AR Rahman Live in BAngalore Part-2

In the confusion of finding a place I lost track of my friend & my gang .(just like in one of those Indian movies ;)).The rendition of songs I should say was impeccable and the crowd exuberant. The crowd was predominantly consisting of people in their early or late 20s, quick to identify the numbers & unrelenting in their cheers. I was standing on 2 chairs stacked one upon another dancing & cheering with a faction of ARR fans. The verve that music could trigger on a crowd I feel is quite amazing & was clearly visible among the fans.

The songs selected for the evening were really apt like “ghanan-ghanan”,”hum-dum suinyorae”,”mangal-pandey”,”azadi “from “Bose”. Songs were such that a majority of the audience could relate to it (i.e)songs that were a “HIT” in both “tamil” & “hindi”. They artists were aboveboard with the rendition of the songs.

The improvised descant from ARR for the songs were quite amazing. ”Shankar Dada” & “madhushree’ were the stars of the evening. But a person who stamped his authority was the percussion maestro, virtuoso was “SHIVAMANI”. His antiques with the various contraption out there on the stage caught the imagination of the people as they rocked to the rhythms. As a tyro percussionist I derived enough inspiration from his performance. The JUGALBANDI between shankar & arr was quite amazing.Shankar with his alaap & arr in his synthesizer. (Quite captivating )The medley of a slower tune, rap & the original tune for the “HUMMA” song showed that ingeniousness of the talent out there on the stage. I should say our country is blessed with a plethora of talented blokes. Only an iota of them break out of the cocoon & be creative.(a sudden platonic thought…;)
Another song that affected me was “AZAADI”(meaning freedom) as I could relate to it very closely.(It is that “WIP” thing you know ;)

As the same old saying goes “all things ….etc..” it was time for the epilogue & as the last lines of the song “VANDE MATARAM” was rendered the skies opened up again with all it’s fury. I felt that the rain added an additional facet to the music being played merging implicitly with the situation. At that moment there was a great feeling of national pride & conceit of being an Indian(I still dunno why!!)……..

Before I am done with the blog the musicians deserve a special mention. The orchestration & the sound effects for the evening was impeccable inspite of the impediments. The flutist & the guitarists deserve a special mention I feel.

Rain started the show….
Rain threatened to stymie the show…
Rain deferred for the show…
Rain finally played the swan song of the show….

Au revoir.....