Shas­tri Boodan

The un­mis­tak­able rhythms of Baithak Gana echoed through the Cen­tre Point Mall Au­di­to­ri­um in Ch­agua­nas on Sat­ur­day night, as Dutch singer Dewinder­s­ingh Sew­nath de­liv­ered a per­for­mance that left pa­trons cheer­ing for more.

Mak­ing his de­but ap­pear­ance in Trinidad and To­ba­go, Sew­nath—wide­ly cel­e­brat­ed across the In­do-Caribbean di­as­po­ra as the “Li­on of Baithak Gana”—cap­ti­vat­ed au­di­ences dur­ing the An­nu­al Moth­er’s Day Spec­tac­u­lar.

From the mo­ment he stepped on­to the stage, the at­mos­phere in­side the packed au­di­to­ri­um shift­ed in­to cel­e­bra­tion mode. Pa­trons clapped, danced and sang along as Sew­nath de­liv­ered one hit af­ter an­oth­er, draw­ing re­peat­ed ap­plause and sev­er­al calls for en­core per­for­mances.

The an­nu­al con­cert, now a long­stand­ing fix­ture on the cul­tur­al cal­en­dar, show­cased a rich blend of In­di­an mu­si­cal tra­di­tions, in­clud­ing lo­cal In­di­an clas­si­cal mu­sic, Bol­ly­wood favourites, chut­ney and Baithak Gana.

Baithak Gana, which trans­lates to “sit­ting song”, traces its roots to the In­do-Caribbean ex­pe­ri­ence, blend­ing In­di­an folk and clas­si­cal in­flu­ences with Caribbean rhythms and sto­ry­telling tra­di­tions. The genre has re­mained deeply wo­ven in­to the cul­tur­al iden­ti­ty of In­do-Caribbean com­mu­ni­ties through­out the re­gion and di­as­po­ra.

Be­fore Sew­nath’s ap­pear­ance, pa­trons were treat­ed to open­ing per­for­mances by lo­cal en­ter­tain­ers Cyn­tra Sookoo and Dubraj Per­sad, both of whom warmed up the au­di­ence with en­er­getic ren­di­tions.

Among those at­tend­ing the event were Gov­ern­ment min­is­ters Bar­ry Padarath, Sad­dam Ho­sein and Roodal Mooni­lal.

Vet­er­an en­ter­tain­er In­dar Kan­hai al­so made a spe­cial guest ap­pear­ance, per­form­ing sev­er­al Bol­ly­wood-style favourites that have be­come syn­ony­mous with his decades-long ca­reer. Kan­hai, a fa­mil­iar face at the Moth­er’s Day event, has been part of the pro­duc­tion for more than 20 years.

The sec­ond half of the pro­gramme saw Sew­nath re­turn­ing to the stage, this time adding a lo­cal flavour by per­form­ing Trinidad and To­ba­go chut­ney songs in Baithak Gana style—a fu­sion that fur­ther en­er­gised the crowd.

In­di­an clas­si­cal vo­cal­ist Devashish Ram­dath al­so de­liv­ered a per­for­mance dur­ing the evening, adding an­oth­er lay­er of mu­si­cal di­ver­si­ty to the show.

The An­nu­al Moth­er’s Day Spec­tac­u­lar traces its roots back near­ly four decades. The first edi­tion fea­tured the late Har­ry Ma­habir and the BWIA In­di­an Or­ches­tra at the Spec­tac­u­lar Fo­rum in Port-of-Spain.

Over the years, the event has evolved in­to one of Cen­tral Trinidad’s sig­na­ture cul­tur­al cel­e­bra­tions, bring­ing gen­er­a­tions of mu­sic lovers to­geth­er while pre­serv­ing the sounds and tra­di­tions of In­do-Caribbean mu­sic.