A journey down memory lane

 It was a heartwarming evening of songs that made the listeners cherish the richness of music in Indian cinema during Kishore Kumar’s era.

“I have never seen Shaan live before and it feels wonderful to finally see him perform. Besides, I'm very fond of Kishore Kumar’s music and it was really good to hear it in Shaan’s voice,’’ said Jayshree Tanvani, one of the younger members in the audience. In fact, there were both young and old faces smiling and singing along with the music, reflecting how there is no age bar when it comes to enjoying music from the golden age of Hindi cinema.

Shaan performed a great variety of songs by Kishore Kumar — from popular numbers like Haal kaisa hai janab ka, Kya yahi pyaar hai and Zindagi ek safar hai suhana to the lesser sung songs like Piya piya piya mora jiya and Dilbar mere kab tak mujhe. There was even a retro duet set by Shaan and June Banerjee, who did their own renditions of mostly songs done as duets in the past by Kishore Kumar and Asha Bhosle.

“Kishore da has been the one from whom I’ve drawn inspiration all these years. It’s an honour to perform a tribute to him and that too in my favourite city which always gives me positive vibes,’’ said Shaan during the show.

In fact, the entire tribute was given a very personal touch with Shaan talking passionately about Kishore Kumar and giving the background of each song before he sang it. There was also a screen which showed classic old photographs and short clips of Kishore Kumar while each song was performed.

This was not the first tribute that has been given to the great musical maestro and some of the die-hard fans of Kishore Kumar’s music were witness to this. “I'm a big fan of Kishore Kumar and I feel that Shaan is one singer who comes close to Kishore Kumar. A lot of people have done tributes to him but after Abhijit Bhattacharya’s tribute, Shaan’s has been the best,’’ says Kishore Prabhu, a member of the audience who moved to the pulse of each song. Shaan managed to keep everyone involved with his energy and passion for the music and this was quite visible since the audience often finished the song before he could.

He kept the set list spontaneous and took requests from the audience. And most importantly, he sang with a heartfelt soulful voice, taking each and every person there on a memorable journey of Kishore Kumar's music.