Gajra 2008 - A memorable evening !!!

Last Saturday (April 5th), I attended my first ever program for the DFW Marathi Mandal - "Gajra" - and must admit, I was totally spellbound by the performances. Before going into those, I must say that I am impressed that there is a sizeable number of Maharashtrians in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex. This Marathi Mandal has been functional for quite some time and having seen their organizational skills and the honest efforts of some senior members (Rane kaka, Pandit kaka, and a whole lot of others), I must admit I plan to attend all their functions in the coming months during my stay here in Texas.

So now to "Gajra". A 2-hour show that felt like just a small time due to the astounding performances given by 4 legends. We were lucky to not only witness them perform live, but also talk to them off-stage and chat on a normal level and also click some snaps.

Sudhir Gadgil

This man needs no introduction. He has recently completed 30 years in the field of Marathi media and he regaled the audience with his funny anecdotes, awe-inspiring experiences, and some real interesting observations.



Smita Talwalkar

This lady (though she prefers to be called a 'girl') has seen and done it all. The first lady to venture into Marathi film production and distribution, an amazing actress, a news reader and a wonderful human being. She had the audience in splits with her experiences in the fields on acting, producing, film-casting, and film-distributions. And she is amazingly proud of her upbringing and the fact that she is from 'Huzoorbag' in Pune.



Deepak Deshpande

The holder of the coveted 'Hasyasamrat' title on Zee Marathi, a professor by profession, and a magnificent human. His mimicry was top notch and he not only covered actors such as Nilu Phule, Sriram Lagu and Prabhakar Panshikar, he also mimicked politicians such as Sharad Pawar. His observational skills were seen at their very best when he mimicked the voices heard at locations such as ST stops, railway stations, and even airports in Japan.



Tyagraj Khadilkar

The winner of the first 'Sa Re Ga Ma' on Zee TV, and a wonderful singer and composer, he was the star of the evening. From mesmerizing everyone with his renditions of 'Omkara Swarupa' and 'Doul Morachya', to magnificently mimicking the voices of Kumar Gandharva, Ghulam Ali, and Pandit Bhimsen Joshi, and even Dada Kondke, his performances were top-notch. And a special performance in which he sang in 3 different voices at the same time (Mehmood, Kishore Kumar, and Manna Dey) to sing the very difficult 'Chatur Naar' from 'Padosan', simply brought down the house.



I tried to record a small video of his mimicry of Dada Kondke which can be seen at -



All, in all, a magnificent evening !!!