Madhya Pradesh foundation day: Shivraj takes to the stage, sings Nadiya chale re…

BHOPAL: Seeing the perfect setting— the beautiful backdrop, enthusiastic audience and the orchestra team at the Madhya Pradesh foundation day celebrations commenced at the Lal Parade Ground on Wednesday evening, chief minister Shivraj Singh could not resist himself from singing a couple of lines. He took to the stage before popular playback singer Shreya Ghoshal made her appearance.
Chouhan in his trademark style, sang Nadiyan chale re chale dhara… taking the audience by surprise. Stunned Bhopalis sheered Chouhan and gave him a good applause.
The programme began with the ‘Madhya Pradesh Gaan’ and the evening was weaved together by two grand cultural performances. The most appreciated performance of eve was the melodious numbers belted out by the renowned playback singer Shreya Ghoshal.
The second performance of the day was the dance drama ‘Shree Krishna’ performed by 170 artistes of the Film, Television and Theatre Society of Nagpur. The nritya-natika directed by Shailendra Krishna was based on the life of Lord Krishna and the most prominent episodes of his life encapsulated together in an intriguing act. The highlights of the play were live horses that pulled the chariot of Lord Krishna (played by Sachin Giri) and took him to the stage. Along with elaborate costumes, well-rehearsed dialogues and poetic dance moves, the characters of the Mahabharata came to life in Bhopal. The drama included five songs composed by Bhupesh Sawai of Nagpur.
Director of the play Shailendra said, “This dance-drama has been staged in many cities and is loved by the audience. The detailed research and study took us two years to prepare the script of the act as it was very difficult to select five episodes from such a long epic. Finally we settled for five major episodes- Lord Krishna’s birth, Putna Vadh, Kansa Vadh, Kalia Mardan and the Gita Saar that Krishna gave to Arjuna during the battle of Kurukshetra.”
The act was well received by the audience who could not take their eyes off the large screens.

Four prominent personalities of Bhopal – Gundecha Brothers (Dhrupad singers), Amrutlal Vegad (Hindi writer and painter) Harchandan Singh Bhatti (Architect and designer) and Janak Palta McGilligan (social worker ) felicitated with the Madhya Pradesh Gaurav Samman on the occasion. The event was compared by the multitalented actor, poet and comedian Shailesh Lodha.
Earlier, CM Chouhan reiterated that roads in Madhya Pradesh are far better that those in Washington. He was addressing a gathering at the Lal Parade Ground on the 62nd foundation day .
Chouhan said, “I had tweeted that roads of MP are better than those of Washington and many people took offence to it. They started posting pictures of potholes on the roads of Bhopal and other districts to tell me that I was wrong. This is slave mentality which makes us believe that only western countries can have good things.”
As the crowd roared with laughter at his comment, he added, “Have you not seen the super corridor of Indore or other major roads of the state? Showing what is wrong all the time will not take the county forward. We also need to focus on the good things and have a positive attitude.”