BENGALURU: A retro evening inspired by Kannada richness Bollywood and rock music nights are a common sight in Bengaluru. Amidst such shows, one music club in the city aims to showcase Kannada song performances.
The club Musical Peace of Mind attempts to display the richness of old Kannada songs to Bengalureans. Their musical evening will have performances of Kannada retro hit songs by veterans such as PB Srinivas, SP Balasubrahmanyam, Dr Rajkumar, P Susheela and S Janaki. The show called “Namma Kannada Haadugalu” will be held on May 12 from 6.30 pm to 9.30 pm at Chowdaiah Memorial Hall.
Some of the popular performers include HS Srinivasa Murthy, Ajay Warriar, Rajiv Agali, Naagachandrika Bhat, Samanvitha Sharma, Rumana Ahmed, Harshavardhana Raj and master of the ceremony Roopa Gururaj.
Passionate about Classics
Musical Peace of Mind was started in 2009 by BG Raj, a management consultant, fashion designer and garment exporter. The club’s operations- in -charge and partner has been Sapna Prakash who has been involved in the club’s music activities for fourteen years.
Raj is passionate about music and has staged various shows of old Hindi retro songs till date. He donates the income earned from these shows to charity. “I haven’t done these shows for monetary benefits. The surpluses from these events are always given away to charity. My main intention of organising such shows is to attain peace of mind because when I do these shows I will have the satisfaction of passing this divine music on to music lovers out there.” says Raj.
Letter from Shammi Kapoor
Having done various shows with music director Lakshmikant Pyarelal, actor Rishi Kapoor, composer Ravi Kumar, he wanted to do an event with veteran actor Shammi Kapoor too. With great enthusiasm he organised everything for the event; the halls, five star hotel rooms for the actor, tickets and so on, but unfortunately because of Mumbai attacks of November 11 the same year, the event got cancelled.
“More than the monetary losses, the opportunity of staging a show with my favourite actor Shammi Kapoor disheartened me more. I still have the email that actor Shammi Kapoor wrote to me saying :”Don’t get disheartened Raj ji please let me know if you are doing similar event in the future, I will surely be a part of it”. But I never got that opportunity, reminisces Raj.
After 400-420 old Hindi retro shows, Raj aims to contribute something to Bengalureans. “From past two years, a friend of mine, Revathi, kept on sending me Kannada songs on Whatsapp. She insisted that I listen to the old Kannada songs. Though I can talk in Kannada, I don’t understand it completely. I kept her requests aside saying I don’t understand pure Kannada,” says Raj.
Wife Taught me
But once he heard a doctor friend of his singing a Kannada song, he was impressed. “From then on I fell for Kannada songs, went to my wife Sukanya, and learnt the meaning of the songs sent by Revathi and I was speechless. One of my favourite Kannada song is ‘Naguvaa Gulaabi Hoove..’ from the movie Autoraja sung by SPB ji,” adds Raj.
The old Kannada songs have a lot of meaning to it, he feels and adds that Dr Rajkumar’s emotion in songs made him decide to put up a show on old Kannada songs. “I approached Ajay Warriar who has a beautiful voice, Naagachadrika Bhat, HS Srinivasamurthy and Rajiv Agali, Rumana Ahmed and Samanvitha Sharma who is also into playback singing”, adds Raj.