ZURICH: The lass from India who made it to the IRF this year – My FM Chandigarh’s Meenakshi Bhojwani had people who passed by the IRF venue, break into a jig- and I was astonished at how similar the movements were to the Punjabi Bhangra. Now these were people who had never heard of that dance form and yet the music and the sexy voice had men and women start moving their bodies – slowly at first and later on into a frenzy that is only possible when the Bhangra is in full swing. And not surprisingly, the Chennai Express number ‘Lungi Dance’ had the maximum number of people swaying to its beat.
Meenakshi is a name that many found difficult to mouth and suddenly, as happens often in the west, the name was pared to Minx. Indian RJs – be it Malishka or Jeeturaj mesmerised Zurich and rocked the world when they performed at IRF 2012 and IRF 2013 respectively. Not to be left behind, Meenakshi started her show at the IRF, which was based on the national theme, with A R Rahaman’s ‘Vande Mataram’ and ended it two hours later with ‘Yeh jo Desh hai tera’ from the Bollywood film ‘Swades’.
The Chandigarh lass interspaced her show with interviews, both live and recorded. Among the live interviewees were British RJ legend Tony Prince, the very beautiful Lebanese RJ Rania Younes from Abu Dhabi’s Star FM, Russia’s ‘Romantica’ radio station’s Dimitri Zagorsky, IRF founder Darryl von Daniken and IRF Travel and accommodation official Daniela von Daniken.
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Before leaving for the IRF, Meenakshi had recorded sound bites from India from singer Yo Yo Honey Singh, and Bollywood female actors Priyanka Chopra and Rani Mukherjee, which she played out during her IRF show.
A pair of pretty young Swiss girls, drawn by the music of ‘Yeh jo Desh hai tera’, entered and started to sway in tune. They were disappointed when they were told that the Indian performance had ended at the end of the song. Here is another reaction of a passer who stopped when he heard the show and started gyrating to the beat- “What country’s music is that? It’s so great!”
