FD Block marked Vijaya Sammilani in style last Saturday, with a soiree that ended leaving both artiste and audience wanting more of the music. 

“Alkaji (Yagnik) wanted to sing for another half an hour, she loved the crowd so much,” organiser Pradip Sengupta, the puja committee president, was lamenting. But as the announcer explained on stage, the police would not allow the open-air show to continue past 10.30pm. So Ek Do Teen, the Tezaab hit, marked the countdown to the conclusion. 

Time to disco
Alka took the stage a little after 8pm. An audio-visual clip introduced Bollywood’s prime female playback voice in the 90s. And then she was heard singing the opening bars of the title track of Kuchh Kuchh Hota Hai... but not seen. “Where is she?” The curiosity quotient in the crowd was on the rise. “She is still inside,” the security guard posted at the door of the green room behind the stage confirmed. Expecting the singer to walk onto the stage mic in hand through the waiting area outside the door, the inspector-in-charge  of Bidhannagar south police station was on the alert. But as the song reached the second stanza he too was puzzled enough to seek her whereabouts. With a smile, the event coordinator pointed towards the stage outside, taking him aback. Another outlet, hidden from view, connected the green room directly to the stage!

Alka asked the spotlights on her to be temporarily switched off so she could see the crowd gathered in FD Park. About 6,000 chairs had been placed on the ground and according to police estimates, some 4,500 were taken. Cards had been distributed among residents on demand.

Jayati Chatterjee had collected two extra for her parents. “She goes to our block and we come to hers. We have a homely puja and a Vijaya Sammilani,” said her father Prankishore Chatterjee of AD Block. “It’s great to have famous artistes, both of local and national level, performing at our doorstep. We have had Shreya Ghoshal and Kaushiki Chakraborty sing here earlier,” said daughter Jayati. 

Parbati Bhuniya and Chandana Pradhan, who stay in garages in the block, had taken chairs towards the rear. “We were waiting for Alka Yagnik all evening. We finished cooking dinner by 6pm today so that food is ready when we go home at 11pm,” they giggled.

Many others who could not secure entry were huddled next to the shut iron gates by which bhelpuri-sellers had also parked their handcarts and were doing brisk business. 

The size of the crowd pleased Alka and she launched her repertoire with renewed vigour. The security guards were sternly dealing with the click-happy youngsters who were gathering at the foot of the stage to take her picture. But when she herself asked girls to dance to her Lal dupatta (Mujhse Shaadi Karoge), they had to relent for a while. And when she asked for couples to dance to the romantic ditty from Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham, You are my Sonia, there was a moment of mirth. “Khud ki patni ka haath pakadna, doosrey ka nahin,” she warned. When the puja committee’s chief co-ordinator Rabin Mukherjee and his wife Shubhra stood up to dance, Sengupta mischievously shouted out that they were siblings, making Alka wonder aloud: “Kya zamana aa gaya hai!”

And by the time she crooned Aisi deewangi dekhi nahin kabhi, the space under the stage had turned to a dance floor. Anindya Dasgupta, whose in-laws stayed in the block, had placed his five-and-half-year-old daughter Anushka on his shoulders and swayed to the music as the little one clapped. Others had their cellphones in camera mode. Some plucked out flowers from the stage decor to offer to Alka, who bent down to accept each. 

Mithai Patra, all of three years, was not content dancing in the crowd. She simply took the side stairs and pranced on to the centre of the stage, bamboozling the security guards who certainly were not expecting a pint-sized intruder. Alka humoured her for a while after which she lost interest and came back to her mother Krishna with equal nonchalance. “I did not realise when she went off to the stage. She loves dancing to any kind of music at home,” laughed the resident of FC Block.

After fulfilling several requests passed through chits, Alka and her co-singer Kaushik Roy Chowdhury, a Jadavpur boy of Voice of India  Season 1 fame, had to call it a night even as people screamed for more.

Perfect start
The evening’s opening act was Swagatalaxmi Dasgupta. The versatile singer presented the full range of her expression and creativity. She sang two of the originals of Rabindranath Tagore’s inspired adaptations, the Telugu original song followed by Eki labonye purno pran and the Scottish ballad Auld Lang Syne followed by Purano shei diner katha. 

She also sang Haimanti Shukla’s hit song Surjodoyer deshe chalo jai, which she had written the lyrics for. “I have also written for many others — Indranil Sen, Lopamudra Mitra, Usha Uthup, Indrani Sen, Shampa Kundu etc,” she informed the audience. She also recited a self-composed poem on Tagore and an English translation of the song Andhakarer utso hotey. “I pray that I be reborn as a Bengali so I can feel the same proximity to Rabindranath in my next life too,” said the resident of Vidyasagar Niketan.

Swagatalaxmi ended with a string of Anup Jalota’s bhajans, pointing out that her father Pabitra and Jalota’s father Purusottamdas had trained together in Lucknow.