Usha Uthup and daughter Anjali mesmerise at the Indian Museum

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‘A song is always bigger than the singer, and I am nothing in front of audiences like you who make me who I am,’ said Uthup, before beginning the evening with the Oscar-winning song, ‘Skyfall’. As she finished to thunderous applause, the singer confessed, ‘This is a very difficult song for me to sing, I’m always scared of the last note. Even today, I kept praying to God, let me sing like I have never sung before!’

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‘I’m so proud to invite my beautiful first child on stage,' Uthup said, introducing daughter Anjali (above), who reminisced about her visit to the museum ‘The last time I came to the Indian Museum was as a schoolkid and it’s so special to perform here in front of my school friends and husband. Coming back with all these experiences makes me feel like a part of this heritage’

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The mother-daughter duo had the audience in splits with their banter throughout the evening. ‘The pressure of singing with my mom isn’t much, but the pressure of singing with Padma Shri Usha Uthup is huge!’ said Anjali, after the two performed ‘Oh! Carol’

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Anjali’s presence brought out a new side of Uthup, as the veteran singer took on the percussionist’s role while her daughter was on vocals. After performing ‘Mamma Mia’, a popular number from the music legend’s early days at Trincas, Anjali joked, ‘Even when Amma is a singer, she won’t stop being a mother. She thought I hadn’t read the brief, so she kept prompting me throughout the song!’

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When Uthup sang ‘Dama Dam Mast Kalandar’, this duo in the audience couldn’t resist shaking a leg! ‘To be in the midst of one of my favourite superstars was truly awesome. I simply could not resist dancing to her tunes. It was a really memorable evening,’ said Asha Menon (left)

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“The aim of this festival is to present the best of Kolkata to its people, and to remind audiences about the beauty of the city’s heritage,” said (extreme left) Oindrilla Dutt, organising committee member, TKF

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Before the duo’s rendition of the popular Lenon song ‘Imagine’, the singer said, ‘This song is more relevant today than ever before. I’ve sung it in both Russia and Ukraine and I feel we all need to sing it together now’. Enthusiastic chants of ‘One more song’ persuaded her to end the night with ‘Sway’ as the audience lit up the evening with their phones