Pre-Lent carnival at this church in Sahar featured hip-hop rhymes and rhythms

In 2020 Mumbairsquos original gully boy Divine borrowed lines from Bollywood cult classic Satya 1998 for his eponymous charttopping gullystyle anthem Some would call this an ambitious crossover in itself But last weekend shortly after Sunday mass at Our Lady of Health Church in Sahar these rhymes took over the church compound Kurlabased rapper Cloudious Fernandes who was at the helm while the faithful sang along recalls ldquoThe audience was electric I wasnrsquot expecting that from the church crowdrdquoCloudious Fernandes in performanceIf yoursquore wondering what kind of divine or should we say Divine intervention led to hiphop showing up at the churchrsquos doorstep Lynn Boothello president of the Sahar East Indian Association explains ldquoFor as far as I can remember our preLent celebrations have followed a theme The community loves to sing dance feast and have a good party before easing into Lent This year our young parishioners suggested we go the hiphop way Honestly I wasnrsquot sure what it meant when the idea came up in a community meeting but we decided to give it a shotrdquoThe openair venue is decked up PicsAshish RajeBoothellorsquos shot in the dark worked in favour of the young enthusiastic dance crew who opened the evening with a performance to a mix of hiphop and Marathi folk songs dressed in glittery suits Dressing up is no small affair here mind you ldquoThe community showed up in their best costumes we had plans to award the best dressed couple But as things turned out we had to hand it to a family of four who went all out in full hiphop attirerdquo reveals Claudette Netto Miranda emcee for the nightThe Our Lady of Health Brass Band sets the tone for the eveningFernandesrsquo gritty rap performance makes much more sense within this context but the 37yearold is full of surprises ldquoWe are now working on East Indian hiphop as a subgenrerdquo he reveals ldquoEast Indian zaat hai Mobai chi shaan Sagli jana aika maja gaan ugrun tumche kaanrdquo he improvises over our call The verse is an assertion of East Indian pride in the city we learn ldquoFor the longest time I have been singing Divinersquos tracks because hersquos an old friend who hung out in my neighbourhood in Kurla But Irsquom starting to trace my own roots with a community of six East Indian musicians now to carve our own subgenrerdquo he adds Lynn BoothelloWhile newage performers kept the audiences on their toes there were others like the Our Lady of Health Brass Band who got the old timers swaying and slowdancing to classic East Indian tunes alongside Royston Dsilva the lyricist behind the popular Umbracha Pani tune The highlight for many however remained a solo dance tribute to Bollywood actor Helen by artiste Roshane Creado whose moves couldnrsquot be confined to the stage As Miranda recalls and this newspaperrsquos photojournalist Ashish Raje who witnessed it live confirms ldquoShe had the same spring in her step just as sprightly as the original sensationrdquoParishioners and members of the clergy shake a legldquoBehind this cultural extravaganza our goal is much simpler mdash to keep the community active and the young members in touch with their culture through engaging programmingrdquo admits Boothello Is the roundtable for the next themed event already scheduled we ask ldquoNot really I reckon a young parishioner might just pop up with a bright idea some day and we might as well give it another shot Hopefully it does well in drawing the young members inrdquo Boothello shares Amen to that LOG ON TO sahareastindianassociation on Instagram