BAHU-RANG SPARKLES IN TORONTO

By ARUNA MALLYA GUPTA

September 29, 2001, Living Arts Centre, Mississauga, Ontario was the venue for the spectacular World Premier and CD release of BAHU-RANG (colours), the latest feather in the cap of Dr. Shiva and his choral group RASHTRAVANI (voice of a nation).

Inspired by the diversity of folk music in India, the melodies and lyrics for BAHU-RANG ranged from Tamil Nadu to Kashmir and from Assam to Gujarat and even Sindh. Tasteful sets that included a thatched hut and backdrop of video clippings from rural India, interspersed with displays of colourful textiles, artifacts and exotic items of daily usage, added charm and authenticity to the vibrant group of singers dressed in various ethnic ensembles. Centre stage, the creator, Dr. Shiva, radiologist turned musician, orchestrated the show with real pizzaz.

Himself a trained classical vocalist in Carnatic and Hindustani music and Western score reading, he is also experienced in playing various percussion instruments, guitar, harmonium and keyboard. The audience got a first hand taste of this amazing artist’s calibre in terms of his rich vocal resonance as well as his abilities on various types of drums. Seeing him in action was seeing the all-pervasive passion in the man.

The almost four and half-hour concert kept the audience in raptures with nary a dull moment. The opening number “Freedom Song” by Rev. Martin Luther King with the Hindi version “Honge Kamyaab” was a wonderful jump-start to what turned out to be an astounding feast of languages and dialects. From the lilting Assamese, “Bihu” to the wedding song “Kinni Layiyo” from Himachal, from “Rang Taali”, Garba of Gujarat to “Mast Kalandar”, a 600-year-old Sindhi song, it seemed there was something for everyone in the audience. The best undoubtedly were the Punjab and Goa Medleys. Both these medleys had the audience completely delirious ….the mood, the beat, and the rhythms of ‘Heer’, ‘Sadda Chidiyan da’, ‘Lathe di chadar’, and clearly very popular and well-known numbers. As for Goa, the entire selection of ‘Bombay Meri Hai’, ‘Hi Pori Konachi’ was a complete trip down memory lane to my school trips in ‘Amchi Mumbai’. The hot, hot dancers doing the lambada surprised many but served as a grand finale to this colourful spectacle!

Adding charm to all this wholesome entertainment was the accompaniment by SHISHUVANI, the children’s branch of RASHTRAVANI in two numbers, ‘Krishnashtakam’ and ‘Rail Gaadi’.

Given all the groupism that exists in our community, North Indian versus South Indian, Gujarati Samaj versus Maratha Mandal, with very little intermingling amongst the associations, Dr. Shiva’s attempt to incorporate the diversity of India is indeed a legacy for generations to come….taking pride in our roots and traditions, and above all, finding some semblance of unity and identity in all the diversity. If even half of the well-attended audience left with some vestige of these feelings, then Dr. Shiva can perhaps rest assured that his musical mission is indeed on the right track!

(Launched in 1998, Rashtravani, now in its second phase, has 25 singers well trained in classical choral music set to ragas and talas, well blended with western scores. The choral group, the first of its kind in North America, hopes to showcase its talent in US, Europe and India. Somewhere down the road, it is Dr. Shiva’s dream to interact with other philharmonic choirs and symphonies in North America.)