PERFORMING ARTS
Tuesday, June 19, 2007; Page C05
A.R. Rahman
Bollywood superstar composer A.R. Rahman and his 66 dancers, singers and
musicians began their Patriot Center
concert at 8 p.m. and were still receiving enthused screams three
high-energy hours later. After Rahman wrapped up the performance at
11:20 p.m. Sunday, the crowd remained, and stayed pumped, until the
confetti fell.
All ages and entire families from the Washington
area's Indian community danced and sang along to more than 30 Rahman
hits -- and they're all hits. The 41-year-old composer-singer-
instrumentalist is one of the most important and popular artists in
modern Indian music, mixing traditional sounds with hip-hop and
dub-inflected electronica. He's a prolific genius who has scored more
than 100 Bollywood films; in 2003 the BBC reported that he's sold more than 100
million albums, and there are estimates that he has moved twice that many
cassettes.
A.R. Rahman stoked the crowd in a high-energy set at Patriot Center.
(Associated Press)
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Based on the ethnic makeup of the nearly sold-out Patriot Center
audience, not many people outside those of Indian descent have a clue
about Rahman, but that may change. He's slowly making inroads into the
non-Indian populace, having collaborated with Andrew Lloyd Webber
on the musical "Bombay Dreams," having scored "The Lord of the Rings"
stage production and having his smash song "Chaiyya Chaiyya" open the Spike Lee
film "Inside Man."
While
the slamming "Chaiyya Chaiyya" received the evening's largest ovation
-- and some of the audience's fiercest rump shaking -- it was just the
17th song in the set.
-- Christopher Porter
