Farida Parveen's soothing tunes

Farida Parveen

This was the 10th musical programme put together by Orchestra. Prior to this, the organisation has held concerts of artistes such as Fatema Tuz Zohra, Subir Nandi, Kanakchapa, Shaheen Samad, Tapan Chowdhury, Kiranchandra Roy, Chandana Majumdar, Agoon and Sraboni. Incidentally Shomoy geley... was the second programme of Farida Parveen by Orchestra.

Emerging singer Deenat Jahan Munni started the programme with renditions of Lalon songs. The artiste fondly recalled how she as a youngster spent the money received as a prize for the first competition she won, by buying an album of Farida Parveen. "I feel honoured that I've been asked to sing at a 'Farida Parveen' event," she said. Deenat then perfomed Jaat gelo jaat gelo, Dekhna mon jhank mari ei duniyadaari, Ami aupaar hoye boshey achhi, Asha puron holo na and Barir pashey aarshinagar.

Following Deenat's performance Farida Parveen took the stage. The seasoned songster said, "I'm sure you've enjoyed the performance by the promising artiste (Deenat). However, I think it would've been better if two artistes of the same genre weren't performing at the same event." She added, "Satellite culture has had a major impact on our way of life. I shudder when sometimes I get to hear versions of Lalon songs by some artistes of this generation. Distortion of these timeless songs is rampant; the excuse given is 'self expression'. However I am hopeful that quality programmes featuring authentic Bangla songs will promote and uphold our wholesome values."

Farida started her performance with a patriotic song Ei Padma ei Meghna to mark March, the month when Bangladesh declared its independence. Consecutively she performed Tomari holam, Bidhirey tui amaye chhara rongo korar manush dekhli na, Tomra bhulei gechho Mallikadir Naam, Pakhi kokhon jani urey jai and more.

Gazi Abdul Hakim was on flute, SM Reza on dholok, Sheikh Jalaluddin on dotara and Bishwajit Sarkar was on tabla. Shawkat Hossain was on keyboard.