Saadi's solo recital at Alliance Française

Saadi Muhammad sings while Gazi Abdul Hakim accompanies him on the flute

He started with the much-rendered piece Money ki didha rekhey geley choley. Later he performed some other melodious Tagore songs like Anek diney amar gan, Ami phirbo na re and Je torey pagal boley. The song Ami chini go chini tomarey was performed in a different way with more instrumental backups than the traditional tune. The keyboard-emphasised tune was more melodious and the rhythm of the song went faster in the later part of the piece.

Saadi said, 'People can be misguided that it is my own composition. But actually it was done by Kishore Kumar with the permission of Bishwabharati. Although the style is not followed at Shantiniketon, the version is quite popular in Kolkata.' He also said that with bigger number of instruments the song would have been more melodious and enjoyable.

Although the auditorium was not big enough, the acoustics and arrangements of the show was truly standard and brilliant. A very short solo recital by flautist Gazi Abdul Hakim played in the beginning of the song Krishnakoli ami tarei boli was very enjoyable. Fariduddin on Tabla and Badrul Islam Bakul on keyboard were also brilliant.

Saadi performed a number of songs of yesteryears mostly of Hemanta Mukhopadhyay like Muchhe jawa dinguli, Amay proshno korey, O nodi re and Moner janala diey. However, some of the audience said that they had expected him to sing more Tagore songs. To quote Saadi, 'I wanted to sing some of my faviourite songs that included those oldy goldies, but truly I belong to the Tagore songs genre which will remain unchanged forever.'