Muscat: ISC Karnataka Wing Celebrates Ugadi with ‘Swara Sanje’
Report: Prakash Naik
Pics: C D Manu
Daijiworld Media Network – Muscat (SP)
Muscat, Apr 10: Ugadi festival celebrations and ‘Swara Sanje’, a musical programme, were presented by KSC Karnataka Wing at Al Masa Hall here recently.
The entrance to the venue was decorated with mango leaves and banana plants in tune with the traditions back home. A mixture of neem leaves and jaggery was served as per tradition, at the welcome/registration counter. To keep the festive mood high, jasmine flowers and vermillion were distributed to the lady visitors.
Karnataka Sangha Muscat presented a spectacular stage show, ‘Swara Sanje’ on this occasion. This musical event comprised of carefully evergreen songs carefully picked from Kannada films since the last five decades under the theme, ‘Andoo, Indoo, Endendoo (then, now, ever after)’. 17 talented singers from out of the members rendered the songs, supported by a live band of five professional musicians. Some youngsters of Kannada Sangha breathed further life to the programme through their electrifying dance performances.
The three-hour programme of music, dance and audio-visual presentations was attended by over 600 music lovers. The event was managed professionally, and every song was presented to perfection. As a fitting finale to this enjoyable experience, the people were served with a festival dinner comprising of traditional dishes including Holige and Jilebi.
The orchestra, which did a splendid job, comprised of Jayan on keyboard, Pradeep on drums and rhythm pad, Vinod on tabla, Suresh on guitar and Pradeep on flute. The wonderful and artistic backdrop of the stage contained pictures of legends of Kannada film industry, Dr P B Srinivas, Dr S P Balasubrahmaniam, S Janaki, P Susheela, L R Eshwari, Vani Jayaram and Dr Rajkumar.
The programme had an auspicious beginning with the song, ‘Yuga Yugadi Kaledaru Yugadi Marali Barutide’. Singers, Anita, Veena, Sumana, Suchetha, Kusuma, Shubha, Priya, Saraswati, Aruna, Karunakar Rao, Praveen Kishan, Ravikumar, Subrahmanya Raju, Ashok Kotian, Shivaprasad Mayya and Raviprakash rendered the songs with their soulful voices. The singers for the event were chosen through an audition, followed by rigorous practice sessions over the last three months. Two group songs, ‘Nee Badaladare’ and ‘Yugadi Bandaga Abbabba’ held the audience spellbound. As a tribute to the late Dr Vishnuvardhan, a medley with a bouquet of selected songs from his movies was presented.
Vani Bhagavath and Prakash Naik coordinated the programme. VijayKumar compered the event. Those in charge of different activities were Ravi Gopinath Sharma (stage), Shivaprasad Mayya and B Ramesh (video presentation), Aishwarya Ravi and Vani Bhagavath (choreography), Nagesh Shetty/Ravi Kanchan and team (decoration), Denny Thomas (sound and light) and Sundaresh, Prasad B V, Srinivas, Anand and Prakash (reception).
Prakash Naik thanked His Majesty, Sultan Qaboos bin Said for his benevolence, ISC Exective Committee for their cooperation, event sponsors, Intisar Corporation and the annual sponsors for their support and everyone else who were directly or indirectly involved with the event. After Naik introduced the singers and musicians, mementos were presented to Rajendran, general manager of Intisar Corporation, and all the participants of ‘Swara Sanje’.