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Runa Laila rocks Delhi

Pallab Bhattacharya, New Delhi
A mesmerising live performance by the diva Runa Laila made Mahanabami, the penultimate day of the Durga Puja festival, a very special occasion for an estimated 1,000 music lovers who assembled at the exquisitely decorated pandal of East Delhi's Miloni Cultural and Welfare Association on October 5.
This was the only Puja venue in the Indian capital where Runa Laila sang and like a truly professional artiste set up a rapport with the audience that included people cutting across ages.
A half a mile queue of people was seen outside the Puja venue in a park, waiting patiently for their turn to get into the pandal to listen to the singer live possibly for the first time in Delhi in many years.
The singer's mixed bag of ever-popular Bangla and Hindi numbers (keeping in mind the present generation of Bengalis and her non-Bangla-speaking fans) and made many in the audience dance and thoroughly enjoy the 90-minute performance.
Draped in a beautiful embroidered pink sari, Runa Laila invited some young boys and girls from the audience on to the stage and made them put on their dancing shoes for some time as she belted out the super-hit songs like "Shadher Lau” and “Damadam Mast Qalandar" in her enchanting style.
The lustiest cheers were heard when Runa Laila sang “Dey Dey Pyar De" and then effortlessly shifted to the Bangla folk classic "Allah Megh Dey”
which inspired the tune of the former.
The audience once again burst into celebrations when the singer began the number "BondhuTin Din". After the first line, she paused and asked the audience for a stronger appreciation and prompt came the full-throated response.
It was past midnight when the Runa Laila show ended and everyone returned with a deep sense of fulfilment. After all, the Association had been trying to get Runa Laila to perform during the Durga Puja for the last two years and it was only this year that they could make it happen.
As the car carrying the singer waded carefully through the melting crowd after the show, her fans jostled with each other to wave at her and she returned the gesture, reflecting the popularity she enjoys in India.
For Miloni Cultural and Welfare Association, the Runa Laila presentation came as an icing on the cake on a day when its innovative pandal was adjudged the best in Delhi and won a prize of Rs one lakh.
The pandal, inspired by the famous Ajanta and Ellora caves, was made out of newspapers into the shape of cave carvings. Acrylic paintings in natural clay colour, inspired by the cave art, covered the pandal.
Four artists from Paschimbanga state's Bishnupur and Bankura districts did the paper mache decoration and there was no usual plaster of parts or thermocoL Freelance artist Ranadeep Mukherjee had conceptualised the pandaL