Line of no control!

ONCE THE familiar beats took over, there was no going back. Full- throated cries and shouts of `balle balle' bellowed from the stage and the gathering simply got charged up and got sucked into a vortex called the Bhangra rap.

Palms straightened, fingers pointed up towards the heavens and feet moved in unison. And, they danced and danced till the bodies could take it no more, drenched in sweat, as entertainers Mika Singh and Guru Sewak Mann took them on a Bhangra ride.

It was Baisakhi and the Lalita Kala Thoranam was buzzing with Bhangra. Mika, who shot into fame with his moody number, `Saawan mein lag gayi aag...', took little time in making the audience -- a fair sprinkle of them Sikhs -- dance to his tunes.

A musical medley from Punjabi folk to the popular filmi numbers ranging from `Jat yamla pagla diwana...' to `Dhol baaje...' flowed.

Dubbed OCP (Out of Control Punjabis), the troupe did live up to its name! Voila, the crowd too!

With such an energetic and lively dancing troupe, the duo of Mika and Mann smoothly made transitions from one song to another, transporting the crowd into the bubbly Bhangra duniya. Mann was all romantic when he came up with `Makhna mein akhiyan chupake rakhna...' and `Cham cham karti kothey pe aa jana...'

As the music, dance and fun was reaching a crescendo, there were a few anxious moments too. Kids, youngsters, uncles, aunties, grandpas, grannies -- practically everyone -- crowded in the tiny space before the stage to step in tune with the performers and in the melee kept falling over the ones seated in the front row.

A few excited kids managed to clamber onto the stage and tumbled down while getting down. For a moment, it looked as if things would go a little bit out of control. Thankfully, nothing of that sort happened. It was the DIG (Home Guards), Tejdeep, who actually egged the crowd to get into the frenzied dancing mood.

She had her own reasons to be delirious as the day also happened to be her birthday. She was invited onto the stage for the cake cutting ceremony for which the music pitch was scaled down to get into a `Happy birthday' lullaby. Security chaps were hardpressed to restore some calm and order what with the cop herself dancing away to glory! All they could do was stare blankly.

They didn't mind helping more kids to climb the stage. Mika and Mann did their bit but in terms of crowd management, the organisers were caught napping.

By T. Lalith Singh

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