A.R.Rahman. I dont need to say, what his music means to me. Right from the day I heard about this show, I was too eager to attend. Even after getting the tickets, I was bit apprehensive. Whether I will get to attend it? Will some important work stop me? Will the show go as per plan? So many ifs and buts. But when the day really arrived, I was upbeat. 5 of us, had planned to go (Myself, Magix, Gaja, Mahesh and Santhanam).
Chale Chalo Chale Chalo
I met Magix for lunch, and then we started for the show by around 3.30 PM. First we went to Gaja’s place in Wind Tunnel road. It was very cloudy, and it really reflected on our moods. We were kind of worried. But that was only till we got into Gaja’s car. He had compiled a list of ARR songs, sung by ARR himself :-) That really lifted our spirits. I was meeting Gaja, Mahesh and Santhanam for the first time. But that didnt stop us from talking non stop about ARR, and how SJ Surya ripped apart the picturisation of Ah Aah songs!

We reached Palace grounds somewhere around 5.15 to 5.30 PM. It wasnt raining, but the conditions werent too promising either. Magix went on his way to the 500 Rs entrance, and rest of us went towards the 3000 Rs entrance. Since we were bit early, we got to sit somewhere in the front. Next to us there was a cute girl with her mom. Telephone maNi poal sirippavaL ivaLa?
Somewhere by around 6 PM it started drizzling. We were kind of worried. But tried to mask it by making fun and pulling each others legs. And there were many Tamilians around, and we kind of formed a big group there. Then the rain started thickening. Magix sent a sms ‘I dont mind if it rains all the way till 7 and then stops’. I swear. That was the general feeling. Let it
rain as much it wants before the show. People had come well dressed for the show. I mean the audience. Little did they know that all the brylcream, fair and lovely. axe effect, charlie, park avenue etc etc would have been washed away? Some people had umbrellas, some rain coats.

Some covered themselves with chairs, helmets etc etc. But for how long? At one stage they
gave up and resigned to the fate by getting drenched.
And rain stopped for a while. It was still drizzling though. Not even a single noise from the stage. Usually they do some mike testing etc etc. But there was no such activity. This added to our fear of the show getting cancelled. At around 6.30 PM Daraius came on stage and said that, the show will start on time. We all were thrilled to no end. We screamed and expressed our happiness.

But just when the show was about to start, it started raining. First slowly, then bit heavily and after a certain stage extremely heavily. Some singer came on stage, and even sang a song requesting rain god to hold on for a while. The 3D special screens came away first. Then the rain and wind spoilt the special type of funnels. Then the giant screen on the stage started tilting down. The stage itself wasnt completely covered and it was getting damaged. We even thought that the stage will come crashing down. Ooff. We didnt even move from our chairs.
Look at the same stage. How it looks? All lights switched off due to rains. And how gloomy! At one stage I dont think I thought about anything. Looked like the rain had washed away my feelings as well.
Rain stopped. Literally stopped abruptly by around 7.50 PM. But still there was no activity.
Suddenly Daraius and Rahman appeared on stage. Crowd responded. But there was not much enthu in the voice of the crowd. We all were bracing ourselves for the announcement that the show is going to be cancelled. We were extremely happy to be proved wrong. Rahman as ked us, if we still wanted to stay and listen. We screamed ‘Yes’. He said ‘Give us 1 hrs time. We will be
back’. Crowd roared in approval. And Sivamani suddenly performed something for couple of minutes to pep up the mood.
It literally changed the atmosphere. All the lights were switched on suddenly(They had switched off many lights during the heavy downpour). All of us shook away any doubts we had and walked towards the food court. Food was extremely costly and the quality wasnt that great either. But who cares?And time flew really fast. By around 8.45 PM Kailash Kher came and sang ‘Allah ke bande’. It kind of set the audience going. Then the IndiaClassicArts people came and lighted the lamp. Some singers came and said that we are the best audience, they love us etc etc.

By around 8.50 PM Daraius came on stage and started the countdown. Boom. AR Rahman appeared on stage, clad in a white suit. He sang ‘Fanaah’. Boy! Werent we happy?
Though it was kind of thrilling to see ARR in action, I was wondering what happened to him. He was awfully out of form in ARR. At the beginning of the song and also at the ending piece. Hmmmmm. Was wondering whether they will sing any tamil songs, and the next song was Telephone mani poal from Indian. Again there was no sync between the orchestra and singers. And Sadhana commited couple of mistakes. But the crowd didnt mind and kept on cheering. Then slowly slowly the sync between the singers and orchestra started happening and it was too good. Wow.

Here are the list of the songs that were sung
Fanaah - ARR
Telephone Mani- Hari / Sadhana
O Hum Dum - Shankar / Blaaze / George Peters
Mangal Mangal - Kailash Kher
Mehndi Hai - Alka Yagnik
Sakhi Aayo re - Sukhvinder / Sadhana Sargam
Hum Hain Is Pal - Madhushree
Roja Jaaneman - Hari / Sadhana
Chupke Se/ Snehithane - Sadhana / Naresh Iyer/ Aslam
Oh Iniyane (Kannalane in Kannada) - Chitra
Chale Chalo - ARR
Chanda Re / Vennilave - Hari / Sadhana
Chinamma Chilakkamma - Sukhvinder
Kabhi Neem - Madhushree / ARR
Pagdi Sambhal - Sukhvinder
Taal Se Taal - Alka / Aslam
Hamma Hamma - Shankar Mahadevan / Blaaze / ARR
Baba Rap - Blaaze
Sivamani Solo
Pray For Me (Poverty Anthem)
Bombay Theme
Loves Never Easy / Ishq Bina - Alma / Madhushree
Muqabla - Badri Prasad / Sayonara
Ghanan Ghanan - Shankar
Mustafa - ARR
Sa Re Ga Me - ARR / Blaaze / Tanvi
Chaiyya Chaiyya - Rehana / Sukhvinder
Aazaadi - ARR
Maa Tujhe Salaam - ARR

Magix will write a detailed review on each and every song :-)

Somethings I observed in the show were as follows.

