SINGERS FROM INDIAN SUB-CONTINENT-2(LATE SRI AKSHAYA MOHANTY.

I am a matador. I am a risk taker. I fight with bull with sword in one hand and a red flag in other. I know bull can kill me any moment. But I am an entertainer and I play with death to entertain people. The matador inside me rises up when I sing or direct music. Somebody inside me tells, " Sing Akshaya, sing. This may be your last song. This may be your last show. You may die after this. There may be no tomorrow, no next, no another for you. This show may be your last show and this should be your best show."

These are not my words. These are excerpts from the book "ARJYA DAS RA SESHA LIPI" a semi-autobiographical novel by Late Sri Akshaya Mohanty, perhaps, till date, the best singer and music director to come out of my state. The enigmatic singer had his style of his own "hold the breath and release slowly, intermittently as he sings."

My friends must be wondering what I am talking of. Who is Akshaya Mohanty? Who is he? Hold on your breathe my friends and listen to these numbers. If you do not like, you may not read further. But I am sure you will like.

A singer and composer of high caliber, this highly out-spoken person remained as an unexplained and misunderstood character till his death. He writes in his book:

"Perhaps some are born and destined to walk here with burden and tag of disgrace, scandal and infamy because nobody clearly understood them. And they too never tried to explain them to others. They preferred to live unexplained with tag of infamy."

The same sentiment is further reflected in one of his soul-searching number in which he sings:

"If a drop of tear falls from the eye of this perceived and designated sinner, the world pronounces and renounces that he is crying after committing a new sin."

Singer in 129 movies, lyricist in 92 movies, music director in 75 movies, actor in 3 movies, co-director in one movie, co-producer in one movie, writer of 9 novels, numerous short stories and poetries and one travelogue and above all a great human being, a complete artist, that is how one can sum up late Sri Akshaya Mohanty popularly known as "Khoka Bhai". Of course, all his works are in his mother tongue Oriya.

Had he taken birth in any affluent place other than Orissa perhaps he would have achieved more laurels and would have become more famous. But he refused to go away from Orissa though he had lucrative offers from kolkata, Chennai and Mumbai. He claims,"I can always achieve in Orissa what I can achieve outside."

But, Khoka Bhai you missed a larger audiences by remaining regional. This world needs to know you better and recognize better.

It was almost five years ago in that sleepy morning of 17^th November 2002; Khoka Bhai breathed his last in S.C.B.Medical College at Cuttack due to multiple organs failure. A couple of days before his death, when he was struggling in the death bed, Orissa government out of the sheer reorganization of his contribution to Orissa culture and art had declared to bear all his medical expense. But by that time, perhaps, Khoka Bhai had his last show and last song.

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This world will again have a look of Khoka Bhai's work with the release of 15 languages (Including English) multilingual film JAI JAGANNATH. The music for this film was composed by Khoka Bhai barely six month before his death. Please visit the following links.

http://www.purionline.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=2263

http://www.newindpress.com/NewsItems.asp?ID=IEE20070714012731&Page=E&Title=Startrek&Topic=0

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PICTURES OF HIS LAST WORK, SEMI-AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL NOVEL "ARJYA DASH RA SESHA LIPI".

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