Riding a musical wave

The penultimate day of Kolkata Festival presented by The Times of India got off to a rocking start on Saturday evening with the winners of The Times of Youth Challenge 2011 screaming out loud at Nicco Park Plaza IV.
And they were not the only ones. The youngsters had thousands for company. The show that boasted big names one of Kolkata's best known rock bands, Fossils, and Delhi-based contemporary fusion music band Indian Ocean saw a huge turnout.The audience simply could not wait to savour the best of music coming their way.
If, for starters, five live acts took the crowd on a musical trip, the big daddies of Bangla rock, Fossils, made it to the stage next amidst much fanfare. The band that goes by a script each time it performs, had by its own admission incorporated new elements for the festival.
"It's going to be very different from our last couple of shows," the band members promised and yes, different it was. By the time Fossils started off with the psychoanalytic Schizophrenic bra', the crowd was already celebrating. Bicycle chor', Firey cholo', an acoustic-electric version of Maa'- a traditional Rajanikanta song that has been rearranged to give a balladesque feel - followed effortlessly, one after another.
"It's the city's audience that has helped lay the foundation of Bangla rock. The best part is that now, the movement is spreading across the country," said the numero uno crowdpuller, Rupam Islam.
The band upped the tempo further with Jannat jahan', Hasnuhana' and Benche thakar gaan', among many other runaway hits. As the band concluded with its very famous Acid', the crowd that was already on its feet, screamed its lungs off in support of the band. Fossils had passed the acid' test yet again.
Having soaked in the energy that the rock act had generated, it was time for the crowd to plunge into the ocean' of soulful music. Before coming to Kolkata, Rahul Ram of Indian Ocean, who calls himself adha-Bangali, had expressed his love for the city, where years back, he would take a walk from Park Street up to the river while sinking his teeth into a Hot Kathi roll.
"It's a city always bustling with energy and has an amazing street life," he had mentioned.
And it's the band's love for Kolkata that came through in the Bengali song, Bondhu', written by noted cinematographer-director Avik Mukhopadhyay for an Assamese film and originally sung by Anusheh Anadil of Bangladesh. In effortless Bangla, vocalist Himanshu Joshi brought the song and the concert alive, not to talk about the umpteen friends (bondhu) that it won over in the process.
But before that, there was the soul-stirring Arre ruk ja re bande'. Integrating shlokas, Sufism and the spirit of revolution that the band is so famous for, Indian Ocean sang its popular numbers back to back.
If Jhini re' had the crowd swaying to the lilting melody, Hille le', in which Rahul Ram had trickily woven in Kolkata ke saari sundariya hile le', had the audience breaking into loud rounds of applause.
The guitar strains, the sound of percussions, the mellifluous vocals all melted into an organic oneness enough to hold the audience captive through this one-and-a-half-hour-long performance.
Then there was the almost spiritual Kandisa', not to talk about the jugalbandi of iktara, bass and tabla that followed suit. The evening drew to a close with the band singing the patriotic Des mera'.
Both during and after the performance, many in the crowd shouted, "Asheemda (Chakravarty) we miss you". The band might have lost its golden voice, but it has clearly learnt to move on.
If the first half of the concert had the audience wanting to break into jigs, there was a hushed silence when Indian Ocean rode the tidal wave of melody. But then, silence does speak a thousand words.