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Video: Indian community's gift to Sheikh Mohammed on his birthday

Dubai - A special team of individuals came together to compose a song dedicated to the Dubai Ruler.

The Indian community in UAE paid a befitting tribute to the extraordinary ruler of Dubai on his 70th birthday. Representing 3.5 million Indians living in the UAE, a special team of individuals came together to compose a song dedicated to His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai.
Thirteen year old Indian singing sensation Suchetha Satish, who holds two world records in singing in most number of languages at a stretch (102 languages in 6 hours 15 minutes), teamed up with renowned music composer from India, Monty Sharma and Emirati poet, Dr Shihab Ghanem, to produce and release a 4 minute, 45 second melodious Arabic song lauding the glorious fifty year leadership of Sheikh Mohammed.

The song was released on the eve of Sheikh Mohammed's birthday at the Indian consulate in Bur Dubai in the presence of Suchetha and her parents, Dr Shihab, whose poem Suchetha sang, Monty, and Dubai resident Sudhakar Murthy, who integrated the entire process of bringing the team together.
Two copies were handed over to acting Consul General Neeraj Agarwal, one of which will be sent to Sheikh Mohammed's office through the consulate. The song is available on Youtube under the name "Fifty Glorious Years".
Speaking on the occasion, Neeraj Agrawal congratulated Sheikh Muhammad on the successful 50 years of his political life and also dedicated the song sung by Sucheta Satish on behalf of the entire Indian community living in UAE. He also acknowledged support of Dr Ghanem and Monty Sharma in bringing out a wonderful composition which would
strengthen cultural relationship between two countries.
An excited Suchetha said: " It is my dream that I along with my team can present this gift from the Indian community to Sheikh Mohammed in person."
Speaking about how the music of the song was composed, Sudhakar told Khaleej Times:
"Since the song was for a legend, we wanted to get the best composer for it. Monty is the nephew of legendry Indian music composer Pyarelal of the 'Laxmikant-Pyarelal fame' and he has done some fantastic compositions for Bollywood, which is why we roped him for this project. To get the music right, Dr Ghanem translated the song in English and also recited it in Arabic so that Monty could understand and fit in the tune. We focused on making a hummable song with a catchy beat so people would easily pick it up. Apart from that Monty kept in mind that it had to have a larger than life, royal feel to it too."
Monty Sharma is an award-winning Bollywood music director who for the very first time composed an Arabic song esepcailly for Sheikh Mohammed's birthday. Sharma came all the way from Mumbai to release the song in Dubai on Sunday and said it was an honour for him to be part of this great project. He said that he has already started work with Dr Ghanem on more Arabic poems that he aims to convert to songs.
saman@khaleetimes.com