Evening Extravaganza with ARR

This blog is to share my experiences at the Jai ho concert held at Marg Swarnabhoomi on the 11th of october 2009.To start off with,we reached the venue at 6.30 pm and we realized that a crowd estimating around 1,00,000 people had gathered to witness the concert and many trying to get a glimpse of their favourite playback singers and of course,ARR. After lighting the traditional kuthuvilakku Guitar prassana was on stage and he spoke about his upcoming music college for those who are into music and also about his collaboration with Marg in developing the college.The entire crowd was then made to wait for about 20 minutes as they were making the final adjustments to the sound system.The crowd went really mad when the lights were turned off as they knew that the concert was about to begin.There was hooting and howling everywhere in the open air auditorium and as the smoke started pumping from the stage the crowd really went crazy to the extent of jumping from their seats and rushing towards the stage.When ARR came up with his song Jaage hain from Guru some of them were literally moved by his performance.The people got ecstatic when ARR said"How are you Chennai?" because it is not always you get to watch an ARR concert in Chennai.The next 2 hours were power packed with ARR belting out some of his hit numbers ranging from Roja to Blue along with Hariharan,Tanvi,Sadhana sargam,Mohd Aslam,Chitra,Raihanah and a few others.Ace drummer Sivamani saw to it that the crowd danced to his killer beats and incredible rhythm.Keith peters was too good on the bass guitar and there were the frequent frets and the slaps.Flautist Navin deserves a special mention for his awesome interludes in some of the country's most hummed tunes.

This is my comment on the songs that were sung during the3 hour long extravaganza:

1. Jaage hain-A.R. Rahman

A perfect intro to the maestro ARR.This particular song made the crowd jump from their seats and many even went to the extent of breaking all the security barriers and rush to the stage.The awesome orchestrations and the high pitched rendering by ARR makes this song very unique.

Indeed great!!!!!!!! Rating: *****/*****

2. Kadhal Rojave or Roja jaaneman - Hariharan,Sadhana sargam

This evergreen song from ARR's Roja could have been performed better by Hariharan as we could realize that he had forgotten the lyrics and somehow managed to sing.With people like Hariharan on stage the expectations are high.You can't afford to make mistakes or give reasons for the bad performance. Rating:**/*****

3. Chupke Se or Snehithane - Sadhana sargam

This is another song which proves ARR's genius.The violin interludes and the mindblowing bass patterns take the song to a different level.Sadhana sargam's silky voice adds flavour to the song and the songs still continues to be in the list of the most hummed tunes of the decade. Rating:****/*****

4. Khalbali-A.R.Rahman,Aslam,Naresh iyer.

This song needs no introduction.The crowd went mad immediately when the opening beats were heard.Everybody was at the their zenith of enthusiasm and when ARR sang 'Siddi Siddi" the crowd went really crazy. The techno beats kept pounding in their hearts till the end of the song.

Rating: *****/*****

A.R.Rahman jamming with Sivamani in the song Khalbali

5. Jiya se Jiya- A.R.Rahman& Sivamani

This song had something different happening which no other concert of ARR has ever had.The lights were turned off and ARR suddenly got off the stage and he got into the crane and sang the entire song throwing a few hats and the crane moving above those seated in the first few rows.

The beats of Sivamani was too sick that even we could see sexagenerians dancing to the tune.

Rating: *****/*****

6.Dilli-6 theme-A.R.Rahman,Blaaze,Tanvi.

This song showed ARR's idea for getting the "sound" right.The opening lines of the song have a sort of a Telephonic effect and ARR managed to get the sound right by placing a mic near the hand loudspeaker and asking Tanvi to sing the song.The awsome vocals and the Trombone and the french horns that keep rolling in the background creates a magical efect in our hearts.

To be continued.....