Seven women singers enthrall through ‘eye’catching songs

Nagpur: Musical programmes by music academies are often held in order to give a platform to their students. But ‘Ankhiyon Ke Jharokho Se’, organized by Avishkar Kala Sanstha, Nagpur, was unique in two ways: All the songs sung at the programme revolved around eyes — ‘akhiyaan’’, ‘nain’, ‘naina’, ‘nazar’, ‘nigaahein’, etc. Secondly, the singers for the night were women — someone a teacher, an entrepreneur, a homemaker, a gynaecologist, an eye-specialist and so on — who pursued their love for music.The programme was held at Scientific Hall on Tuesday evening.
Vaishali Pavanskar, Bharati Bhide, Dr Sarita Bhonsule, Dr Sugandha Garve, Gayatri Khode, Dr Varsha Rahatekar, Anagha Ghule, students of the sanstha, headlined the musical night. Garve started the event by singing the title song of the programme. Pavanskar followed it up by ‘Naino mein badra chhaye’, while Bhide sang ‘Unse mili nazar’. Popular hits such as ‘Jaiiye aap kahan jayenge’, ‘Mere naina sawan bhado’, ‘Piya toh se naina lage re’, ‘Aaja re pardesi’ and ‘Kahi pe nigaahen kahi pe nishana’ were a part of evergreen Hindi hits which regaled the audience. The programme was concluded with a medley of seven songs sung together by the seven singers.
Prashant Nagmathe played tabla, Pankaj Yadav was on dholki and Rugved Pandey supported with guitar. Octopod was played by Akshay Harle, Abhishek Dahikar operated keyboard along with Parimal Joshi, who also designed the concept for the show. Ravi Joshi was the main organizer of the event.
Smita Joshi, A grade artiste of Akashwani and Doordarshan; and one of the top contestants of Sa Re Ga Ma (1995) founded Avishkar Kala Sanstha in 1994 and has since trained singers in classical music and ‘sugam sangeet’, also called light music. Shubhra Somnath Roy, an English trainer and Savitribai Phule State Awardee was the chief guest of the event. Shweta Shelgaonkar and singer Rajani Hudda compèred the programme.