The evening began with Bankim Pathak paying homage to India, with a few lines from the Rafi number “Jahan dal dal par sone ki chidiya karti hai basera who bharat desh hai mera” from behind the stage. As his voice rang out, memories of Mohammed Rafi and India, mingled with the notes and nostalgia of a time and place left far behind.
Bhushan Avsatthi too added to it by talking about commemorating the legacy of the legendary singers who are no longer with us . He then started the evening by singing “Musafir Hoon Yaron”, by Kishore Kumar.

Daksha Gohil looking lovely in a pink lace saree came out next and wowed the audience with the lilting number “Raat Ka sama” and then the ever popular “Jaiye aap kahan jayenge” by Asha Bhosle.

Then came the man who has made Rafi live for over 2 decades through his voice. Pathak paid homage to Rafi and said people like him have created an everlasting treasure of music that we can listen to forever and while he sings his songs, he is convinced Rafi is still alive in spirit and blessing music lovers from above. Pathak also expressed his gratitude to the lyricists and the music directors who created those beautiful songs that made Rafi immortal.

He started by singing “Hum Tum se Juda hoke”, and the beautiful “Tootey huey Khwabon ne”. 

Pathak then talked about how when Shammi Kapoor started his film career he found himself in the company of the three superstars Dilip Kumar, Raj Kapoor and Dev Anand. He knew he had to create a special kind of image or he would never make it. In came Rafi and changed Shammi’s life with the song “Jawania yeh mast mast bin piye”. Shammi Kapoor never looked back and established himself as the singing star. Pathak then went on to sing the popular hit “Akele Akele Kahan ja rahe ho”.

Anila Gohil followed him on stage and there was a fun interaction with Bankim who did a Dev Anand cameo reciting a dialogue in Dev’s voice from the film Guide telling Anila that yesterday she looked 40, but today she looked like a 16 year old, to which Anila who was already cracking up at Bankim’s hamming responded “Should I tell to why?” And burst into the memorable song from Guide “Kaaton se kheench key eh anchal”. She then sang “ Awaaz de kahan hai” in Noorjehan’s voice ad followed it up with “Yara Sili Sili” by Lata.

It was then time to pay homage to Mukesh and who can do it better than Dr Kamlesh Avsatthi. He dazzled Raj Kapoor when the latter heard him sing for the first time after the death of Mukesh whom Kapoor called his spirit. Dr Avsatthi who has done stage shows for almost 4 decades, sung in films, and has his own banner joined hands with Bankim Pathak for the previous tour and this one to add yet another musical dimension to the show.

Dr Avsatthi was very appreciative of the Atlanta audience and said he feels very happy to see that people abroad are still so connected with India, its culture, tradition and its music. “ When some of you left India, the songs I’m about to sing were new, today many years later they are part of a golden heritage that is evergreen.” He too invoked the spirit of the legends who are no longer with us, and started with the beautiful number “Aa laut ke aaja mere meet”.

Dr Avsatthi then talked about how Raj Kapoor wanted to be a singer and in fact both he and Mukesh learnt music from the same guru. While Kapoor moved on to film making, he never lost that passion for music and would always be present and totally involved in every aspect of music and recordings for his films. He also had a stellar group of lyricists, musicians, actors and singers in his group whom Dr Avsatthi referred to as his navratnas. The early death of some of them like Mukesh, Jaikishan, Shailendra, Nargis to name a few had shattered Raj Kapoor tremendously.
Dr Avsatthi then went on to belt out songs from Raj Kapoor’s films like “Dost dost na raha”, “Mera joota hai japani”, “Jane kahan gaye woh din”, with impeccable finesse.

Bankim Pathak then came on stage and talked about how he finds it very interesting to see in today’s films whenever there is a supposed romantic duet between the hero and heroine, and an entire entourage shows up to gyrate around them and every one is grabbing and pawing each other. In the olden days it was the hero and heroine and no one else and even then the hero was scared to touch the heroine! That evoked laughter among the audience and set the mood for duets.

