Ghazals by amateur singers regale

Nagpur: The 9th edition of Baithak at Chitnavis Centre went beyond being an evening soaked in music and poetry. The Tamarind Hall wore an informal look and the anchors Vilas Kale and Rajeev Behl appeared totally at ease as they introduced singers seated among the audience and called them to make a presentation.
Doctors, lawyers, businessmen and politicians had all joined in to beat the wet and grey weather outside and to make this a cozy affair with some fine renditions of old and new ghazals, mostly from Hindi films.Introducing the genre to the audience, Kale said, “People often wonder what is the difference between a geet and a ghazal. So a ghazal must have a definite meter and number of words while a geet can be adjusted.”
The evening began with the popular Jagjit Singh ghazal ‘Jhuki jhuki si nazar’ from the film ‘Arth’ which was presented by Rajeev Yashroy. He was followed by Gauri Deshpande, a chartered accountant, who had selected ‘Kisi nazar ko tera intezaar aaj bhi hai’ composed by Bappi Lahiri. Dr Manmohan Daga picked up ‘Sheetal Chanda’, a ghazal from a Pakistani film ‘Do Raha’.
Missing out on a presentation by the queen of ghazal, Begum Akhtar, Kale took it upon himself to present one of her compositions ‘Zindagi kuch bhi nahi phir bhi jiye jaate hain’. “She was a classically trained singer whose forte was thumri, but it were the ghazals which made her extremely popular,” Kale said.
The other anchor, Behl, too chipped in with a Madanmohan composition ‘Phir wohi shaam’, originally sung by Talat Mehmood, and brought a touch of nostalgia.
The younger generation of singers picked up Bollywood numbers and did full justice to them. Rahul Kale’s singing of ‘Seeney main jalan’ was soulful, while Amruta Kale Kulkarni gave an extremely melodious rendition of ‘Salona sa sajan’.
Chintan Deopujari, a lawyer, was good with Jagjit Singh’s ‘Pyar ka phela khat’, while Sonali Bajpai evoked memories of the classic film ‘Umrao Jaan’ with her presentation of ‘Justju jis ki thi’.
Breaking the flow to provide more information about the ghazal, Kale said that it evolved in seven stages and it was only when composers and lyricists in Hindi cinema adopted it that it gained much popularity.
The high notes of the evening were renditions of ‘Betaab dil ki tammanna yehi hai’ by Dr Anjali Bhandarkar and the composition from the film ‘Raaj Hut’ ‘Aaye bahar ban ke’ by former member of parliament from Nagpur, Vilas Muttemwar.