Moving on

The performance is flawless as usual and the energy on stage is as infectious as ever. The act seems so complete that its quite difficult to imagine that Indian Ocean is performing without one of their founding members,Asheem Chakravarty.

The performance is flawless as usual and the energy on stage is as infectious as ever. The act seems so complete that its quite difficult to imagine that Indian Ocean is performing without one of their founding members,Asheem Chakravarty. Where once there were four people on stage Susmit Sen on guitar,Rahul Ram on bass,Amit Kilam on drums and Chakravarty on tabla and vocals on January 20,at the Dr DY Patil College in Navi Mumbai,there were five people performing. With the death of Chakravarty in December last year,the band asked two of their friendsSudhir Rikhari (vocals) and Gyan Singh (tabla)to help them fill the gap at the Navi Mumbai gig,and while the music is as sublime as ever,the band has made it clear that the vacuum left by Chakravarty is not one that can be easily filled.

Theres no question of replacing Asheem. With his death,the band is looking for a new identity, Sen confides,when we meet him backstage before the concert begins. This show,he says,will be dedicated to his late friend and

colleague as will quite a few other shows thatll follow. But were looking at organising a proper tribute concert,sometime in March,before we leave for the US. We still need to figure out a lot of details sponsorship,the location,the final dates and which of our musician friends will be playing with us. The 20-year-old band will,of course,continue to make music but,he reiterates,they cant be sure what direction the music will take. We will have an album out this year. Its 90 per cent done and it does have Asheems vocals, he says. Kilam adds,Weve already performed 10-15 shows without Asheem since he fell sick in October,but it still feels strange. But such is life that we have to move on.

When Indian Ocean finally takes the stage,the crowd screams in anticipation. Already theyre yelling out the names of their favourite songs which they want the band to play; when the musicians begin,the applause is wild and practically everyone is singing along to the familiar tunes. On the face of it,everything seems normalKilam energetically pounds away at the drums,Rams head is still cocked in that familiar position and Sen looks as phlegmatic as he always does on stage. Then the guitarist dedicates a new song,Bandhu,to Chakravartyit is greeted with as much enthusiasm as old hits like Kya Maloom and Jhini. Before he went on stage,Sen told us,We can tell that our audience feels great sympathy for our loss. Theyre here to support us and were glad for that. We can feel their love. We can see what he means.

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Moving on

The performance is flawless as usual and the energy on stage is as infectious as ever. The act seems so complete that its quite difficult to imagine that Indian Ocean is performing without one of their founding members,Asheem Chakravarty.

The performance is flawless as usual and the energy on stage is as infectious as ever. The act seems so complete that its quite difficult to imagine that Indian Ocean is performing without one of their founding members,Asheem Chakravarty.