Ernakulam Azad Arts Club Singers Tap Healing Powers with Vintage Songs

KOCHI:
A sprightly father-daughter duo enthralled the patients at the Government General Hospital here today as noted singer Arun Xavier rendered “therapy music” along with his daughter Sarah Arun Mangat as part of the weekly Arts and Medicine programme.
If vintage Hindi and Malayalam film songs form an ideal balm for the troubled mind and soul, then the singers from Ernakulam Azad Arts Club dished out soulful music before patients, evoking a rapturous applause from the patients and other staffers of the hospital as well as bystanders.
The hour-long recital at the programme, organised by the Kochi Biennale Foundation (KBF) in association with Lakeshore Hospital and Research Centre Ltd and Mehboob Memorial Orchestra, tugged at the heart-strings of the motley assemblage.
At the 167th edition of the popular series held every Wednesday, the duo recreated the magic of Malayalam song ‘Minungum Minnaminunge’ from the movie ‘Oppam’, as they crooned the chartbuster song with great mellifluousness.
The programme began with Arun singing noted composer Us
ha Khanna’s evergreen hit ‘Nee Madhu Pakaru’ from the 1970 movie ‘Moodal Manju’.
Kishore Kumar’s ‘Phoolo ke rang se’, G Venugopal’s ‘Rari rariram raro’ and Adnan Sami’s hit lullaby ‘Chanchadi adi urangu nee’ were all lapped up by the people assembled at the hospital premises.
Retty John Ralph, Rosa Thannikal, Rose Mangat, Mariam Mangat were the other vocalists who accompanied the father-daughter duo during the show. Sarah, Maria and Arun also jointly sang ‘Oru Thai Nadam’, a poem by renowned poet Sugathakumari.
Ernakulam Azad Arts Club, formed in 1953, is a collective of artists from all strata in the society. Legendary theatre and film actor P J Antony was the first president of the organisation.