Bhubaneswar, Feb. 17: Young and old singers and composers of the state gathered at the Utkal Mandap in the city to pay a fitting honour to eminent Oriya playback singer Prafulla Kar, who turned 72 on Wednesday.

The singer celebrated his birthday on a musical note with onset of a melodious function called the Kamala Desara Rajakumara, organised by the Prafulla Kar Foundation.

The event kicked off with the performance of Mahaprasad Kar (son of Prafulla Kar) invoking Lord Jagannath with the famous bhajan Biswa Jagannatha. The septuagenarian Kar also kept the audience spellbound with recital of some of his famous songs of the past.

Later, budding singers as well as veterans rendered famous songs written, composed or sung by Kar.

Well-known veteran singer Pranab Pattnaik, who also received the Prafulla Kar Samman, regaled the audience with his rendition of Seemahina dariya. Soon followed a number of famous songs such as Na jare na jare gori, Mo priya tharu kiye adhika sundara, sung by Chitta Jena, Nazia Alam, Shailabhama, Chitrabhanu Mohanty, Pratyasha, Sanjay Mishra and others. Several music lovers of the city thronged the event.

“It is amazing how he continues to pull crowds even today when he is back on the stage to perform. His songs are really evergreen,” said young singer Nazia Alam. “Prafulla Kar’s four decades of creating music is inspiring.

His greatest contribution is creating a generation of young artistes as a music director,” said governor M. C. Bhandare.

The governor also felicitated Pala artiste Narayan Prasad Lenka of Kendrapada on the occasion. “As listeners and enthusiasts, it is our responsibility to come together to promote folk music and keep Oriya classic playback songs alive,” said organiser of the event and litterateur Das Benhur.

Born in 1939 in Puri, Prafulla Kar began his musical journey in 1960 as a vocalist and artiste of the All India Radio, Cuttack. He has scored music for over 70 Oriya films.

He has composed music for many Oriya and Bengali films, in which singers such as Anuradha Paudwal, Usha Mangeskar, Kavita Krishnamurty, Suresh Wadekar, Md. Aziz , Kishore Kumar, Amit Kumar have rendered their voice. He has introduced more than 20 playback singers of Orissa in his films.