Eight-day musical festival begins at Virsa Vihar in Amritsar

Amritsar, July 25

Artistes from the city have come together to host the second edition of the eight-day music festival — Sur Utsav — at Virsa Vihar. Inaugurating the event today, Harinder Sohal, convener of the festival and a music composer, applauded and paid tributes to singing legends born in the holy city, including Mohd Rafi, Mahendra Kapoor and Ghulam Haider, among others.

Eminent artistes from theatre and music fraternity of the city were in attendance, including Kewal Dhaliwal, president, Punjab Sangeet Natak Akademi.

Sohal said the purpose of organising a music festival dedicated to musical legends from the city was to remember contributions and work of these artistes.

“The younger generation of artistes and not many people are aware that such talented artistes had their roots in the city. Everybody knows about famous names of the film industry like Mahendra Kapoor and Rafi sahib, but there are so many, including actor Vinod Mehra, composer Ghulam Haider and others, who need to be remembered,” said Sohal.

“Also, we had so many celebrated talent from city in the field of Punjabi folk music, including Gurmeet Bawa, Laachi Bawa and many more, whose legacy needs to be kept alive for future generations. Musical events like these offer a good platform to do so,” said Sohal.