Unplugged Unlimited was an offbeat musical evening as a part of Surjya’s glorious Silver Jubilee celebrations in Guwahati’s Rabindra Bhawan on February 25. The event started at 6:30 pm as scheduled, something which Surjya has been maintaining for the past 25 years. The evening boasted of a most agreeable assemblage of powerful voices. From the sweet intimacy of Manojyotsna Mahanta to the soulful Lou Majaw, the slightly extended evening also saw stylised JP Das along with the sombre and soothing Jitul Sonowal. The stage setting for the event saw a coffee table with chairs set up on the left corner, while the centre stage saw two stools and just behind them was the acoustic drum kit raised on a platform. The oval was on the left corner along with a piano.

Soon after anchor Aboni Bora set the tone for the evening, JP Das set sail on the musical journey with his evergreen Aye sohorote, followed by Porisoy bihin. Aboni then made mention of Surjya club member, singer and composer Ashim Hazarika, whose untimely demise shook the entire state of Assam. JP paid tribute to Ashim with the latter’s hit number Gane gane, that brought tears to many eyes.

Manojyotsna started off a melodious flow of singing with the Munin Bhuyan penned Sandhan, followed by what her father Keshab Mahanta had written, Mor je kiman hepaah and, finally, ended her sweet set with a Goalporia folk song, Kamala sundari. Melody maker Jitul Sonowal, after a brief discussion with Aboni Bora about his musical journey so far, started off with a song he sang for the film Hepaah, backed with video projection. He then touched people’s hearts with his evergreen Moromi logori and others. Jitul has always been very sincere with his music and has maintained his own style. With an amazing musical talent, backed with strong whistling power, Jitul too made his presence felt that evening.

Time was definitely a major factor that day and the organisers wanted to keep it neat and sweet and ‘the craving for more feeling’ alive amongst the audience. It needs special mention that every song and singer that evening were perfectly matched and they all beautifully performed, and no singer was able to leave the stage without being called back for an extra bow. The handling of the lights throughout the event also needs special mention as it just set the right mood.

A good 40 minutes were left for Lou Majaw from the stipulated two-hour set. As Aboni Bora announced, “the final artiste for the evening would be Lou Majaw, so please sit back and enjoy the evening,” and with these few words, he signed out. The audience then saw on the cyclorama a projection of Great Society’s memorable track Ghost revisited and with that minimum light leakage, we saw Lou Majaw appearing on stage holding a huge six-foot crucifix and after he made his exit, we saw him appearing again from the womb, tearing a symbolic net all around him and appearing from the oval placed on the right hand corner of the stage.

This was followed by a round of introduction for Majaw along with fellow Great Society drummer Sam Sulliah and keyboardist Ribor MB as the trio set the tune for the evening with Hey little man. Lou was later felicitated by CR Deka, the regional head of Reliance Telecom, the event sponsor. “I am really very fond of Surjya and tonight will be a memorable night for me,” maintained the grand old man of rock n roll soon after the felicitation.

Lou, who has had difficulty finding an appropriate song to show off his voice in the earlier number, finally struck gold and brought a quiet new intensity when he belted out Cest la vie. Majaw also prayed for the well-being of the living legend in Dr Bhupen Hazarika as he dedicated his song True true loving. Lou’s songs were more like private stories, shared among friends on a pleasant spring evening, just wonderfully sweet and mysterious vignettes from an intensely talented and human observer of life.

Finally, when he sang a fierce and rousing Everybody must get stoned, it could still be heard over the cheers of the audience. The song came into the scene when the discussion point led to the Bob Dylan’s birthday celebrations in Laban, Shillong, which Lou initiated way back in 1972. “Today, this very event is considered to be on the list of top 20 events in India as rated by the Discover India magazine,” said Lou with a gleam in his eyes.

Sattyakee D’com Bhuyan