Singing all the way from Kashmir to Kanyakumari

Usha Uthup took Mangaloreans along with her in the legendary journey in the imaginary ‘Ekta Express’ from ‘Kashmir to Kanyakumari’, a one of its kind musical show. The imaginary train stopped at 19 key locations along the breadth and width of our vast country, spreading messages of peace and harmony.

Right from the prayer ‘Raghupathi raghav’, the audiences were in Didi’s palm, singing and dancing to her tunes. starting off with a Kashmiri song, she then proceeded to Himachal Pradesh with ‘Dam Maro dum’, to Bihar with a peppy Bhojpuri number ‘Bajege Payaliya’, to Bengal with ‘hoodibaba’ and so on. Professional dancers performed folk dance forms from Manipur, Punjab, Rajasthan, Goa, Tamilnadu, Kerala and finally Tulunadu during the intervals. For the first time in history, Usha Uthup sang in Tulu! The journey of Ekta Express concluded in Mangalore. The show, organised by Mandd Sobhann, in aid of Kalaangann, was compered by one of the most recognised voices in India, Harish Bhimani of the Mahabharat fame.

The accompanying musicians Topon Roy Choudhari, Amol Roy, Mepal Shaw, Raja Deb and Benu Chatterjee were all from Kolkotta.

Usha was felicitated on the occasion by Jean Colaco, one of the major sponsors.

Chairman of the governing body of Kalaangann Ronald Mendonca, Gurkar of Mandd Sobhann Eric Ozario, Karnataka Konkani Sahitya Academy President Narayan Kharvi, Mandd Sobhann president Louis Pinto and others were present on the occasion.