PORT Elizabeth's Nirvana Performing Arts Circle will next weekend host its first concert of 2014 – and lovers of Indian culture and music will have a Bollywood-inspired performance by a child prodigy and her equally talented mother to look forward to.
Celebrated singer and composer Monali Shome, originally from Assam in India but based in South Africa since 2005, will perform with her daughter, Maithili Shome, 13.
Six other students from Monali's music academy in Johannesburg will also entertain patrons with their Bollywood-style renditions.
Goonj: A Musical Bollywood Journey, will be at the Athenaeum in Belmont Terrace at 6pm next Saturday.
The singers will be accompanied by live musicians, including Saradindu Adhikary, a percussionist from India who relocated to South Africa last year.
"Maithili was a finalist in India's Zee TV show Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Lil Champs, a talent search similar to Idols, in 2007," arts circle chairman Mahesh Narotam said.
"She was highly praised for her vocal prowess by the judges, and the last time she performed in the Bay with her mother about two years ago, everyone who attended was so impressed by her beautiful voice."
Maithili made her first stage appearance at the age of just three with a live orchestra in Pune, India, while her mum is a multiple music-award winner – including of Kolkata's famed RD Burman Award – and a "grade A" past performer on All India Radio.
The artists will perform Bollywood film-style music as well as ghazals (poetry set to music), while Monali will be sure to perform a few songs in the Sufi style of classical singing.
Another standout performer will be vocalist Natalie Blumenthal who achieved acclaim when, as a non-Indian, she participated in a talent showcase in Bengal on Zee TV in 2008.
Tickets at R100 each are available from Mahesh on 082-556-9847, Ashwin on 083-291-0567 or Mannie on 082-635-2019. - Louise Liebenberg