KARACHI: Music and dance lovers were treated to an enjoyable show titled Kanya on Tuesday evening at the Arts Council of Pakistan as a Sri Lankan group, led by the renowned artist Chandana Wickramasinghe, presented a delectable variety of dances, songs and instrumentals.

The event began with a show reel of the troupe’s performan­ces. The first act on stage was a lovely traditional dance which nicely set the tone for what was to come. It aimed to fuse conventional rhythms with contemporary sounds. This was followed by a percussion performance when a drummer carrying a dhol-like instrument played traditional beats representing the southern part of Sri Lanka.

Things took an interesting turn when a singer by the name of Mahesha Sandamali sang some famous Indian film songs. She began by crooning the iconic track Lag ja galey (originally sung by Lata Mangeshkhar for the film Wo Kon Thi). Her performance was noteworthy particularly when she sang the difficult bits in the antras where she needed to hit the high notes. Another extremely popular song Chaudhvein ka chaand ho (sung by Mohammed Rafi for the film Chaudhvein Ka Chaand) was her next choice. And the third and last tune that she did was Dekha hai pehli baar from the 1990s movie Sajan (sung by Alka Yagnik and S P Balasubramaniam). Mahesha’s performance was received with a warm round of applause.

The show returned to movement mode as a very poetic dance act immediately regained the audience’s attention — which goes to show that the variety that the group was coming up with was well worked out. Then a young drummer came on stage brimming with talent and energy. He had in his repertoire the beats that are usually played during festive occasions in Sri Lanka. Next up was a dance representing the Kandy region of the country which seamlessly matched the energy that the preceding percussionist had exuded.

The second singer of the evening was the young Sonal Prabh­ashitha who became famous in his country after taking part in the Sri Lankan version of the music reality show The Voice. He started off by singing none other than the Pakistani hit composition Pasoori (sung by Ali Sethi and Shae Gill for Coke Studio). He also belted out a well-known Indian film song Gulabi aankhein jo teri dekhein (sung by Moha­mmed Rafi for The Train).

A touch over 90-minute gig proved to be super entertaining.

Published in Dawn, June 27th, 2024