Well, here's an excerpt from my friend's blog on the TOI concert that ARR performed in Chennai on April the 20th. Wondering why I was'nt blogging all these days? Certain "feminish" factors(LOL!!) coupled with Rahmaniacal infection !! Enough of fooling around, here's the stuff people !
WHATTA MAN !!!!!!!What a day !!!!! Reached by around 4ish ! Yes.. that was pretty late .. but then.. bus journeys are so unpredictable !!!! This place, St. George's School Grounds was a fan-yard ! Every nook and corner overflowed with enthusiastic fans with expectations writ large on their faces ! My respect for Rahman Sir, incremented (any more if it could) by a million times !!!It was even exciting as Sir's assistant rang me up to find out if I could help on-stage with the scrolling of lyrics !!!! OH YES, I could !!!!! And with the brand new t-shirt on (Thanks Aravind :) ), it was easier to enter the arena ... and there.. was the never before feeling ! The all-tired group from Sharjah were rehearsing on-stage !!! and THE MAN ..was seated right in the centre, rectifying any mistakes !!! It was still 4.15 !! Messages and calls from friends said the crowd was roaring at the gates and had moved onto the road !! The stage was all set, there were lightings everywhere, and one view from the stage told us, that here , was the most popular man, to see whom, the crowd could hold no longer ! People were pouring in like a meteors-on-their-way ! Nothing could give more pleasure !I and a couple of friends did a little jig .. we had got a chance to snap-on with those celebs .. Sadhanaji, Shankarrrr, the Royal-Flautist Naveen et al ! Hariji was way too busy though !! I wish he had just spared a few minutes for fans .. the Radio Mirchi people took all the time for themselves !
And we are back, up on stage to check out the crowd :). And one glance sideways was enough to give me goosebumps .. LO ! Karthi .. seen walking right in front of me, is not spared ! Forever and ever ! Amen ! A call, a little explanation. and we meet him at his caravan ! (Yes, there are vvery few lucky people who he can identify with :P) Now all hyper and jumpy, the lyrics-scrolling didn't seem possible ! Though anyone would have exchanged diamonds to be there, the job involved little work, and no view of the concert ! So , we preferred seats with the crowd. But, it quite seemed impossible, as to walk to the crowd would be to risk a stampede ! A little contact here and there, and we were there, at the VIP section, seated in front of those dozing VIPs ! A seat, more diamonds would be swapped for :P.
It was a little dark, friends could not be located, calls and messages wouldn't reach , what with a 50,000(Maanasaa is'nt right here!!) crowd trying to do it all together !Finally, the purpose was beginning to be fulfilled ! Vijay Adhiraj (who has laughed at us for our WOW-ing :P) anchored the show, nothing much actually ! Because, nothing need be said about the songs of the Man awaited all long !
The show began with a rocking slow number Jaage hain from Guru , Rahman sir and Sadhanaji crooning to it ... what a beginning ! The crowd went ga-ga already !RAHMAN SIR - has never failed to churn out the best numbers .. they are tailored for relishing , at concerts or away ! He sang Dil se re .. the beginning percussions had the audience longing to listen to it !
The best of His was Khwaja, from Jodha Akbar (a song, apparently close to his heart, as he'd mentioned in an interview). They had set up a diwan, with Sir centre staged, and Md. Aslam and Javed Ali at either sides ! A prayer, nothing less ! The harmonium was played effortlessly, which only added feel to the already existing ! ROCKING !
The songs sung were
* Ellapugazhum from Azhagiya Tamizh Magan, the recent Tamil craze ..!
* Varaaga nadhi karayoram from Sangamam. What a song ... what singing ! Kudos to Shankar !
* Barso re from Guru. As I and a lot others feel, Neeti's neverr let any song down ! Awesome singing, though she did fumble at the naa-re part towards the end, lack of breath.. but chuck it ! She sings as gorgeously as she is !
* Vaaji from Shivaji had Hariji and Madhushree enjoying as they sang ! Mediocre I'd rate it !
* Jashn-e-Bahaara from Jodha Akbar. Javed Ali.. again.. one of Sir's best finds ! Effortless singing ... uninterrupted flow of the feel .. and amazing performance !!! I'm in love with him !
* GIRLFRIEND from Boys ..... YE ! KARTHI ! Enakkagave paadara maadiri oru feeling ! Lovely audience interaction .. unexpected sangadhis and a sudden burst into the high pitched 'Enakkoru girlfriend venumada' had me demented !!!!!!! I wish I just fainted , so he came and attended to it ! How i wish !
* Endrendrum punnagai from Alaipayuthey ... I dont need to mention it .. It's a rage !!!!!!!!! What with Shankar singing along ! Fun !!!
* Tere Bina ... a version better than the one at Marg's ! Looked very sequenced, but .. atleast it was flawless ! Lovely swarams .. don't know why .. but somehow, the swarams stole the show ! Chinmayi was good, she went nasal towards the end though !!
