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| Pictures by Madhumita Nandi |
The chairs on BD Park were filled with an hour to go before his appearance, the gates clanked shut soon after to prevent a stampede. When at last his voice was heard booming through the 6,400 watt-strong sound boxes, the balconies of the houses facing the park filled up in a hurry and a mad scramble started for vantage points around BD Park —branches of trees, atop electricity junction boxes and steps of adjacent shops.
Despite a star-studded line-up, there was no doubt who the biggest star was to take the stage at Balaka’s puja in BD Park. On Wednesday night, Sonu Niigaam made temperatures soar and girls swoon.
“Awesome dude, awesome,” mumbled Mayurakshi Ganguly, hands clasped to the chest, as the chocolate boy of Hindi film music indulged in vocal callisthenics in between going “Just chill, chill…”. The FD Block girl kept dancing in the aisles all along as Sonu kept belting out song after song.
The curly-haired crooner took the stage at 9.20pm and carried on till midnight, singing non-stop. Sagarlal Das was crestfallen. So engrossed was the crowd in the music that few cared to order his jhalmuri.
At the stroke of 11pm, in course of proving his lung power and vocal range with Tera jadoo chal gaya, he flung off his red jacket, sending a ripple through the youngsters who went gaga over his dapper looks in a black tee and leather tights.
As requests poured in for the soulful Abhi mujh mein kahin, Sonu paused. “Kal ho naa ho may have penetrated my blood stream but this song from Agneepath is also very special to me. I don’t sing it often in shows unless I believe the audience deserves it. This lot here really does,” sending the BD Park crowd into a tumult of applause.
Soumyadeep Ghosh had come all the way from AB Block with mother and sister. Walking out close to midnight, he was a content man. “I knew this show would draw a huge crowd. We had come at 8.30pm and still had to stand for quite some time before we could spot free chairs. Sonu was fantastic.”
His fan
“So what? I love Sonu more,” retorted Joyeeta Chatterjee, a CF Block resident, on being asked why she chose to come all the way to BD Park when she had Sunidhi Chauhan singing next door.
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When Anjana Guha Thakurta, her husband and 16-year-old daughter entered the park, Sunidhi had already taken stage. When she couldn’t see much over the heads of others crowding in front of her, Anjana smartly planted a foot on the bamboo barricade next to her and climbed it up. She watched the rest of Crazy kiya re up there, grooving to the music, even as her daughter and husband stood on the ground below. “I love Sunidhi for the peppy songs she sings. And she comes across as a sweet person from what I’ve seen of her as a judge on Indian Idol. But I love Sonu Niigaam too and want to see him. I just hope Sunidhi sings Halkat jawani before we leave for the Sonu show,” she shouted over the music.
The crowd, at the event organised by Salt Lake Maitri Sangha, broke into a jig every time Sunidhi broke into a song. When she sang Desi girl, a group of boys danced wildly encircling a ghoti garam vendor at work, light from whose container made for a bonfire of sorts. Another show-stopper was a nameless pauper, who wore a tattered shirt, ill-fitting pants, no shoes and had a cigarette stashed behind his ears. The scruffy man on the footpath inside the park out-danced all others with his bhashan steps and break dance. Other stopped dancing to watch him but ran off when he came towards him. “I think the guy’s mad but he’s good enough to go to Dance India Dance,” said Preeti Sharma, running away from him.
“No one has come here to cause trouble. They’re all here to enjoy,” said civic volunteers Abid Hossain and Ali Hossain, who were manning the event. Even as the two pointed their mobile phones at the stage for a snap, three boys slipped through the gaps in the bamboo barricades in front of them. “We were on duty in various parts of the city all through Durga puja too. Manning this concert is a rewards of sorts for us as we are enjoying it thoroughly it.”
A group of boys had decided to welcome Sunidhi to Calcutta by doing a Sourav. The boys waved — not their shirts like Ganguly but — their jackets in the air to express their jubilation. “We would have removed our shirts too but it’s chilly tonight,” smiled Ratan Halder from Kestopur. “Hope Sunidhi could see it.”
Two college students, originally from Tripura had come from their Kestopur home to watch the show and were in no hurry to return. “If we do not get a ride after the show we’ll walk. It’s the least we can do for watching such a rocking concert, that too free of cost,” said Saman Chakma, one of the students.
Given how spacious BF Park is, the audience at the Sunidhi Chauhan show was spread out. The VIP enclosure up front was choc-a-block but floating crowds at the back sat on the park’s benches and stood on the park’s walls. Some even stood on the edge of the vat that shares its border with the park. The vat had been cleared of its contents shortly before the show and continued to let off a slight stench but the audience didn’t care.
HER FAN
“People have been queuing up for compilations of Sunidhi’s songs ever since word spread that she’d perform here. Almost every
A-grade film has a Sunidhi song these days which hits bullseye. In comparison, Sonu has hardly had a song in the last four years,” said Paresh Lal of CF Block who runs the BF Block music shop Bonanza.
