News: Sujay Bendore
Daijiworld Media Network – Sharjah (SB)
Sharjah, Jan 18: It was a somber but hearty meet where in Kannadaigas from all walks of life and from different emirates bid heartfelt homage and rich tribute to two of the great artistes of Karnataka, Vishnuvardhan and C Ashwath, who passed away, recently.
When the Kannada world was about wind off 2009 and look forward to celebrate the dawn of a ‘hopeful’ new year, there struck a death blow snatching away two of the loved and respected artistes of the state, one who soothed your inner sense with light music Sangeetha Garudi Ashwath and other who roared like lion on screen but humane in real life, Yajamana Abinaya Bhargava Vishnuvardhan.
The members of Dwani Pratishtana led by Kannada stage doyen Prakash Payyar organized a ‘condolence’ meet to pay homage to the departed souls. The meet that was briefed by Madhusudan and presided over by Sarvotham Shetty began with the prayer by Soniya Gautam and a minute’s silence as a tribute.
B J Somayaji, Ashok Shetty and Prakash Payyar were present on the dais.
Sarvotham Shetty remembered his association with both the artists and regretted to the fact that though he had almost finalized the programme of Aswath but could not stage his programme who unfortunately had not visited UAE despite his visits to Bahrain, Doha and Muscat wherein he had mesmerized Kannadigas.
Ashok Shetty rightly stated that amidst organizing lots of cultural and filmy programmes the sanghas should also come forward to unitedly host this kind of programme. While Somayaji shared his sadness on how sudden departure of two famous artists had created such a void in the Karnataka cultural milieu. Ganesh Rai explained in detail about the life and stages of super stardom of Vishnuvardhan and paid rich tribute to the artistes of great repute.
It was Herman Lewis who called on other cultural forums to come forward and organize a condolence meet when the whole Kannada world is grieving the loss of such eminent, loving and famous ambassadors of Karnataka culture, cinema and heritage. He called everyone to come out of grief and face reality and to inculcate the goodness of the departed souls which he deems as a great tribute of love and respect.
Sonia and Veerendra rendered melodious numbers of both the stars. Vinay Kumar, Gautam, Mallikarjun Gowda and Satish Venkatramana shared their association with the stars.
B G Mohandas, Gopinath Rao, Shodan Prasad, Noel Almeda, Arshad Hussain, Roshan Periera and Ashok Belman among others were present on the occasion.