Betal zalet sur (बेताल झालेत सूर)

Mandar's concert report

Attended 'Betal zalet sur (बेताल झालेत सूर)', a program of Marathi parody songs (विडंबन गीते) on 11th April 2014 at India Club, Dubai. This was 202nd show of this program and first time out of India.

Before the start the artists challenged audience not to laugh even once during the program. Needless to say, they won.

Program started with Ganesh Vandana (गणेश वंदना). They presented one type of song in  another song's tune and vice versa. Some fusion, some new songs in old tunes accompanied by witty commentary.

Parody can be of anything. Style of singing, tune of the song, wording of the song, naughtiness, style of various musicians etc.. The artists used all these styles to create parody. They used all types of songs like folk songs, bhav geet (भाव गीत), filmy songs, tamasha (तमाशा), bhajan (भजन), light songs, lullaby(अंगाई), lavni (लावणी), qawwali, classical music and even ukhana (उखाणा - there is no English name for this)

There is a very thin line between naughtiness and vulgarity. This program never crossed that line and was enjoyed by everyone with their families. The singers and musicians were good and remained in sur (सूर).

The only deficiency I could note was that they mostly used existing songs and the contribution of newly written & composed songs was limited.

This program was presented by an amateur group of 11; consisting of entrepreneurs, doctors, chartered accountants, managers and engineers. It was lead by Shri. Chandrasekhar Vaze (One on extreme right in photograph). Mr. Vaze is Chairman of Jankalyan sahakari bank. The group consisted of four singers, a tabalji, a dholki player, a side rhythm player, a bansuri player, a harmonium player and two narrators.

The artists promised a program filled with fun and entertainment and confirmed that there will be no seriousnessa and the audience will enjoy.

They delivered. All in all a satisfying program. Entertainment rating 8.5/10