* There was this dancers group at one corner of the stage. They were rhythmically dancing for every song without even moving from their place. It was cute
*Sukhwinder Singh. He sings straight from the heart. He is very good.
*Blaaze. Surprise of the day. I never knew this guy had so much talent
*Chorus. They were amazing. Especially for the song ‘Chinnamma Chilakkama’ from Meenaxi. Wow.
*Shankar Mahadevan teased the audience a lot before the Humma Humma song. Shankar said something like ‘We are going to sing a flop song from the movie Bombay. This was the original melodious tune we had composed. The way he and Rahman sang the ‘Humma Humma’ song, had us in splits. Blaaze mock screamed at them and they shifted to the original tune
*I think someone needs to tell Hariharan that the original tune of ‘Vennilave/Chanda Re’ is good. Especially the beginning of the song. He doesnt need to scream ‘Vennilave’ like a man selling plastic buckets X( I have seen him do like this twice or thrice in TV as well
Madhushree
*Madhushree surely doesnt know tamil. She was pointing and waving at the audience when she was singing ‘Nee reNdu mozhaththil dhaan paaya podayya’ ;-) It was hilarious!
*ARR dedicated a song from water. Someof us had managed to hear Water songs before the official launch. So when we were humming the songs, people around were surprised how come these guys know the tune :-D
*Director Shankar should have picturised the audience when the song Sa Re Ga Me was played. That would have been a better picturisation for the song, than what he did in BOYS.
*Not even a single song from Ah Aah, Maybe Rahman was so irritated with the picturisations, he didnt want to sing it?
*I got to see Naveen. The flute guy. He mesmerized the audience with the bombay theme
*Enna solla pogiraai song is something close to Shankar Mahadevan. He said so.
*AR Rahman was so bubbly throughout the show
*AR Rahman didnt leave the stage even for a single minute. He was there either singing or playing the keyboard.
*At the end of humma humma song, ARR waved towards the orchestra. And they all stopped. All except shivamani, ARR and the audience :-) We took over the song with Shivamani providing the right beats. I liked the way Rahman swooshed towards the orchestra. It was really Magical :-)
*Madhushree is making progress in her tamil pronounciations. Good!
*People forget their decency when they attend such shows. A group of girls were standing in front of us. We requested many a times, asking them to move since they were covering the stage,. They didnt budge. A guy from the back said ‘Yakka’. Immediately they moved. He he :-D Atleast these people moved. There were many smart alecs, completely drunk and standing on
the way. But somehow we managed to ignore it and enjoy the show.

One more thing that I realised is that, AR Rahman deliberately underplays his singing talent. The Poverty Anthem was amazing. His english accent was excellent. And the song was really touching.

There were 2 incidents that can summarize the show
1. After the break Rahman came on stage and said ‘I learnt 2 lessons today. one is not to keep any shows during Ramzan. Next is, I learnt how much you all love me. I know you listen to my music by looking at the cassette and CD sales. Thats nice. But when you really brave the rain, and waited for 2 hours under this rain it really shows how much you love me. God bless you
all. Thank you very much’. He really meant it, and my eyes were really moist when he said Thank You.
2. When he started the last song for the day ‘Vandhe Matharam’ we all were standing on the chair. And it poured. It poured extremely heavily. One particular moment, when he sang ‘Vande Mataram’ the rain at that particular moment was the highest all day. Not just me. Many of us felt the same. This time there were really tears in my eyes. The rain and rahmans music washed away the layers of dust that had settled around my heart and made me cry.

The show ended at around 12 AM. Went to Leela Palace from there for dinner. Was there till around 2.45 AM or so. Myself and Magix reached my place at around 3 AM. Immediately changed to dry clothes. Applied some amrutanjan etc etc to prevent cold/fever etc. But we werent tired even a bit. Just kept talking talking non stop. Since Magix was at a different stand, we had more to share. Like ‘Hey. Taal se Taal mila start pannache audience thought it as ‘Sawariya’ from Swades. Nee adha observe panniya? Semma comedy’ etc.
By around 4.30 in the morning we slept and got up again at 7.30 AM. It was one of the best days in my life :-) To conclude, I would like to share something. I have attended many a shows and
programmes. This programme was not the best organized. And the situations werent too conducive either. But the spirit of the show is something that I have never ever seen in my life before. Rather never ever felt like this in my before.

Rahman Tujhe Salaam! Whenever I think of this programme in my life en mugaththil ‘endrendrum punnagai’dhaan.

Please give me sometime to upload some pictures. Due to the weather conditions couldnt take much photos. And they had banned digital cameras. So the clarity of the pictures from mobile camera wont be that great either. But almost every song has been recorded(some audio. some video) in either mine or Gaja’s mobile. Will download them and give a list of the same, after
testing the quality and all. You can download the same :-)

Yeah. Now am feeling sleepy after 24 hrs :-) Tataaaa

Update: Please check Swaroop’s page for some good quality pictures :-)