Bhubaneswar, March 3: A number of musical events have been entertaining music lovers of the city over the past few days.

The Bhubaneswar Music Circle recently hosted a three-day festival, Samarpan, which showcased performances by some popular Sufi artistes. Young artistes such as Manisha Mishra, Aryan Routray, Shibaprasad Sarangi and Jyotirmayee Nayak rendered Sufi songs and then presented a chorus item. "Sufi music is one of the best known mystical forms of devotional music. It transcends national and religious boundaries with its philosophy of universal brotherhood and love," said Manisha Mishra.

The fest also featured devotional songs in the shagun and nirgun genres, a mystic form of devotional music. Rendered by Bhuvanesh Komkali, the lyrics emphasised on awakening the soul and realising that life is too short to pursue anything other than spirituality.

Manjusha Patil Kulkarni explored abhang in various forms and garnered the audience's appreciation. The festival also featured Sufi musicians such as Kaluram Bamniya from Malwa, Madhya Pradesh. He is known for performing songs based on Kabir's compositions.

Since concerts in this genre of music are rare in Odisha, the festival was an unusual treat for music lovers of the state.

"I love the style of singing and the way they put across deep philosophy simply," said Nitin Swain, who attended the festival on all three days.

In another event, young and old singers and composers of the state came together at Rabindra Mandap to pay a fitting honour to eminent Odia playback singer Prafulla Kar, who turned 78 recently.

The singer celebrated his birthday on a musical note with a concert named Kamala Desara Rajakumara, organised by the Prafulla Kar Foundation. Budding singers as well as veterans performed famous songs written, composed or sung by Kar.

A number of famous songs such as Na jare na jare gori and Mo priya tharu kiye adhika sundara were performed at the event that was attended by several music lovers of the city. Eminent singer Sarika Singh performed at the National Handloom Expo recently.