The Kurbat Bond...

There’s a new boy band in town.

BY KOMAL UTSAV JAGAD

They call themselves Kurbat (‘togetherness’), and at their premiere live show, it was very obvious why.

An up and coming band in Sydney’s Indian community, Kurbat impressed not only with their own close-knit ‘sharing-thesame-passion’ feel as a band, but more so with how they brought an audience of young people of diverse backgrounds together.

The Riverside Parramatta event titled ‘The Kurbat Show’ was a multicultural performance with some of the best-known songs stretching from Bollywood, Sufi rock, Tollywood to pop albums. The band enthralled the crowd with all-time favourites of A R Rahman, Shaan, KK, Atif Aslam, Michael Jackson etc with seamless fusion – even throwing in an old classic Mohammad Rafi number or two.

Just like seven vibrant colours of a rainbow, Kurbat is made up of seven members, Will Bhatnagar (vocals/keyboards), Mayank (guitar), Sid Bose (drums), Sameer Sharma (percussion), Nikhil Fegade (vocals/keyboards), Bharan Narula (vocals/guitar) and Nivi (vocals), who have together painted their way into the hearts of the community’s youth.

Effortlessly glamorous, dressed in smart casuals, modish jeans, cool shirts and voguish blazers with Derby hats, the band was primed to set the stage on fire. With a songlist of hip upbeat numbers such as Bachna ae haseeno, Haal e dil, Give me some sunshine and Thriller, the energy was high, and Kurbat well and truly won the audience over.

Not surprisingly chatty, the band was interactive and urged the audience to come alive and feel the music. Aashayein from

Iqbal was sung beautifully by Will Bhatnagar: a short anecdote about the movie helped, and reminded the audience of the strong cricket-connections between Australia and India. Encores were shouted out for Tujhko jo Paaya from Crook and I’m yours by Jason Mraz. The pure romanticism in KK’s Ab to aadat si ban gayi hai touched a chord with the young hearts in the audience, filling the air with romance and ardour. There were catcalls after golden oldie Khoya khoya chand which was an accolade to Mohammad Rafi, and A R Rahman’s Vande Mataram brought in a vibe of patriotism in the crowd.

Casual banter between the performers kept the show pepping along, which led to an unplanned but welcome tribute to the ‘angry young man’, Big B. Nikhil Fegade, the band manager, with his tall and thin Bachchanlike persona, mimicked that trademark dialogue Risthey mein to hum tumhare baap lagte hain, naam hai Shahenshah. The audience roared with appreciation. Nikhil went on to create magic with his cover of Ankhon mein sapne by Shaan and Papa kehte hain by Udit Narayan.

It seemed like no stone was unturned by the band when Bharan and Nikhil attempted to woo the audience with that recent craze Kolaveri Di… but of course, how could this drooly number have been left out? Beautifully presented.

But leave aside the covers, what about their own numbers? The original compositions of the band equally revved up the crowd which was obviously too excited to be one of the first ones to listen to the soon to be recorded album numbers Bar Bar and Bhule Nahin

The tracks are inspired by the feeling of losing someone special. Humming the tunes and repeating their notes, the crowd encouraged the band with cheers and applause.

Bharan and Nivi concluded the evening with a blast of pulsating energy, singing and dancing to