002, but it was only in 2010 when they released their debut album Chirkuttnama, that they acquired a huge fan following back home.
The band also works on other genres of music, including rock, blues, Jazz, folk and classical. It said that its USP is their obsession with all things original in terms of folk tunes and their own compositions. It said that their brand of band music reflects love, peace, spirituality, humanity and their roots.
Pakistani singing sensation Zebunissa Bangash, who is popularly known as Zeb, and has forayed into Bollywood with her hit tracks in films like Madras Cafe and Highway, also sang three folk tunes-Paimana Bitte, Laili Jaan and Bibi Sanam Janam.
Zeb and her first cousin Haniya Aslam evolved from two college kids experimenting with music as a hobby in the United States to artists who have created one of the most anticipated albums in 2007. Zeb has been singing since age eight and has been training as a vocalist since 1998 with acclaimed Ustad Mubarak Ali Khan. Haniya is a guitarist, vocalist and songwriter.
Zeb and Haniya began their journey in music professionally in 2000, and their ascent continues today. Their songs capture the evocative richness of Pashto and Dari folk traditions.
Their sound is not confined to one genre, and has been described as alternative, art folk, ethnic blues and world music. Their influences are many, including pioneering pop and folk from Pakistan, 60s and 70s folk guitar-based music from the US and UK, classical South Asian music, classic jazz, delta blues.
New Delhi-based Indian fusion music band Mrigya performed two songs - Ganga Raag Jog and Kabira.
The band was formed in 1999 and its music is a combination of blues, folk, funk, Latin, Rock and Jazz along with Indian classical music.
Over the year the band has played at national and international music festivals.
The current band-members are: Sharat Chandra Srivastava (violin), Karan Sharma (guitar), Indraneel Hariharan (bass guitar), Sacchin Kapoor (keyboards), Gyan Singh (table), Rajat Kakkar (drums), Sukriti Sen (Hindustani classical vocals) and Jagtinder Singh Sidhu (Sufi vocals).
Wednesday's concert came to an end with the three bands playing coming together in a unique collaborative effort as a symbolic gesture of unity, harmony and friendship amongst the SAARC nations.Key representatives of the three bands were then felicitated by the President.
Apart from these three bands, the other bands taking part in the three-day South Asian Bands Festival are The Forsaken from Bhutan, The Herb and the Remedy from Sri Lanka, The Kinetic Operations from Maldives, Success from France, Alobo Naga And The Band (ANB) from Dimapur, Nagaland and The Ska Avengers among others.
The festival has been organized by Seher in collaboration with the Ministry of External Affairs and the Indian Council of Cultural Relations (ICCR), and brings together, all the SAARC countries and one guest country on one platform.
The objective of the festival is to spread the message of harmony and unity amongst people of the region.
