Inspiring devotion by karaoke

As a team of four women completed their one hour bhajan concert at Matha Amrutanandamayi Mutt in Boloor recently, they received a huge round of applauds and appreciation from the audience for the bhajan they sang stood different from the usual bhajan where only voice plays the role. 

The four women from Rajmahal Apartments in Lalbagh kept a step forward and experimented with bhajans by adding karaoke touch to it. All the eight bhajans they recited were on karaoke tracks which is quite a unique concept as far as Mangalore is concerned. The lady behind the initiative is Savita Shenoy, a Mangalorean lecturer turned soft skill trainer who is also the founder of the city based family karaoke club ‘Raag and Rhythm’. It is probably for the first time an attempt was made to sing bhajans on karaoke in a public programme in Mangalore.

Speaking to City Herald about her attempt which emerged successful, Savita Shenoy said that when  Amrutanandamayi Mutt administrators asked her if her team could perform bhajan concert during their annual function, she readily agreed. 

However, having practised several bollywood song sessions on karaoke tracks, Savita Shenoy was stuck with the idea of singing bhajans on karaoke. It took a great deal of research for the same. “As I tried out to find out Kannada bhajans on karaoke track, I could not find any.

Finally, I ended up exploring a few Marathi bhajans on karaoke track and decided on singing the same. After convincing three of my apartment-mates who trusted me and agreed to experiment, we began the practise session. As three of my bhajan freinds were new to karaoke, it took considerably long time to synchronise,” she says.


After practising for about two and half to three hours for continuous 10 days, the result was fruitful and the performance won the hearts of the audience giving a whole new listening experience to them. Some of the tracks they recited were ‘Thuj maya tumyata,’ ‘Prathama tula vandith,’ ‘Om jai jagadish hare,’ ‘Itni shakti de’.

Raag and Rhythm

Raag and Rhythm karaoke club of Mangalore which started in December, 2010 is one of the leading karaoke clubs of Mangalore for all family members. The club members who meet once in a month, on Saturday evenings at Ocean Pearl Hotel, sing Bollywood songs on karaoke tracks for about three hours. Savita Shenoy informed that the club members have been staging performances in the invited programmes in Mangalore as well as as Bangalore.

“We have a whole bunch of good singers who have the style and voice of well-known singers like Kishore Kumar, Mohd Rafi, Latha Mangeshkar which makes the karaoke nights very vibrant,” she says. The club which began with six members now has the strength of 30.Interested can contact Savita Shenoy at