Friday 19 / April / 2024
Muscat: The Indian Social Club’s latest open mic event which takes place this weekend will mark India’s 73rd Independence Day with a rendition of patriotic songs.
The musical evening, which is titled ‘Ay Watan’, will be held on their Darsait premises on Friday, 30 August, and will feature a number of emotional, soul-stirring songs which aim to transport listeners to a different world and ignite a patriotic fervour within them.
“We tend to hold these open mics quite often,” said Shilpa Deshpande, a member of the event’s core committee. “The last time we had it was to celebrate the monsoon in India. This time, although it is a bit late, we are doing it to mark India’s Independence Day. We always have a good turnout for these sorts of events and are expecting about 250 people this time.”
With Indian cinema having created several patriotic songs that live long in the memory over the duration of the last 70 years, some of the songs that will be featured at this event include Ay mere pyaare watan, which was created over 50 years ago and feels relevant even today, as the composition, voice and words together create a moving song that aims to inspire people.
Another famous song that will be sung is music composer AR Rahman’s Vande Mataram, which embodies patriotic fervour in a powerful way.
Another song that is sure to strike a chord is Ye mera India from the 90-era film Pardes. India’s first ever war movie Haqeqat, which was first screened way back in 1964, also has a patriotic song that is sung to this day – Ab tumhare hawale watan saathiyo.
That song, along with Sandese aate hain from the Hindi film Border, has the capacity to touch people’s hearts. These and many more songs can be enjoyed at the Indian Social Club’s open mic night this weekend.
“Entry for the event is free, if you are an Indian Social Club member,” said Shilpa Deshpande. “ Previously, we would invite people who were non-members to come as well, but now we have so many singers within the club it is unfortunately not possible to do this. However, between one open mic and the other, we often run initiation programmes where we invite new members.”
