Well, it must have been a special high for The Wandering Souls on the Saturday night to kick start the most anticipated Rahmania concert. The crowd packed the hall in no time and then began the show. The `Muthu' instrumental introduction could have been more dramatic with high tempo, but it suddenly put brakes. Then the songs started a bit cold as the audience needed some acquaintance with the performers.
All the excitement began with the rapping of `O humdum' and the unusual rock of `O yuva'. Soon, `Once more' was the order of the night. There was this moment of revelation when the Sufi medley was churned out and the listeners had a great time lauding the flow that effortlessly bonded the variety of Sufi compositions of Rahman. The script of the show was interesting too, as many would have come to know many of the unknown facts about Rahman and his musical journey. The lead singer Ashutosh was having a ball of time flaunting his vocal range to suit Rahman's spectra of compositions. His rap of `O humdum' or the Alaap of `Tere bina' or the line `Jaise barso mein koi ganga nahaye' from `Yun hi chal', sans his animated expressions, were simply knock out. `Shakalaka baby' was a delight. Thanks to the singer for crooning the song with such aplomb. That was mind blowing. Another mesmerizing piece came from the flautist, who did the `Bombay theme' with full gusto. I would also like to mention that the people on drums, tabla and the sound engineering department, did some great job to the extent that they even nullified any kind of shortcomings. Talking about the misses, one expected some tamil numbers from Rahmans body of work. Anyways, for their genuine efforts, `The Wandering Souls' takes a bow. Next time, I hope they break more rules (of course retaining the soul of music) to go a step further from flat reproduction. It would be a delight to see some personal `TWS' stamp on the brilliant compositions of the maestro. (The Sufi and Patriotic medley were close to it and were enjoyed best by the crowd!) Keep rocking! Caran~
