CHENNAI : When you listen to their music, you may mistake them for professional singers. However, these faces are professionals from the corporate world. And they have a passion – to sing and enjoy music. Members of the Geet Gaata Chal (GGC) group, who performed at ‘Retro Music Nite’ on Sunday, rendered famous Bollywood numbers from the 1950s to the 1980s.
The nine-member group seemed to range from their 30s to 60s. And the moment we heard them, we realised that it was the genre of music that got them all together. As for the audience, people from various backgrounds filled the seats at the PT Hall in T Nagar. Some were chit-chatting in Hindi. There were a few elderly gents who had their eyes closed as they listened to the tunes and also a little girl clapping her hands joyously as she moved to the beats.
What was also interesting was that the singers weren’t accompanied by an orchestra. They sang on the minus one tracks, and for ‘not-so-professional’ singers, this could have been a challenge indeed. However, they rendered each song meticulously and in unison with the background music.
Geeta Jayaram, an author-cum-blogger, set the mood for the event by beginning with the famous number Bole Re Papihara (Guddi, 1971), which took the audience on an enthralling journey. We also enjoyed Dil Ka Bhanwar Kare Pukar (Tere Ghar Ke Saamne, 1963) number delivered by V Ramesh, a Chartered Accountant. And when G D Sharma, the founder-convener of GGC, rendered Ye Kya Hua (Amar Prem, 1972), we were left mesmerised.
But the high point of the event was N Ramakrishnan, a Chartered Accountant, playing the harmonica. And the song he chose – Hai Apna Dil To Awaara (Solhvaan Saal, 1958) was so impeccably sung that the audience simply had to raise their hands up high, and loudly applaud the performer.
Music director Ramani Bharadwaj was present at the concert.