The Healing Chorus

Shankar Mahadevan grabs the mike and as the music begins to play,he belts out the chartbuster Kajra re. With the chorus singers joining him,the tempo picks up and he follows it up with songs from the films Kal Ho Na Ho and Taare Zameen Par. As the session ends,Mahadevan seems to be visibly happy with the rehearsal; then again,the concert he’s rehearsing for is a special one.

Aptly titled ‘Music Heals’,this concert will be held on December 10 at the Andheri Sports Complex and the sale proceeds will go to the Cancer Aid & Research Foundation. Given the charitable cause behind the concert,it’s not surprising to see that Shankar isn’t the only one who will be performing at the event. Kavita Krishnamurthi,Alka Yagnik,Hariharan,Sudesh Bhonsle,Javed Ali and Sapna Mukherjee will be lending their voices to the compositions of four renowned Bollywood music director teams — Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy,Laxmikant-Pyarelal,Kalyan-Anand and Shiv-Hari.

The songs for the evening will include several popular numbers that date back to different eras of the film industry. So apart from Kal Ho Na Ho,Bunty Aur Babli and Taare Zameen Par,one can expect songs from movies such as Karz (Laxmikant-Pyarelal),Don (Kalyan-Anand) and Silsila (Shiv-Hari) among many others.

Pyarelal Sharma of the Laxmikant-Pyarelal duo points out that he chose to do this show because it provided him with a rare opportunity to “share the stage with other artistes of the fraternity”.