Mesmerizing Fir Le Aya Dil Musical Evening

By Ravi Ozarker

STAFFORD: What a mesmerizing “Fir Le Aya Dil” event set by Hrishikesh Ranade, Prajakta Joshi, Nihira Joshi and their super talented team, Amit Soman (Sound), Kedar Paranjpe, Ajay Atre, Darshana Jog, and Vikram Bhatt at Stafford Civic Center on May 6, Hosted by Sanskar, LLC.  No good words to describe this special Bollywood musical journey for Houstonians.

The show started at 5:00 PM at Stafford Civic Center with “He Gajavadana” dance which is a song for Lord Ganesh. Dances were presented by Houston’s well known Kathak Beats dance school.  Second song was also performed by Manjusha Jadhav and her students on the “Mohe Rang Do” song.

Emcee of the show, Shekhar Phatak (also a Urdu/Hindi Gazal vocalist) welcomed all the artists of the “Fir Le Aya Dil” event with a big bang.  All three artists started the show with “Aaj Ki Raat” song which setup a great tone and mood of the show.  Attendees welcomed the artists will claps and whistles.  Hrishikesh commented that the music lover Houstonians is the one of the best crowds that he had seen in terms of attentiveness and energy.  The singers will be performing in many other states this month.  Without revealing too much about the actual details of this show, all attendees commented that the singers were simply awesome.

Hrishikesh Ranade is an Indian playback singer in the film industry. He has sung songs in Hindi, Marathi and in some other Indian languages. He has sung along with singer Shreya Ghoshal during her USA tours.  Nihira Joshi has rendered her vocals for the films like ‘Bunty Aur Babli’ and ‘Salaam-E- Ishq’ ‘Sajde’ and ‘Baaware’ from the film ‘Kill Dil’.  Prajakta Joshi is a playback singer who has performed live along with Hrishikesh’s father Pramod Ranade who is a is an Indian playback singer, violinist and music arranger in Marathi industry. 

Kedar Paranjpe, Ajay Atre, Darshana Jog, and Vikram Bhatt played various musical instruments on stage and also sang some songs.  Nihira commented that some of the songs that she had sung in Houston would require a full-scale symphony with more than 50 people.  All this work was done by only four people on the stage using two keyboards, tabla, and an octopad and yet it sounded the same.  Hats off to the talent of these artists.   

Sanskar, LLC CEO Megha Ozarker thanked all super excited attendees including national organizers Shilp Entertainment and Mohit Mumbai Masala for organizing this USA tour. Everyone enjoyed the event and wanted more music after 3 hours of beautiful journey from old to new songs. Megha also thanked “Fir Le Aya Dil” sponsors, Chelsea Gardens and Geriatric Home Care Physician company for their support for the Houston show.

The “Fir Le Aya Dil Concert” was supported by Pani Poori Productions, Kavadi Family of Houston, Gujarati Samaj of Houston, Kathak Beats, Hum Tum Desi, Masala Radio, Indo-American News, and Kathak Beats.  This show was successful because of many volunteers also; Rashmee Joshi, Jaisingh Jadhav, Saurabh Joshi, Nilima Bembalkar, Harpreet Chawala, Anushka Ranade, and Aakash Ozarker.