At the Nabaratri Hall of ICCB in the capital on Sunday, it was a musical evening that had its ups and downs, but the most endearing scenes were off-stage in the audience, when the final artiste of the show was just walking on to the stage. One of the concert’s volunteers -- a girl in her teens -- covered her face in disbelief as her eyes lit up brighter than the blinding stage lights. She shuffled and stomped her feet and let out a muffled shriek, unable to contain the excitement and completely oblivious that she was on duty. For over a decade, the man on stage -- Pakistani pop-soul sensation Atif Aslam – has held teenage girls to his fandom, and the girl’s expressions signaled no impending end to that reign.

The start to the evening was not as great, though. ATN Entertainment-organised concert “Rhythm for All”, featuring Atif and Bollywood singers Mamta Sharma and Akriti Kakkar, began an hour and a half late with a few songs by Sabbir Khan, an unimpressive opening act. Mamta Sharma, who has made a name for herself with hit item numbers in Bollywood, then belted out her hits “Anarkali Disco Chali”, “Tinku Jiya” and “Fevicol Se”, but the most pleasantly surprising was an attempted cover of Momtaz’s “Tomar Keno Jwole”.

Akriti Kakkar, the more established of the two women performers, also opened with an energetic “MarjaanI’ (from “Billu Barber”) and the title track from Tollywood film “Paglu”, but then dialed it down with some beautiful melodies, her original “Abhi Abhi” (from “Jism-2”) and classics – like “Lag Ja Gale”, “Chura Liya Hai Tumne”, “Tere Bina Jiya Jaye Na” and mashing up recent ones “Main Tenu Samjhawan Ke”, “Raabta” and “Ore Manwa Re”. But she left the audience on an upbeat note with her big hit “Saturday” (from “Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania”).

Atif announced his arrival, quite literally, as he opened with “Aa Raha Huun Main” and the crowd stirred up in anticipation. The 10:30pm hunger churning in the stomachs took a back seat, as the audience swayed and danced with Atif smoothly going through his romantic numbers “Doorie”, “Tera Hone Laga Hoon”, “Bakhuda Tum Hi Ho”. Taking a page out of from Akriti’s book, Atif then did a lovely medley of yesteryear Bollywood hits “Jab Koyi Baat Bigar Jaye”, “Kya Hua Tera Wada”, Zindagi Ke Safar Mein” and “Kabhi Kabhi Mere Dil Mein”. He also did a little extra with his musical arrangement, picking up an acoustic guitar for “Hona Tha Pyar” and having a harmonium player handy for a brief section of his recent Sufi presentation “Tajdar-e-Haram”. Whether it was concert hits like “Damadam Mast Kalandar” and Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan’s “Sanu Ek Pal Chayn Na Aave” or his own songs “Jeena Jeena”, “Piya O Re Piya” or “Hum Kis Gali”, Atif showed off his vocal prowess and vocal skills, and the crowd loved it. As an extended version of his breakout hit “Aadat” resonated throughout the ICCB area in the silence of midnight, his fans cheered, sang and kept on clicking audience-selfies.

The overall arrangement of the concert was rather shoddy, and it was mismanagement galore, the most bothersome element of the concert was the absence of any Bangladeshi artiste on the lineup, particularly since the first two performers of the night were worth very little. One can only hope ATN Entertainment will take notes, and plan better for their next events, be it in management or artiste selection.

Watch more photos from the concert in the gallery below:

Photos: Sheikh Mehedi Morshed