First Seychelles-India Day oct 2013 |07 October 2013

Indian music stars thrill local fans

Thrilling, mesmerising, exhilarating, explosive! Adjectives are really lacking and may not be strong enough to explain the hot Indian music ambiance delivered by Bollywood vocalists Aakriti Kakar and Benny Dayal in the two-and-a-half-hour performance which kept a packed International Conference Centre auditorium cracking on Saturday evening.
 
Worldly known for hiring their voices to Bollywood films, and in the case of Benny, his sweet voice combined to extraordinary choreographic talents, the two stars did not fail in the mission the organisers of the first Seychelles-India Day had vested in them on Saturday: Promote Indian music and artists to a local crowd.
 
From the word go or the first notes from the combined live and playback sound introducing the supposedly warm-up session animated by Aakriti, accompanied by only keyboard and percussions complemented by the DJ’s keyboard, the enthusiastic public was already heated with excitement and responded energetically.

The beautiful diva rightly known as ‘the singing sensation of India’ remarkably mastered the art of public captivation, that by the time she started singing only her third song, with an energised and excited crowd dancing to the rhythmic tunes, the front of the theatre had turned into a Mumbai discotheque for all ages.

At this point it would seem that the fantastic audience had already got more than they had come for, but there was really much more to come. Describing Telcy as “a fantastic artist she has met here”, Aakriti invited the local singer on stage to form a real exotic female duo. The result of the blend of the Indian and Seychellois magnetism simply resulted in the fusion of Telcy’s ‘Party time’ into a beautiful and cadenced Indian melody.
 
With art at its best driven by the electrifying atmosphere, Benny could have been easily forgotten. What would follow though proved that this would have been a gigantic error of appreciation.

Introduced by Aakriti as “one of India’s hottest male voices and the fastest growing Indian youth icon”, the compliment was far from only gratifying. Singing and moving gracefully like an oriental poet, the equally energetic, flexible and entertaining dancer, who even danced with the cameraman when the latter came close to him, was purely Michael Jackson reincarnated in New Delhi, and for this unique occasion, in Seychelles!

And when Benny and Aakriti were brought back together on stage – or rather off stage – for a finale en duo in the form of a final intimate interaction with their newly found fans in the hall, one spectator simply shouted out, “too good to be true”.