Catch Performances by the Police Band All Through This Week

Photo: Ashaita Mahajan.

That other Police band performed in our city back in 1980 at the now-shuttered Rang Bhavan. Unlike those now-disbanded pop-rock pioneers, the Mumbai Police Band, comprising musically inclined members of the Mumbai police force, has been going strong for over seven decades now. You might have seen them at one of the Bandstand Revival series of gigs, the 2012 edition of which concluded this past weekend. In case you missed those concerts (or loved what you heard and can’t wait to listen to more), you’ll be happy to know that the Mumbai Police Band will be staging free performances at bandstands across the city all through this week. From 6pm to 7pm, they will play the Girgaon Chowpatty bandstand on Tuesday, May 29, the one at Hanging Gardens on Wednesday, May 30, the Shivaji Park bandstand on Thursday, May 31, the Bandra Bandstand on Friday, June 1, and the one at Five Gardens in Chembur on Saturday, June 2. The set list will comprise instrumental versions of popular Hindi and Marathi patriotic tunes such as “Ae Mere Watan Ke Logon” and “Ab Tumhare Hawale Watan” and if the crowd should so request maybe even a current Bollywood chart topper or two, said bandmaster S. B. Singh. (Shout-outs for “Chikni Chameli” will be entertained.) Conspiracy theorists may want to investigate the timing of this concert series, given that it comes so shortly after the police has gone to town (and the suburbs) in their efforts to thwart the city’s supposedly wanton nightlife scene. (Talk about blowing your own horn—which in this case could also be a trumpet, trombone, euphonium or tuba.)