Union Vil­lage's Arkash Carl emerged over­all win­ner of the 2009 Mas­tana Ba­har tal­ent com­pe­ti­tion, last week, and walked away with $75,000. Arkash, 26, a stu­dent of UWI, St Au­gus­tine, im­pressed the judges with his ren­di­tion of a Shi­va Bha­jan in Raag Bhopali, which in­clud­ed an orig­i­nal tarana com­posed by Dr Ru­by Ma­lik, of The Ma­hat­ma Gand­hi In­sti­tute.

In­di­ra and Ko­mal Ma­haraj, from Table­land, won the sec­ond prize of $25,000, do­nat­ed by Su­per In­dus­tri­al Ser­vices Ltd. Third prize of $20,000, do­nat­ed by Trin­i­ty In­sur­ance Bro­kers, went to Amb­hi­ka Bhim, of Tacarigua. Al­so in win­ner's row was Leanne Dook­ie, 19, a law stu­dent of Clax­ton Bay. She was crowned Miss Nat­u­ral­ly Fair Mas­tana Ba­har Queen. She copped the first prize of $10,000, cour­tesy In­dus Mer­chants Ltd, of Ch­agua­nas. Rio Claro's Fazi­da Yathali placed sec­ond and Shiv­ani Khan­doo, 16, third.