Legend Rafi-Saab’s glorious Centenary celebrated by Bipin R. Pandit with his marvelous show ‘Khumaar’ ! by Chaitanya Padukone

Music concerts may come, music events may go, but ‘Khumaar’ musical 'hang-over' never gets ‘over’!

Much-awaited Khumaar 2024  an annual musical-show live concert extravaganza, founded by multi-faceted impresario Bipin R. Pandit this time was dedicated to celebrating 100 glorious years ( Centenary year) of the legendary versatile iconic playback singer Mohammed Rafi-saab ( born 1924). That too in the presence of esteemed guests Rafi-saab’s son-in-law Parvez-bhai Ahmed and Yasmin-jee ( Rafi-saab’s daughter and also Akhtar Jaipuri ( son of legendary film lyricist janaab Hasrat Jaipuri). Fantastic compere and mimicry artist Bipin Pandit (also COO of biggest Ad Club for past 27 years) had invited popular celeb actor-singer Ruhan (Mahendra) Kapoor for a very special sentimental reason.

With scintillating live performances of evergreen ‘curated’ melodies, all sung-recorded by versatile Rafi-saab in his divine voice,  Bipin‘s show Khumaar ( now in its 19th year) proved to be an orchestral aural-retro-feast, especially for loyal ardent Rafi-saab’s fans. The recent ‘houseful’ Khumaar show with its scintillating ‘showmanship’ was held at St Andrews Auditorium at Bandra West, coincidentally, quite close to where Rafi-saab used to reside during his lifetime, 

Founded and lovingly nurtured since its inception in 1998 by Bipin Pandit, COO, The Advertising Club, Khumaar today has grown to be a major showcase for established as well as rising-promising talent as well as a platform for preserving the love for India’s classic retro- melodies. The show presents a classy selection of curated theme-centric melodies with lots of surprise segments. Like this time ‘Khumaar’ 2024 in its 19th year, held at St. Andrews Auditorium, sparkled with its stage showmanship.

Celebrating 100 Years of Rafi-saab—Bipin ensured that it would be a Pan-India artiste-performers live concert show ! The galaxy of eight seasoned super-singers included Mona Prabhugaonkar, Sarvesh Mishra, Prajakta Satardekar (all three singers from Mumbai), Chandrashekar Mahamuni (from Pune), Chirag-bhai Desai (Ahmedabad ), Zeeshan Shaikh (from Malegaon-Nashik), Prasan Rao ( from Bhopal) and the Khumaar ki Khoj 2024-- Rajkumar Dhanurdhar (from Lucknow )  This year’s Khumaar show was also dedicated to the fond memory of Late Dinesh Ghate—Bipin’s  dearest friend and brilliant music coordinator for the same show-- for past 18 years!

Not surprisingly, Rafi-saab’s music-savvy son-in-law Parvez-bhai Ahmed shared his valued appreciative feedback when he reacted,”  It was such a pleasant surprise to see your wonderful presentation on the stage, your powerful anchoring, your humor and your wonderful words for Rafi-Sahab and for other musical legends.  One of the best programs-shows on Rafi-Sahab's personality.Words are falling short to describe the never-before-experience. It was great of you to say very impressive words for Rafi-sahab, All I can say "Bipin-bhai ko nahi suna to phir kya suna. Thank you very much for everything,” said  the soft-spoken dignified smiling Parvez-bhai. Just like his unassuming polite legendary father-in-law Rafi-sahab.

 The fact that Rafi-saab is a musical ocean with a vast repertoire, the Khumaar show had diverse songs presented music director-wise which included curated selection songs from almost all the legendary film-composers from Laxmikant Pyarelal to Shankar Jaikishan and from Roshan to R D Burman. Besides an informative meticulous eye-opener audio-visual, innovative Bipin even compared “greatest singer  Rafisaab” with the “greatest cricketer-ever Sir Gary Sobers” The audience loved it.. The show had three segments besides the normal songs.  Evergreen cult songs and hit songs also from movies which did not run at the box-office. Also there was a Raag Yaman songs-medley 

Khumaar is a Pan-India show drawing live audiences  from Mumbai as well as distant cities such  Delhi, Baroda, Indore, Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Pune . Such is the infectious energy-vibes of the Khumaar concert,  that the audience not only loves to sing-along but some groups even dance in the auditorium aisles ( gangway)  to the rhythmic tunes of the singers.

The prestigious Mohammed Rafi Memorial Khumaar Award-Trophy instituted this year to mark the Supreme Singer’s Centenary  was given in the name of  late legendary singer Mahendra Kapoor who considered himself a staunch disciple of  Gurudev Rafi-saab. Multi-talented actor-singer  Ruhaan Kapoor accepted the Raf-saab Memorial Khumaar 2024 Award on behalf of his iconic singer Mahendra-jee. And even sang an ad-lib jhalak of the  evergreen Rafi-saab song ‘Maine Poocha Chaand Sey’ and the audience went into raptures.  

This newly instituted  Rafi-saab Memorial Award would be  an  Annual feature at every Khumaar event.

 Meanwhile Akhtar ( Hasrat) Jaipuri also heartily complimented Bipin for his “well-researched, well-scripted and very well-organised”  live concert Khumaar 2024  . “Khumaar show nahin dekha, toh duniya mein kuchh nahin dekha,”  reacted Akhtar-bhai. What a timeless classic compliment !

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