‘Tum mujhe yun bhula na paoge’

SD Sharma

Chandigarh, July 31

‘Teri awaaz se rishta koi elahi hai; teri awaaz tere hone ki gwahi hai’

The couplet is a veritable tribute to boisterous, velvety and golden voice of Mohammad Rafi Sahib which reaches straight to the hearts of music lovers.

A larger than life image of the invincible celestial music legend Mohammad Rafi kept conjuring in the minds of audience as 26 accomplished singers from the region, doled out Bollywood melodies immortalised by the legendary celestial music maestro, Mohammad Rafi, besides Lata Mangeshker and Asha Bhonsle at Tagore Theatre here on Tuesday.

The occasion was the 67th annual music bonanza titled ‘Mohammad Rafi Excellence Award-2018’ organised by the Yaadgar-e-Rafi society in collaboration with The Tribune group of publications as media sponsor to mark the death anniversary of the legend.

A documentary showing the musical journey of society from 1985 to date and also another documentary ‘Bhule Bisrey Geet’ of Mohammad Rafi Saheb, both produced and directed by IS Kang, were also screened.

PK Sharma HCS, Dr Kulwinder Kaur, and Dr Sangeeta Choudhry adjudged the winners.

BD Sharma, General Secretary of the society, said the 26 finalists were selected out of 380 contestants from UP, Haryana, HP, Punjab and Chandigarh through three rounds of auditions.

Under the male junior category, Ishatpreet won the first prize. Garung Aggarwal and Deepanshu Rawat stood second and third, respectively.

Under female junior category, Ananaya stood first, Srishti and Herika stood second and third, respectively. Under male senior category, Kailash Atwal, Vijay Sharma and Jadeep Singh, stood first, second and third, respectively.

Under female senior category, Payal stood first, while Anmol and Shweta stood second and third, respectively. Under special prizes, Ashok Bansal won under the senior citizen category and Yashvardhan Rathore won under the special child category.

Chief guest Gian Chand Gupta, MLA, Panchkula, and guest of honour Satpal Gupta complimented all participants.