Muhammed Rafi’s soulful rendering of Chahoonga Main Tujhe, once, moved none other than Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru to tears. The maestro has inspired thousands of singers and continues to do so with his evergreen songs. Four youth, Abid Anwar, Jeevan Padmakumar, Neha Venugopal and Akash V.H. - all blessed singers – grew up listening to Muhammed Rafi and he inspired them to become singers, too. Now, they are members of a band that is solely dedicated to yesteryear legends like Rafi saheb. Yaadon Ki Baaraat or YKB, the Kochi-based band, celebrates the songs of the master. And, it is making waves with beautiful covers.
“YKB was our dream. We all are Rafi fans and love the golden age of Bollywood that saw legends like Rafi, Mukesh, Kishore Kumar, Latha Mangeshkar, and Asha Bhonsle. We decided to add a twist in the tale and brought out the cover versions of their songs,” says Abid Anwar, actor and one of the vocalists of the band.
All the four vocalists have a background of participating in reality shows in Kerala and have experiences of performing before large audiences as solo performers or with other groups. Abid says that those experiences helped them give maximum output after they formed a band. Doing covers is a big task, especially if you are covering the works of legends. As a Kerala-based band, the biggest hurdle they could have faced is the correct pronunciation and dialect because unlike today, lyrics and their correct pronunciation were pretty important back then. “With practice, we tackled it and now the best feature of our vocals is the way we sing it. Since we started off, we have never heard any complaints regarding pronunciation,” shares Abid. The band recently produced their first official video for a cover song under the title Yaadon Ki Baaraat - A Tribute to the Legends. The video did a round on social media sites and amassed over two lakh views. The band has already performed in various cities in India. Abid says covering the songs of legends like Rafi and Kishore Kumar is a big deal. “Audiences easily compare the cover version with the original one, and obviously, the original song will excel always. But as far as we do not mess with the beauty and soul of the song, they would appreciate us.”
YKB has upcoming shows in India and in Malaysia and is planning to do an official launch of their new project.
