AR Rahman - Live in Concert

It all started about a month ago, as we were watching Zee TV and an ad popped up with AR Rahman's World Tour titled Jai Ho 2010! Now, Neha and I are huge fans of the song, and of course Rahman and coupled with the fact that we had never seen him Live in a show, the excitement just led us to book tickets immediately! And, boy....what a show it was! A packed Nassau Coliseum, electrifying sound accoustics, unbeatable desi junta dancing around, songs that are melodious evergreens....the concert was outstanding!

We left office early just to make sure we avoid the Friday evening traffic, but when you're on I-95, one never knows! Took us 2 an half hours to drive the 70 odd miles to Nassau Coliseum and we were quite happy that we were one of the first few to get there. Content, we had a quick dinner...got our regular soda, popcorn and nachos and enthusiastically, took our seats! The coliseum was huge...with a 16,000 capacity we were convinced, the night was going to be anything, but uneventful! The stage was pretty big and contrary to our expectations, our seats weren't as scary as we had imagined them to be :). Not to forget, the two big TV screens that were put up next to the stage to ensure the fun never stopped!

As people started to flow in, the decibel level in the hall rose exponentially! Amidst all the noise around, the show started at 9pm with the song Maa Tujhe Salaam...nice start to the night. The art direction and projector graphics on the stage were quite impressive...Rahman followed it with a superb rendition of the song Yeh jo des hai tera from Swades.

After that performance, the soothing Dreams on Fire was performed by Shweta Pandit with utmost perfection! The crowd cheered hysterically, when Lata Mangeshkar was projected on the LED screen interspersing with Rahman while singing the splendid duet from RDB...Luka Chuppi.

The mood then transitioned to some of his Tamil song marvels...Endrendrum Punnagai (Original for O Humdum Suniyo Re), Urvasi Urvasi, Humma Humma, the Tamilians in the audience (more than 50%), roared and cheered absolutely crazy! He quickly followed those with Ringa Ringa Ringa, Mehndi Hai Rachne Wali, Dil Se Re, Pappu Can't Dance Saala, Khwaja Mere Khwaja, Barso Re Megha, O Palanhare and a fantastic medley of Hindi and Tamil songs featuring Oye Hoye Hoye...Genda Phool, Rehna Tu and some obviously hit Tamil songs to which the crowd jumped off their seats and started dancing in the pavilions! Neethi Muhan was fabulous with the Nazrein Milana dance number!

Harshdeep Kaur's spiritual classic peformance of Ik Onkar and the legendary Chaiya Chaiya...more than enough to have already made this evening one of the most entertaining ones in recent times. As Rahman bid good-bye abruptly, we all shouted..."Where's Jai Ho". In a couple of minutes, we realized he was pulling a fast one on all of us.... the mighty Jai Ho with all the supporting singers, along with ARR together on the circular ramp, then had the entire coliseum on their feet cheering loud and louder! Neha quickly managed to record the performance on her newly gifted flip video camera (that she loves to carry EVERYWHERE!)



Finally, he wrapped the whole thing with the patriotic classic - Vande Mataram! The event was not only a great show by the musical maestro but for some reason, I also felt a subtle feeling of Indianness, a deep sense of patriotism as all of us united to celebrate the artisitic brilliance of this one man who has redefined Indian music, probably in all forms that we know of! In the end, we walked out of the event, having got much more than what we had imagined....a wonderful evening, one that we're going to cherish for a while!

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Next post: Raavan - A Review on June 20, 2010