Cuttack bands to rock pujas

CUTTACK: Vilash Sahoo eagerly waits for the Durga Puja every year, as it is that time of the year when he and his troupe get a chance to showcase their talent. With the gala ceremony just days away, Sahoo's band, Sur Milan is rehearsing hard to put up the best show at the pandals.
Not only Sur Milan, artistes of over 20 bands of the city are busy giving finishing touches to their performances.They are doing their best to ensure the crowd swings to their tunes when they perform at the pandals during the Durga Puja.
"Now, we are rehearsing for around six hours a day to put up a flawless performance. This year, we have received offers to perform at six places and we are fully prepared to provide a perfect dose of entertainment to the audience," said Vilash, organizer of the Sur Milan orchestra group. "To woo the young generation we have roped in some young talented singers in our band this year. They will sing some latest hit Bollywood and Ollywood numbers," said Rupesh Sahoo, a member of the musical band.
While some of the bands are preparing hit Bollywood numbers such as chhamak chhalo, munni badnam, Shiela ki jawani and dhinki chika, some others are depending on old evergreen numbers to woo the audience. "Our orchestra is famous for performing songs of Bollywood's golden era. This year too, we have selected some evergreen melodious songs of Md. Rafi, Mukesh and Kishore Kumar. The rock bands performing modern songs have not managed to steal our popularity," said Md. Sajid, owner of Habib Melody, one of the renowned bands of the city.
"Fortunately, the floods have not managed to affect our business this year. We are eagerly looking forward to the pujas. We have planned to make our programme more interactive by performing songs of audience choice," said B K Mohnaty, member of Sur Sangeet melody group.
Almost every puja committee of the city has hired orchestra bands to up the festive mood in the pandals."These bands add a unique flavor to Cuttack's grand Durga Puja festivity. Every year we organize band performances to entertain pandal-hoppers," said P K Singh, joint secretary of Chandini Chowk puja committee.