Kumar Sanu Entertains Houston

By Vanshika Vipin

STAFFORD: It was an evening of nostalgia at the Stafford Center as versatile singer Kumar Sanu took stage. Sanu’s name is synonymous with romantic hit Bollywood songs from 1990’s and the early 2000’s. Organized by Rehan Siddiqui of Hum Tum Shows, the event welcomed each attending lady with a red rose. After the opening numbers sang by Yogesh and Anuradha Ghosh, Kumar Sanu got ready to sing. Opening with his all time favorite do dil mil rahe hai from Pardes, Sanu got a rousing reception. The audience had a great time clapping and singling along to bas ek sanam chahiye ashiqui ke liye and whistling along to chand sitaare phool aur khushbu.

Kumar Sanu a.k.a Kedarnath Bhattacharya was born in Calcutta. His father Pashupati Bhattacharya was a vocalist and a composer. Sanu was trained to play table when he was young. Though his first playback break came in 1986 in a Bangladeshi movie, he announced his arrival in the runaway hit Ashiqui in 1990. Infact from 1990 to 1994, he won five consecutive Filmfare awards for the best male playback singer. Easy to say, Sanu took Bollywood by storm.

Back at the show, in between songs, Kumar Sanu took time to share stories about his experiences in Bollywood especially with legends like R D Burman, adding anecdotes and cracking jokes on stage.

Kumar Sanu’s repertoire includes many superhit songs from the recent past. To the audience’s delight, Sanu sang some of his most favourite ones including Ek Ladki Ko Dekha to, Sambhala hai maine, Dheere Dheere Se, Sochenge Tumhe pyaar kare ke nahin.

After taking a break, Sanu started taking requests from the audience. Some of the attendees actually sang duets with him. Some of them posed questions for him that he patiently answered with a dash of humor.

A special mention for the accompanying musicians travelling with Sanu, they complemented his singing in every possible way. The technical arrangements including sound and light designed by Arif Memon was perfectly tuned to match a Bollywood evening like this one.
Kumar Sanu wrapped up the show with ladki badi anjaani hai from kuch kuch hota hai. Rehan then thanked all the sponsors and supporters and drew a loud applause from the crowd when he announced that Kumar Sanu would be back in Houston on December 31, 2014.