Media Invite to cover musical homage to Shamshad Begum on Tuesday, 6th August, 2013 in Gurgaon

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Media Invite to cover musical homage to Shamshad Begum on Tuesday, 6^th August, 2013 in Gurgaon

                Two Societies namely PECOBA and SAKHA are jointly organizing  a program of musical tribute to late playback singer Shamshad Begum who died on 23^rd April, 2013 at the age of 94. It is being held at Epicentre, Apparel House, Sector 44, Gurgaon on Tuesday, the 6^th Aug, 2013 from 7.30 pm sharp to 9.30 pm sharp

                    Born in Lahore in 1919, Shamshad was the oldest surviving playback singer of film industry. She was highest paid singer of her time and even Lata Mangeshkar has sung in chorus in  songs in which Shamshad Begum was the lead singer. To give an example, in the song “aji khushian manayen kyoon na ham, ham kisi se…” from film “Khidki (1948) which was set to music by C. Ramchander, the lead singer is Shamshad while Lata is singing in chorus. (Record of this song was issued by Columbia Company in their Record No. GE 8088). Shamshad was the recipient of Padma Bhushan Award in 2009.

                              In our program, one of the topmost singer of Northern India Simrat Chhabra and other top singers will be singing Shamshad’s solo and duet songs. The journey of her singing life from 1937 in Lahore to Bombay will be illustrated through slides and through recorded interviews of our compere Mamta Vani with persons of film industry like Kamini Kaushal, Tabassum, playback singer Meena Kapoor, Shamshad’s daughter Usha Ratra, wife of music director Husan Lal Mrs Nirmala, radio Ceylon announcer Gopal Sharma and others.

                            Punjab Engineering College, Chandigarh (PEC) is one of the oldest colleges of India and was originally born in Lahore in 1921 .PECOBA is an Alumni Association of this College and was founded by 46 years ago in 1967. PECOBA has 10,000 members all round the world. Its alumni include Kalpana Chawla and Jaspal Bhatti.

          SAKHA is a premier cultural society of Delhi, founded 26 years ago in 1987. It is known for its pioneering contribution towards reviving and popularizing the golden period of Indian Film Music by organizing music competitions in memories of legendary singers like KL Saigal, Mukesh, Mohd Rafi, Kishore Kumar, Hemant Kumar etc. A large number of singers first discovered by SAKHA through these music competitions are today playback singers in Mumbai, including Sonu Nigam who won Rafi competition in 1988.

.         This is the first program of musical homage to Shamshad Begum at the national level. In view of the national importance of this event, I request you to depute your person and camera team to cover the Function. General schedule of timing is given below:

 7.30 pm sharp to 8.20 pm……Songs of Shamshad Begum by Simrat Chhabra & other singers

8.21 pm to 8.40 pm…..Floral tribute to Shamshad Begum by dignitaries, release of website www.simratchhabra.com and distribution of SAKHA AWARDS. Awardees include Dr DR Saini, Principal Delhi Public School, Dr Rawail Singh, Secretary, Punjabi Academy, composers Mohinder Sarin & Chhote Lal. Consent from suspended IAS Officer Durga Shakti Nagpal is still awaited.

8.41 pm to 9.30 pm sharp….Songs of Shamshad continued. Program ends at 9.30 pm sharp

 Yours sincerely,

 Amarjit Singh Kohli (B.E. Mech Engg, 1964 Mech passout of PEC),

Founder Gen Secy, PECOBA & Founder Chairman SAKHA,

B-4/120 Safdarjung Enclave, New Delhi-110029, Mob: 09988778739, 011-26196600, 26107082

email: amarjits...@gmail.com, pec...@bol.net.in

 

Media Invite Letter for coverage of program of musical homage to Shamshad Begum  on 6 Aug, 2013 in Gurgaon