By Sajeev K Peter

NAFO Global Kuwait presented Muze’23- Festival of Music - a musical spectacular on the second day of Eid in Kuwait, featuring Indian singing sensation Sanah Moidutty and her popular band. A pitch-perfect musical evening, the three-hour live concert was a real treat for the music connoisseurs at the packed American International School auditorium in Maidan Hawally.

Sanah Moidutty performs during ‘Muze’23’ .

The 12-member band, led by Sanah, presented an exciting line-up of songs in Carnatic and Hindustani as well as Indian classical, Western and pop music numbers. She was adequately supported by Yadu Krishnan, who delighted the audience with his brilliant rendering of a few popular Sufi and folk music numbers.

Keeping the audience entertained all along the concert, Sanah delivered in four languages — Malayalam, Hindi, Tamil and Telugu — at equal ease and dexterity, while Yadu rendered songs in Malayalam, Tamil and Hindi. The band also featured Bollywood Dhol King Iqbal Azad, who over the years has carved out a niche for himself as a leading percussionist in Bollywood.

A popular singer and songwriter, Sanah has been trained in Carnatic and Hindustani classical music as well as Western vocals and performs Indian classical and pop music. Both singers are hugely popular in the Indian music world as playback singers. A YouTube sensation with huge fan following, Sanah has performed across the world and has also given voice to some of the compositions of music legend AR Rahman. Yadu has travelled the globe with Rahman since 2017 to sing for his Sufi shows.

Sanah Moidutty and Yadu Krishnan during the musical show.

Hits like ‘Tere Darbaar Mein’, ‘Khwaja Mere Khwaja’, ‘Kalbanee, Kalbanee’ ‘Munbe Vaa’ and popular Rehman numbers like, ‘Mukkala Mukkabla’, ‘Chol’, ‘Antha Arabikadaloram’ and other numbers were greeted with thunderous applause. ‘Arabic Kuthu’ from the movie ‘Beast’ was another hit of the show. When the duo rendered some of the evergreen pop numbers and Malayalam folk songs, the audience turned on the flashlights on their smartphones and waved them to the beat of the music.

Sanah was awarded ‘Best Singing Sensation’ for the year 2017 at the Asia Vision Movie Awards 2017 for the song ‘Afeemi’ from ‘Meri Pyaari Bindu’. As a part of Jammin, a digital music collaboration, Sanah has done a collaboration called ‘Ishq Abhi Bhi’ with Bollywood composer Clinton Carejo and a collaboration called ‘Yaara’ composed by A R Rahman.

Muze’23 got off to glittering start with the lighting of the traditional lamp by NAFO President Rajiv Menon, Advisory Chief Vijayan Nair, Program Convener Jayaraj Nair Edathil, Vice President Naveen CP and Vice coordinator of NAFO ladies wing Sajitha Menon. Dignitaries who attended the inaugural event included Mathews Varughese and Pradeep Menon. NAFO also launched its Muze’23 theme music on which a dance performance was choreographed and performed by Team Dillusions and released a souvenir marking the event.