The musical wizard who has given us some of the greatest Bollywood hits including Nimbooda and Dola Re, Kavita Krishnamurthi gave a fabulous concert on Sunday, October 11 at the Collins Auditorium in Andover MA.  Her fabulous singing and her willingness to the please the audience with a rendition of a plethora of hits made it an evening to remember.  The organizers AAPARNA  and NEBAF need to be congratulated for bringing such a fabulous event to New England. 

Following a presentation by Shurjo Bhattacharya, Kavita took the stage.  Prashanth Palakurthi, husband of Anuradha Palakurthi whose foundation was a sponsor for the event was pleased to introduce Kavita Krishnamurthi. "When I was at BITS Pilani, I was the general secretary of the student body. We invited Manna Dey for a show. At that time he brought along with him a young new up and coming artist who I had the honor of introducing to the audience. That artist was Kavita Krishnamurti. I had that honor of introducing her as an up and coming star 35 years ago and I am again honored to introduce you to you today".   

In her lovely silk pink saree she looked quite the South Indian diva.  As she started to present her songs it suddenly made us realize that she surely had an amazing number of hits in Bollywood.  She talked about her multicultural background. “I am a South Indian raised in Delhi and have dear Bengali family that almost adopted me. I consider them my second set of parents. I moved to Mumbai for a career in Bollywood and thus learned a lot of Marathi and Gujarati. When I got married I moved to Banglore and learned a lot of Kannada. So what does this make me? A Bhartiya nari” said Kavita. 

She had several stories that regaled the audiences with. “Once we were recording a song where the music directors where Jatin Lalit. They were just starting out in the industry. The lyricist was Majrooh Sultanpuri saab. He was in his mid seventies and not very well. Yet he decided that he should come to the recording to make sure all is well. The song had the word Khudha. He asked I pronounce it in a non-standard Urdu way since the girl in the scene was a Goan Christian. It was amazing to see that he noted such minute detail. Of course I protested saying – but I am a Krishnamurthi. If I mispronounce it people will think I do not know the correct Urdu pronunciation.  Of course Majrooh saab prevailed”

She sang so many audience favorites including Tu Cheez Badi Hai, Nimbooda, Dola Re, Hawa Hawaii, Dil Vil Pyar Vyar and so many others.  At times her son joined in playing accompaniment on his violin. Like his father, he is a brilliant violinist.  

Later in the show she sang Tamil, Bangla, Gujrathi and Punjabi songs. Her wide repertoire in so many languages was awe-inspiring.  As Aishwarya and Madhuri stand out as super stars in the film industry they surely owe much to this melody queen for singing the numbers that made them so popular. 

 A lovely evening of magical music .