To most of us-The Private concert concept was a mystery and not well understood, but soon we learnt it all. To put it plain, ARR and troop were a part of a program-that had more events to the evening, in contrary to an exclusive ARR live in concert-that has three hours and more of ARR!! This time-Marg, a construction firm had their celebration with ARR as chief guest and also as performer (With the gang obviously!).The show opened with an AV presentation of the company and followed by the Chairman of the group, Mr.Reddy who presented a momento to Boss. Note: Boss came in dressed with a simple white shirt and was his usual calm-self. The event followed by a Classical-guitar performance led by Mr. Prasanna and our dear Keith Peters. Honestly, the crowd could not wait for the man's entry-obviously, who can when you know he is going to be up there any moment. Finally, the moment arrived. The man returned to the stage-not as chief guest, but as performer this time-and the next two hours to follow, Rahman touched favorites from Roja to RDB, Guru to JA! Blaaze-started the show with his regular hiphop approach!
It goes beyond doubts, the performance was mindblowing. This was ARR's first concert of the year and he said he was lucky to perform in his hometown. The stage was set. Three levels of the stage was made to make the show interesting. Every song was perfect, unmatchable quality-after all there is a lot of hardwork that gets behind an ARR concert. The performance lasted for around two hours-and breakless. The list of singers included Hariharan, Chitra, Blaaze, Chinmayee, Naresh, Benny, Neeti Mohan, Tanvi, Sayanora, Aslam, Dr.Narayan, Raihana AR, Ishrath AR musicians-all of them Super percussionist Sivamani to Bass king Keith.The entire show was conducted by Mr.Srinivas Murthy and to lead them all was none other than our humble, god fearing magician musician-AR!!! The show kickstarted with Jaage hain from Guru-Chitraji took one corner and her sweet voice opened the concert, and as the orchestration became grander the voice that I call "Chocolate Souffle" voice, as quoted by the Hindu-Bangalore came in-Wearing a black to the knee overcoat and continued Jaage hain. The list of songs are as follows: Jaage hain (Chitra, ARR) Khalbali ( ARR) ARR speaks Kadhal Rojave (Hari/Chinmayee) Barso Re (Neeti Mohan) Paatshala (Blaaze/Naresh/Aslam) Monroe (Benny/Ujjaynee) Rubaroo (ARR/Naresh) Dil se (ARR) Jashne Bahara (Aslam) Maduraikepogathadee (Benny/Chinmayee) Azeem O shaan plus Rukkumani plus Veerapandi (Percussion and Chorus) Intro to musicians, setup of unplugged Tamizha Tamizha (Hariharan) Hari speaks Unplugged Tu hi re (Hari) Anjali Anjali (chitra) Sahana (chinmayee/Aslam) Vennilavae (Hari/chinmayee) Maiyya Maiyya (Neeti/Aslam) Kehna hi kya (Chitra/ARR) Tere bina (ARR/Chinmayee) The boss (blaze/aslam/naresh/Dr Narayan) Vaaji Vaaji (Hari/chinmayee) Athiradee (ARR/sayanora/Aslam/Naresh/Chorus) Humma Humma (Blaaze/ARR/Naresh) Maa tujhe salaam (ARR/All) The following songs were a part of the schedule, but was kept from performing for unknown reasons: Ellampughazhum (ARR) Saregame (Blaaze/Tanvi/Naresh/Sayanora) Athiradee rocked as usual.Needless to say!! Rahman was super energized for Khalbali.Dil se re was touching. Chinmayee surely won hearts with her singing and I personally loved Vennilavae. The highlight, as in the Delhi concert was again-The medley Marhabaa plus rukkumani plus veerapandi kottayile.What a show!! This can only be felt-no matter how much I can write here, those there would agree with me on this. The energy of this performance-I'm amazed. This time an ensemble of drums was lead by kids. Excited they were-and honored-they shared the stage with ARR! The unplugged was a rare one.Rahman took to his keyboard, initially there was some technical snag-but was well covered by the technicians and some timely smartness by Hariharan-who took to interact with the crowd.He asked the crowd to sing along and gave them a time to remember. I got a hundred msg's asking me who sang Maiyya Maiyya. Neeti Mohan from Delhi was the performer here-but not to forget the ease with which Aslam Bhai plays the gujurati with his Walidaaa-brilliant. Needless to say-Aslam Bhai is a hero-among his pals and fans.He sang Jashne Baharaa.Beautiful, infact I'm in loss of descriptions. Really well performed. Tere Bina a personal favorite.The song of the year.AR's voice just reaches your heart and what better than to hear chinmayee play with her voice too. The boss was a crowd favorite.Blaaze stole the show there quite easily. Honestly, the crowd was a huge disappointment. Primarily because the show was an invitation based one-and the crowd seemed pretty less enthusiastic.The seemed more reserved. So much that ARR asked the audience to do something about their energy or asked was the show boring?? Well, being a hardcore fan-I truly think ARR should perform only for his show-but then, he knows better. The Chennai fan club members could be heard all over the place.They were the only ones- who seemed more than pleased to witness the humble magician. Benny was a first timer to ARR's concerts and did a brilliant Job. The chorus, comprising Tanvi, ARR's sisters, Sayanora-played a huge role in the game.Well, every song they had a part to play and truly- a chorus requires co-ordination and I must say-Hats off!! God has been Kind, to let me be a part of ARR's concerts. To have let me been there. To have given me the blessed opportunity to scroll the lyrics on the teleprompter for the performers. I'm truly humbled and feel honored-to have met Boss again.Really touched.The smile that he returns, honestly, you feel like your mission on planet earth is complete.No words. The sweetness list goes endless-Chinmayee, Tanvi , sayanora, Benny, Aslam Bhai, Dr Narayan-they're so down to earthness gives you a chance to learn so much. Thank you for the wonderful moments. Flutist Naveen was another magician here-and his sweetness needs a mention.So does Mr.Keith Peters'. How can any show go complete without the perfectionist H Sridhar.With him in his pursuits was Mr.Aditya Modi-together with Mike and the rest, they played the sound engineers role. A special Thank you to Mom-she showed me ARR. It was her repeated listening to Chinna china asai-that made me what I am today. A special Thank you to Hariharan ji. His almost an hour talk, has given me books to learn. The only person, whom the entire unit listens to without argument is the conductor Mr.Srinivas murthy. More than four decades into the profession, he deserves the "Legend" Tag. Sir, Thank you for your blessings. To Blaaze-thank you again.This time the police was not any better.While ARR was about to leave-he had just stopped by to take a few photos with a special request-The security did not allow the guys to come any closer and by the time we realized it was too late- ARR left, tired and exhausted. Thank you Sir! As ARR himself said-This was a special concert for him, His entire family was there. Mother, Wife, Children and sisters. This concert remains special to me as well.And to anyone who came in there. Thank you so much for the Hospitality and love-to Vithur, John and Venkat. You guys really are true Rahmaniacs. Thanks to all the guys who came over for dinner after the concert. Was great knowing you all. May Allah bless us and give us an opportunity to be there for the man we love the most-and who has given us a chance to be together and to admire and love each other. My apologies, if this mail seems to be from a personal point of view. It was on a request from a few members. Sorry, if I've forgotten to mention anyone/anything. It remains purely unintentional. Let me know how you felt living the concert through this write up. Nazeef Mohammed. [EMAIL PROTECTED]
