New Delhi, June 23
The sun set rather early on Friday in the National Capital but the impending dawn of a new era in Punjabi music and culture brought about a unique confluence at the Siri Fort Auditorium here, the venue for the first Lashkara Music Awards last night. Amidst a galaxy of stars from the Punjabi film and music world comprising Pankaj Dheer, Divya Dutta, Naksh Lyallpuri, Preeti Sapru, and the Wadali brothers and a distinguished gathering that included former Prime Minister Inder Kumar Gujral, prominent personalities from the music arena were honoured with the first Lashkara Awards at a glittering ceremony. As many as 225 nominations were received for the 11 categories.

The atmosphere was indeed electrifying, something that has been missing all these years and as Shailender Singh said, the ceremony provided an excellent platform to Punjabi artistes to showcase their talent and receive recognition. To the accompaniment of high watt music and powerful arc lights, the awards were presented by distinguished artistes like Naksh Lyallpuri, Dev Kohli, Preeti Sapru, Bhupinder Singh, Mitali, Uttam Singh, Shailender Singh, Jaspal Bhatti, and Anand Raj Anand. Unlike the film awards, no controversy was generated. The ceremonies were interspersed with individual performances by Bhupinder Bhuppi, Mona Singh (tainu vekh ke mar gayi ve mundiya), Anamika, Udit Narayan (o ghar aaja pardesi), Richa Sharma, Peenaz Masani, and Jasbir Jassi, who incidentally struck a discordant note saying that Punjabi music was not confined to ‘balle, balle, and shava, shava’ alone but comprised much more. His rendition of Bulle Shah’s kafi ‘main var paya Ranjha mahi’ backed by a dance troupe was perhaps an attempt to drive home his point.

Nearly every outstanding effort towards enrichment of Punjabi music was applauded. The ‘sufiana kalam’ of Wadali brothers ,lyrics of Amardeep Gill, folk song of Harbhajan Mann (Mirza) and queen of Punjabi folk Surinder Kaur’s invaluable contribution over the past 57 years were duly recognised after the tone was set through the opening song “Aao maan karo fankaran da”.

Renowned singer Hans Raj Hans was honoured in absentia with the best male singer award for ‘Dil chori sada ho gaya’ while the best female singer award went to Shazia Mansoor for ‘Aaja sohneya’. V. Merchant was chosen as the best choreographer for Mansoor’s album ‘Aaja sohneya’.

Amardep Singh Gill bagged the best lyricist award for Hans’s song ‘Silli silli aaondee eh hava, kite koyee ronda hovega’. Mona Singh of ‘Tainu dekh ke mar gayi, ve mundiya’ fame was adjudged the best debutant female singer.

Kulbeer’s song ‘Ja ja ve tainu dil ditta khuda vaste’ fetched him the best debutant male singer award. Harbhajan Mann was picked as the best folk singer for his ‘Mirza’. Puran Chand Wadali and his brother Pyare Lal were the unanimous choice for the best Sufi singer award for ‘Hun main tatrida pyar yaar manzoor karin’. Bhai Harban Singh Ragi of Jagadhri received the Lashkara honorary award for ragis from Mr I.K. Gujral.

Amitoje, son of Babu Singh Mann, was adjudged the best video director for Harbhajan Mann’s Mirza while T-Series was the choice for the best music video award for ‘dil chori sada ho gaya’.

The late Gulshan Kumar was honoured posthumously with the Lashkara Special Award which was received by his father, Mr Chander Bhan Dua.

Queen of Punjabi folk Surinder Kaur was honoured in absentia with the Lashkara Lifetime Achievement Award which was received by her daughter Dolly Guleria.

Jaidev Kumar received the best music director award from Jaspal Bhatti for ‘Ek kuri dil utte chha gayi.’