* Mayya Mayya from Guru ... Neeti Mohan ... dances, sings, poses, smiles all A+ ! What has she sung for Sir ??? Perfect singing !
* Sandhana Thendralai from Kandukonden Kandukonden ! Ha ... Shankar written all over it !
* Newyork Nagaram from Jillunu Oru Kaadhal .. rarely have I heard Sir speak so much ! He said stuff about the day being hot and sweaty and so lets go in for a 'jillunu' song ! WOW !!!! The song was a little messy .. he went out of shruthi .. but namma Sir na.. chalta hai ! :)
* Roobaroo from Rang De Basanti . Naresh looked out of form ! The song was edited such that 'jo gumshuda' never appeared !
* Athiradee from Shivaji ... overrated song(idiot Manas I love this song!) ! It was a lot of fun ! There was Md. Aslam centre stage, and Sir had vanished from his place near the Keys ! Ben, Naresh and Karthi occupied the top row and the guitar's already begun playing ! It was assumed that Md. Aslam might sing it ! But LO ! Sir emerged from underneath the Keyboard stand with Black glasses !!!!!! Sooooo situationally funny :P. Incidentally, he had forgotten a couple of lines from the song, but namma Sir dhaane :P... and yeah .. Karthi had me drooling to his 'Sananana Mananana' :D
* Chaiiyya Chaiiya from Dil Se. Reihana began the song, she got to sing after loong on stage for Sir ! Unexpectedly , it was Javed Ali for the Male vocals, and what a splendid job !!! Every note was perfect and the high pitches were even wonderful !
* Munbe Vaa from the Jillunu movie .. Chinmayi was shreya's substitute ... did a very nasal job ! She sang well though .. but the himesh-effect undid the feel ! Naresh was OK !
* Maduraikku Pogadhedi from Azhagiya Tamizh Magan. Ben was his usual Hyper self ! Dancing away all time .. and the surprise guest was Dharshana .. who sang it originally as well ! She did a nice job .. though got a little scared towards the end ! Her landing notes are perfect !
* Idhayam Idam Mariyadho from Jodha Akbar. This was a bilingual song.. there were Karthi, Javed Ali, and Madhushree on stage .. singing away ! Karthi began it so sofffftly, that, Sonu would have resigned his job ! And Madhushree was extremely captivating ! Javed ka tho javaab nahin !
* Kannodu Kaanbathella from Jeans. This , is what they call, a Surprise ! A complete katcheri feel ! Nithyashree, along with Valayapatti and a Mridangist were seated down, the carnatic way ! A full fledged RTP effect. And a couple of SGMPNSs, began Kannodu. She looked extremely confident in the standing position with the hand mic ! Lovely !
* There was a little break where the percussionists had their time ! It was not interesting :(
* Bombay Theme ... a lilting melody everyone would die for .. and Mr Naveen , had us all mesmerised with his feet long intruments !!!!! No wonder he's the Royal Flautist ! Cheers !
* Blaaze wandered for sometime on the stage, with 'style' for the bgm .. as he introduced the instrumentalists !
* Pray For Me Brother .. a surprise !!!!! Sir sang and played with ease and Blaaze had everyone enjoying his Rap part ! It was completely sequenced .. The whole track !
* The diwan. now held the unbeatable singer-pair .. Hariji and Sadhanaji ! A little aalaap and a a few Keys later, it was a confirmed Udaya Udaya ... what a song !!!!! And from there ... Hariji announced a teencee competition for the audience where we had to repeat his swarams !!!!!! Ah ! If we could do it, we'd have been on stage boss ! A million swarams later .. the tempo picked up and Behaag appeared out of thin air ! Ae Hairathen Aashiqui , jagaaaaaaaa math !
* Azeem-o-shaan- Veerapaandi kottayile- Rukkumani. How does Sir know how to merge his own songs to get the best feel ever !!!!!!! Towards the end, there were little kids on stage, (whom I envied) drumming and smiling from up there ! (naangalum varuvom) !
* Humma Humma. Ha ! Shankar and Sir were on stage with a little teaser of 'Ammmaaaaaaaaaaa' .. as it metamorphasized into HUMMA HUMMA as Blaaze had us all tapping our feet !!!!! And security guards appeared out of nowhere ! This was the cue that the concert was about to end ! Anyway .. Humma saw the bursts of several paper clouds and oohs and aaha from fans !
* VANDE MATARAM .. Salaam to Rahman sir for having given us this wonderful concert ! Towards the end of the song, all singers appeared on stage .. as is customary ! I thank Times of India and Rahman Sir for this ultimate opportunity , to sit close to the stage and have the time of my life ! I profusely thank Mr Radhan for having made this possible ... and one BIG hug to all the crazy fan-friends who made it there ...
A nice piece of writing na? Thank you Maanasaa! (and next time make it better)
Hi5 to every Rahmaniac out there!
