Neeti Mohan, member of the A R Rahman troupe, is a member of the indipop band, Aasma. This was the second band selected by Channel V after VIVA. She was a dance instructor with Asley Lobo dance Academy earlier. The other member of the troupe you've referred to is Aslam Mohammad. I've also heard that members of his troupe include Sukhwinder and Udit Narayan too though I'm not sure whether they accompany him for all shows. Kailash, I know for sure, makes it to most of his shows. I personally thought that the show was in itself divided in two categories; the veteran singers (Hariharan, Sadhna and Chitra) and the newer lot (Kailash, Naresh Iyer, Aslam, Neeti etc). The ones in the new bracket clearly hadn't done their homework and in "Patshala" which was actually a group song it was very evident. Everyone looked lost and fumbled with lyrics. Yuhin Chalachal Rahi, from Swades, wasn’t up to the mark especially as Hariharan and Kailash looked lost at one point while the music continued. That said, Kailash’s impromptu “aalaps” were fantastic and his voice range is his biggest asset. Rahman is a huge brand and his music (not the “shosha” attached) is the only reason why people attend his live shows. He doesn’t believe in embellishing live shows with too much drama and I went fully prepared for it -- though I thought that the colourful stage will end up having completely electric (partly in reference to Doell’s comment). And though I agree that Rahman’s very shy and awkward with crowds (he hardly gives interviews, works best at nights, in seclusion), my problem with Delhi’s show was that it didn’t have a neat finish. I can’t think of a good reason why a show shouldn’t be packaged well. And somewhere it is a necessity (especially in such live shows) for some sort of connection with audiences. In the Delhi show, Hariharan managed to achieve that partly though it was Sivamani who eventually managed to pull off a fantastic conversation with the audiences. Sivamani doesn’t talk in Hindi or Punjabi and I remember meeting him long ago and he seemed very uncomfortable chatting even in English. But in shows (I’ve seen him perform thrice with Louis Banks) he invariably ends up giving people a damn good time. He has a jugalbandi directly with the audiences and even this time he simply let his music do all the talking. A major problem with the show was that there was simply no continuity. It is criminal to have such frequent breaks in a 180-minute live show. There’s obviously no comparison but still I’ll mention Euphoria. I’ve attended innumerable Euphoria shows and though Palash goofs up all the time on “sur”, his energy level, his voice range, and his connection with audiences is pretty remarkable. My music teacher had attended a Euphoria show with me and hated it. “Not one song was in ‘sur,’ but if audiences are enjoying and if he’s singing non-stop it is commendable.” she had said. And I’ve seen Euphoria do innumerable Rahman songs too in their shows. They weave songs after songs in one show and package it nicely. Which is what Rahman, despite having the best music in the industry, failed to do. So we didn’t hear O Humdum, or Humma or Rang De Basanti or Chalka (unless he sang all these in the last 15 minutes of the show, which I had to miss unfortunately). Another observation, despite having some wonderful, classical-oriented songs, the show in the middle began to drag profusely. Sadhna, for instance, gave a beautiful rendition of ‘Chupke se’ -- her hit from Saathiya. But after the mukhda and the first antara, some other singer should have taken a cue and started another song. Unfortunately this song dragged till the very end and then we had other few rounds of mellow numbers... The mood, from an audience point of view, should change continuously -- which once again brings us to the problem of continuity. From what I’ve seen and heard of how select few bands approach live shows (most of this obviously happens backstage) they do a mock rehearsal, have a piece of paper ready (usually with the keyboard player because he/she needs to change keys and tempo first for other musicians (guitarists, percussionists etc) to eventually follow. Everything happens continuously and you’ll see lead singers and musicians constantly interacting with each other on stage even if they’re jumping and doing their own thing. That’s what was missing here. I don’t think singers even knew which song was coming up next (At one point Rahman even said dully, “Okay now I’ll play another song. This should be able to excite you...”). Rahman’s own voice though is like a wonderful reverb, having a lot of volume, a lot of depth. I loved every minute when he began singing -- Naresh’s Rubaroo rendition sounded even better when Rehman sang (so what if they were just the chorus lines). But yes, on the whole, I would agree that the concert wasn’t superlative. Looking at the stage I thought it would be completely electrifying. But when I looked closely, I saw there were some of the tiny bulbs were actually fused. Ditto with the show. Neat in parts, so-so, on the whole.
http://jaiarjun.blogspot.com/2007/11/rahman-at-rajouri-and-delhi-metro.html#comments