Brinda Sarkar
Ropeway trick
At first, the buzz was that Sunidhi Chauhan would land on the BF Park stage in a parachute. Then during KK’s show he came to stage standing in a ropeway-like unit that slid from one end of the park to the stage (picture right). Sunidhi was to make her entrance in this contraption too but ended up simply walking to the stage.
More disappointed than the audience were Liton Mondal and Girish Agarwal, the men who had constructed the ropeway act. Agarwal’s Yashpal & Co had done the design and supply while Mondal’s Loknath Art & Craft had done the erection and commission.
The men explained that the unit was a ropeway “like in Nicco Park” that worked using the pulley system. The unit was 6-ft high with an area of 2.5-ftx3-ft and could carry up to 500kg. “We spent Rs 10 lakh building it over three days but at the last minute Sunidhi said she might get nauseous in it and called it off,” said Agarwal.
The organisers, Salt Lake Maitri Sangha, have a history of getting their star performers to enter in style. “At last year’s Kali puja show, singer Shaan came on stage in a BMW. A ramp was built to drive him up to the stage and then the car was taken to an opening under the stage,” says Mondal, who makes sets for film and TV shows too. “The year before that Shreya Ghoshal rose to the centre of the stage in an open-air lift. All these contraptions are requested by Maitri Sangha and we execute them.”
This year the artiste was to enter the unit from a tower built to the right of the stage, some 100m away. Once released the unit would slide bit by bit to the stage over a period of 10 minutes. When Sunidhi would not ride it, the two hosts used it.
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The previous day, it had taken a while for the crowd to realise that KK was travelling over their heads. He spoke to them on the mic as the audience excitedly turned to see him. Some tried to touch the unit but the security men kept them away.
Thumbs up
Among the crowd watching KK croon Yaaron and Aashayein was Madhumita De, sitting with her two-year-old daughter on her lap and CF Block resident, mother Manjusri, by her side. “I live in the US and am attending puja here after 13 years,” smiled Madhumita. While she usually comes to Calcutta in December she brought her trip forward this year when her mother told her Salman Khan would be coming to inaugurate their Kali puja. “Even though the rumour wasn’t true, this trip has been awesome. I’m a big fan of Bollywood music and I couldn’t let go of a chance to watch singers like KK and Sunidhi Chauhan. The puja wasn’t this grand when I lived here before.”
Picture by Saradindu Chaudhury
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Vinod who?
While a sizeable crowd had gathered at BK Block on November 11 to listen to singer Vinod Rathod, teenagers were clueless about him. “We thought it was Rowdy Rathore,” said Anuraag Sinha and Debaditya Paul, both Class IX students from BL Block, referring to the recent Bollywood film. “We expected the film’s stars Akshay Kumar and Sonakshi Sinha to come.”
On asking their fathers, the boys were told that Vinod Rathod had sung for the Shah Rukh Khan-starrer Baazigar. When the long-haired Rathod made his way into the park on a motorbike the boys blurted out: “Mastaan toh!” But they were pleasantly surprised to learn afterwards that Rathod was the voice of Sanjay Dutt in the Munna Bhai films.
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Runa Laila was a surprise guest on the CJ Block Kali puja stage. She was in the neighbourhood for a show and came over on civic body chief and block resident Krishna Chakraborty’s request. Even in course of her five-minute stay on stage, the Bangladeshi singer received requests for her biggest hit Sadher lau. She obliged by singing a stanza. Later, Kunal Ganjawala rocked the crowd by singing his Hindi and Bengali film hits non-stop for two and half hours.
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Pictures by Sudeshna Banerjee and Sanat Kumar Sinha
Missing in action
On Monday morning, Anupam Dutta, president of Balaka Club, was a worried man. Sridevi (picture left), who was supposed to fly in that afternoon from Mumbai for the inauguration of the puja, had backed out at the eleventh hour. Frenetic calls and negotiations ensued and who turned out to take the English Vinglish star’s place? Aditya Panscholi! Samita Roy, a housewife from CD Block, had reached by 7pm and witnessed the inauguration. “But I have no idea who the man was,” she said, summing up the general perception. She was rather saddened by the absence of the star in the dance troupe that performed next — Debashree Roy (picture above left).
Rumours did the round regarding Sridevi’s no-show. While Dutta said she had developed conjunctivitis, some children said she was having an eye operation, a young club member said her hair dresser’s comb had accidentally injured her eye. But none of this rattled Sohini Das, a BD Block girl. “Of course, Sridevi came. My friends have seen her,” she rallied, but broke into peals of laughter when the truth finally dawned on her. “Oh, they pulled a fast one on me!”
Despite the twin no-shows, the audience did not go back disappointed. They were mostly there for Jeet Gannguli, Bengali cinema’s hit machine. “I have his songs from Blood Money, Raaz 2 and 100% Love on my cell phone,” said Sourav Dey, Sohini’s friend who had come from Sovabazar to join the gang.
He arrived after inaugurating another Kali puja in the area and took the stage around 9.30pm. Paglu, Poran jay joliya re, Khokababu…the hits rolled out one after another. “I really loved performing for this crowd. They made requests for even my Hindi songs,” Jeet said later.
