Abhijeet mesmerizes at Qutub

NEW DELHI: It was a date with history. Against the backdrop of the majestic Qutub Minar, contemporary Bollywood singers Abhijeet Bhattacharya and Kunal Ganjawala enthralled a packed audience with their hit numbers from Hindi cinema.
From Mere khayalon ki mallika (Josh 2000), Mein koi aisa geet goon and Chaand taare tod laoon (Yes Boss 1997) to Suno na suno na (Chalte Chalte 2003) and Tumhe jo maine dekha (Main Hoon Na, 2004) — Abhijeet sang a host of his popular numbers.And the audience kept asking for more.
The performance was part of the annual Qutub Festival (October 4-13, 2010). Coinciding with the Commonwealth Games, this year’s festival is part of the Delhi Celebrates initiative of the Delhi government.
‘‘Log kehte hai Dilli dilwalon ki hai, yahan ki chaat achchi hai, yahan ki shaam achchi hai. Par main kehta hoon Dilli tum bahut khoobsurat ho, bahut khoobsurat ho (People say Delhi belongs to large-hearted people. Its food and evenings are great, but I’d say Delhi you are very beautiful),’’ said Abhijeet breaking into the popular song from the film, Khoobsurat (1999).
Amidst thunderous applause, he said, ‘‘I’m a Bhattacharya Bengali from Kanpur and I left my city in the hope that I’ll sing a couple of songs in Hindi films and get to live in your hearts. So whenever the people of Delhi call me I’ll come to this city.’’
As the evening breeze blew softly, Abhijeet was at his humorous best. The singer said, ‘‘I learnt music from janab radio Murphy. I listened to Lataji, Rafi, Mukesh, Manna De and finally got my guru in Kishore da.’’ He sang Musafir hoon yaaron (Parichay 1972) as a tribute to Kishore Kumar.
Soon, it was time for Kunal Ganjawala to take centrestage as he belted out numbers like Bheegay hooth tere (Murder 2004), Masha Allah (Saawariya 2007), Nana chi tang (Khatta Meetha 2010), Dil na diya (Krrish 2006) and Dil keh raha hai (Kyon Ki 2005).
Said an upbeat Kunal on performing in Delhi during the CWG, ‘‘We’ve won five gold medals and after what we went through prior to the Games launch, it’s amazing. We entertainers are only doing our job in festivals like these, but one must commend the fabulous opening ceremony we had for the Games.’’