WHAT MADE ANIL BHEEM SPECIAL

HIS peers describe him as being so talented he could have been a playback singer for Bollywood movies.

They speak of his versatile voice and his capacity to interpret from devotional to classical to film songs.

On top of that, he was “a natural” as a radio broadcaster, with a warm, outgoing personality.

His untimely death has robbed society of the creative genius of Anil Bheem.

“His voice was one of a kind,” said Rikki Jai, himself one of the generation’s finest performing arts exponents.

“I would always tell him, bro, you were born on the wrong side of the world.

“Surely, he would have been one of the greats of the screen.”

Jai added: “He did not let that keep him back, for he became the best Bollywood playback singer Trinidad and Tobago and the Caribbean has ever seen and heard.”

He said that Bheem’s cover versions of songs by Mukesh, Rafi Mohammed and Kumar Sanu are “timeless.”

Jai commented that, for Bheem, “music was not what he did, music was who he was.”

Similar tributes were paid throughout the entertainment and media communities about the popular entertainer and founder of the group BMRZ.

His radio employers 103.1 FM described his passing as “beyond shocking” and employees at the station spoke liberally about his abundant talent at the microphone and his professional support of colleagues.

Surujdeo Mangaroo, public relations officer of the National Council of Indian Culture, termed Bheem “a wonderful person” and spoke of his “melodious voice.”

Dr. Surujrattan Rambachan, Indian devotional singer and former government minister, said Bheem “excelled when it came to his devotional renditions and the emotional and provocative reflections of Kishore Kumar.”

Rambachan added: “He was a gift to us as a vocalist.”

Dr. Roodal Moonilal, parliamentarian, former government minister and a musical buff, said Bheem was “a leading entertainer.”

Moonilal cited a line from the immortal song Suhani Raat, which, incidentally, Bheem recently re-recorded, with an accompanying video.

“Sitaare apni roshni luta luta ke so gaye” translates into “The stars shone and are no more.”

Bheem performed publicly until the night before his shocking death.