Gulzar rediscovers the magic of Tagore

On a breezy winter evening at this year���s Times LitFest, as the sun was setting on the horizon, audiences were in for a musical treat. Bollywood���s most revered lyricist Gulzar saab, singer Shreya Ghoshal and composer Shantanu Moitra came together to celebrate Rabindra Sangeet.
The venue was jam-packed with music aficionados who witnessed Gulzar���s translation of Rabindranath Tagore���s poems in Hindi, which were set to music by Shantanu and performed by Shreya.The songs are a part of their recently-released album 'Gulzar In Conversation With Tagore', which also features Shaan. Director Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra and his Mirzya actress Saiyami Kher were also spotted in the crowd, enjoying the performance.
At the LitFest, when Gulzar saab took to the stage to introduce the Bengali Mahakavi, he not just joked with the audience, but shared interesting anecdotes about Tagore and read out some beautiful nazme, which he had translated. The veteran lyricist even stressed on the importance of schools incorporating the works of Tagore in their syllabus.
Shreya began the musical session by singing 'Main Wohi Hoon' in her honeyed voice. She went on to sing other numbers from the album including 'Singaar Ko Rehne Do', 'Bujh Gaya Tha Kyun Diya', 'O Sakhi Sun', and Gulzar���s favourite 'Maine Toh Kuch'. Shantanu, who also sang along with Shreya, revealed the challenges of composing tunes for poems.
In the end, Gulzar saab spoke about collaborating with younger artistes as well as praised Shreya, Shantanu and Shaan. He ended the session with a touching poem and received a standing ovation from the audience.