Coke Studio,Live

When Tochi Raina’s earthy Punjabi vocals met Divya Lewis’ soaring operatic style at Hard Rock Cafe (HRC) in Mumbai recently — it was a moment of musical magic. Raina and Lewis have performed on MTV’s show,Coke Studio,and are visiting HRC centres across India for a series of ‘minicerts,’ a small concert that attempts to recreate the magic of their small screen acts,live.

After a packed gig in Mumbai,it was Delhi’s turn last week as the star performers of Coke Studio @MTV took centre-stage at Hard Rock Cafe in DLF mall. While Lewis gave the Capital a miss,Kailash Kher,Harshdeep Kaur and Papon joined Raina with their musical line-up.

“We share a great camaraderie and so,perfoming live with them is a lot of fun. The energy is also different because of the number of people present at shows,” says Papon,who will also release his first solo Hindi music album this year.

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While Raina crooned two of his most popular compositions,Mera yaar basenda and Rabbe illahi noor ka,Papon did a jugalbandi with all the artists.

Coke Studio,which went on air in June,has had mixed reviews,with several critics comparing unfavourably with the original Pakistan show. The minicerts have got off on a better note; will it hold?