BHUBANESWAR: Sona Mohapatra went beyond the boundary of a musical concert and turned an ambassador for artistic expression at ‘Bhubanesariya’ here on Sunday night. The songstress did not just enthral with her powerful vocals but left a lasting impression with her call to preserve the rich Indian folk music tradition, need for reinvention in music as well as tolerance.
She paid glowing tributes to the rich artistry of the State, be it the beautiful Kotpad and Sambalpuri fabrics or the religious poetry by Bhakta Salabega.
‘Bhubanesariya,’ organised by The New Indian Express, Bhubaneswar saw Sona touch not just the heart of every member of the audience but the soul with her earnestness for creative liberty in a society. Punctuated by anecdotes on her experience with the trend of live music and folk music genre, the concert saw her also advocating women empowerment and keeping Odisha’s handloom tradition alive.
She came, she sang and she conquered. Songstress and daughter of the soil, Sona Mohapatra took a crowd of more than 2,000 on a two-hour musical journey that traversed through some of her soulful hits, the best of RD Burman songs and popular Bollywood numbers at ‘Bhubanesariya’, a concert organised by The New Indian Express.
To loud cheers and applause, Sona began the concert with a devotional number and shifted to ‘Aaja Ve’ from the album ‘Sona’ that she released in 2006. The highly energetic singer interacted with the audience that comprised both young and old, made them sing and even dance to her songs. Her conversation with them began with the beautiful and clean roads of Bhubaneswar, her first performance at Barbati Stadium, her love for silver filigree of Cuttack and the popular summer delight, Pakhala.
She split the concert into two sets - ‘Songs for the Soul’ and ‘Songs for the Feet’. Accompanied by six of her band members, she opened the songs for the Soul segment with rendition of ‘Piya Re’ by Sufi singer Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan and followed it with folk Punjabi song, ‘Jugni’ that she dedicated to the beautiful women of Odisha. The next on Sona’s list was ‘Meto Piya Se Naina’ that she had performed live in MTV Coke Studio.
A regular reader of The New Indian Express, Sona said the national daily always stood for investigative journalism and quality over quantity. She also took the occasion to appreciate the efforts of the State Government in introducing a 24X7 helpline for women (181) on the International Women’s Day on March 8. Dressed in a flowy dress made from Koraput’s Kotpad fabric, she also expressed her love for the rich handloom tradition of Odisha including Sambalpuri handloom.
The crowd broke into a huge round of applause when Sona rendered her version of Jitendra Haripal’s ‘Rangabati’. Referring to the Bhakti Movement, she also sang ‘Ahe Nila Saila’, the popular bhajan by late Bhikari Bala. Music, she said, has no language and boundaries. “Although I realise the pronunciation mistakes that I made in both ‘Rangabati’ and ‘Ahe Nila Saila’, it does not stop me from singing them because that is the only way we can take our music to a wider audience,” she said.
In a special tribute to RD Burman, she sang many of his hit numbers like ‘Chand Mera Dil’, ‘Bolo Bolo Kuch to Bolo’, ‘Aaja Piya Tohe Pyaar Dun’ and ‘Pucho Na Yaar Kya Hua’ and had the audience sway to her melodious voice.
In the ‘Songs for the Feet’ segment, the audience got to hear numbers like ‘Jiya Lage Na’ from Talash, ‘Udi Udi Jae’ from Raes, ‘Bedardi Raja’ from Delhi Belly and ‘Genda Phool’ from Delhi 6 besides, one of her most popular tracks - ‘Ambarsariya’. The concert ended with high-decibel dance numbers like ‘Koi Yahan Nache Nache’ and Jimmy Jimmy Aaja (Disco Dancer 1982) to make ‘Bhubanesariya’ a concert to remember for a long time.