Bankim then sang the sultry duet “Isharon Isharon mein” with Daksha. Anila looking resplendent in a red and black saree followed suit and sang “Awaaz deke hamen tum bulao”, with Bankim. Then Anila who is now such a veteran at switching voices sang “Milte hi ankhen dil hua diwana kisi ka” a duet by Shamshad Begum and Talat Mehmood with Bankim. The nasal twang, the sharp tanginess of Shamshad Begum’s voice was captured perfectly by her. It was followed by “Sau saal pehle mujhe tum se pyaar tha”, but not before Bankim had the crowd in splits with his hamming of Shammi Kapoor with all the jhatkas and nuances that made Shammi such a heartthrob of women.
Daksha and Bhushan followed it up with the evergreen Kishore-lata duet “Gaata rahe mera dil. Kamlesh Avsatthi came on stage with Anila Gohil and “O mere sanam from sangam” and then “Dil tadap tadap ke keh raha hai aa bhi ja” followed.
Dr Avsatthi then told the audience that in 1994 Daksha made a suggestion to create a program of golden oldies and she talked to the national promoter Rocky about it. She felt it would be greatly appreciated by the audiences abroad. It took a decade but finally Rocky did step in and take on the tour. The resounding success of the tour and returning within a month for an encore tour nationwide, it seems Daksha knows the pulse of the people. The duo then went on to sing “Sawan ka mahina” adding little touches of their own to enhance the song, following it up with “Jis desh mein ganga behti hai” and “Aa ab laut chalen”. The last two songs always tend to bring the house down because they are sung so beautifully by the two.

Bankim Pathak and Anila Gohil joined Dr Avsatthi on stage and the three sang the lilting number “Har dil jo pyar karega” from Sangam very beautifully.

The five singers came on stage post interval and sang “Ramaiyya vasta vaiyya” together. After Bhushan sang “O mere dil ke chain” to cheers from the audience Daksha went on to sing what she called a not often heard song on stage shows, the very beautiful number-“Betaab dil ki tamanna yehi hai”. She then did a trilogy of popular hits by R.D. Burman –“Dum maro dum”, “Piya to ab to aaja”, and “Duniya mein logon ko”, ably assisted by Bhushan.

The two sisters sang “Hasta hua noorani chehra” together after which. Anila Gohil gave yet another demonstration of her versatility by singing the lovely qawalli “Teri mehfil me kismet azma kar hum bhi dekhenge” in Lata and Shamshad Begum’s voices switching from on to the other quite effortlessly.

Perhaps the most outstanding song both in terms of music, rendition and complex orchestration was the “Tu chupi hai kahan” from the film ‘Navrang’ originally sung by Asha Bhosle and Manna Dey. It was sung beautifully by Daksha and Bankim, so much so that they brought the house down and had to do an encore immediately, both times to pin drop silence before the crowd finally erupted with applause each time.

It speaks volumes about Dr Avsatthi’s voice and the love people have for Mukesh that he could come on stage after that duet and hold his own..any one with lesser talent would have been blown away. After humming a few lines from the popular Kabhi kabhi title song, he went on to sing the highly requested “Mein pal do pal ka shayar hoon" from the same film.

Then to fulfill many requests Dr Avsatthi and Bankim Pathak sang a medley of songs with the same key words. Dr Avsatthi sang “Chand si mehbooba ho meri” and Bankim responded with “Khoya khoya chand”. Then Dr Avsatthi sang “Aansoo bhari hain yeh jeevan ki rahen”, Bankim responded with “Yeh aansoo mere dil ki zuban hain”.

Dr Avsatthi sang “Chandan sa badan” and Bankim responded with “Badan pe sitare lapatey huey”, Dr Avsatthi then sang “Kahin door jab din dhal Jaye” and Bankim responded with “Din dhal jaye”, and then “Meri mohabbat jawan raheg”i to DrAvastthi’s “Hum tujh se mohaabat kar ke sanam”, and so it went on with numbers like “Chand aahen bharega”, “Phool dil tham lenge”, “Aai phoolon ki rani”, “Jo pyar tune mujhko diya hai” to “Keh do koi na kare yahan pyar”.
The program ended with “Jeena yahan marna yahan” with all the five singers on stage. The quality of singing was stellar and one hopes Atlanta continues to encourage such wonderful talent in years to come.