How I wish he would appear and perform on NPR.
On Jun 15, 2010, at 3:02 PM, Roshan <[email protected]> wrote:
I too agree with this. except CNN and MTV, there were no coverage on
american media except a little foot note that AR Rahman is performing.
Why is it ? the answer is simple.. most of the western audiences
haven't really heard of Rahman yet. Some probably know him as the
guy who won the Oscar. But majority of them haven't really become
"the fan" just yet. That will only happen if he releases some
albums in the US, collaborate with big stars in the west and do good
musical concerts that really represent rahman.. the kind we see in a
Yanni Concert. not the kind that Britney spears or Madonna does.
and I wasn't quiet happy with the way they tried to replicate a MJ
on Rahman. I mean, what is the point ?
His music has lots of class that one would find in a western
classical composistions. instead of trying to make him a pop star,
why not try to showcase what really he is ? he is a composer. his
compositions are to be heard.. but not accompanied with lots of
dancers and gimmicks.
I know a lot of people might disagree with me. But, that is just
me. :) I would love to see him perform his song with his singers in
a classy atmosphere than to see acrobatics and dances. There is
plenty of that in Booollywood.
On Wed, Jun 16, 2010 at 2:02 AM, A.R.Rajib <[email protected]>
wrote:
Is Jai Ho! A R Rahman's best song?
June 15, 2010 14:24 IST
Aseem Chhabra listens to the music played at A R Rahman's [ Images ]
concert in New York.
Also Read: Thousands flock to catch A R Rahman in action
Is Jai Ho! A R Rahman's best composition? Most India [ Images ]n
fans of the composer in India and elsewhere in the Diaspora will
disagree with that question.
It is widely believed that Rahman has composed far better songs in
Bollywood and for Tamil films. My personal favourites range from
Chaiyya Chaiyya toTaal [ Images ] Se Taal Mila, and Sandhana
Thendralai from Rajiv Menon's Tamil filmKandukonden Kandukonden.
Nevertheless the box office success of Slumdog Millionaire
[ Images ] and the Oscar wins have clearly made Jai Ho! Rahman's
most popular song in the West. It is also his only known song in the
West other than perhaps the rest of the compositions from Danny
Boyle's [Images ] film.
And so no surprise that the management team behind Rahman's new
stage show would call it Jai Ho 2010: The Journey Home Concert.
After all, the hope was that this concert was going to introduce
Rahman in a big way to mainstream America. That 'journey home'
expression comes from one of the original songs of Rahman's West End
and Broadway musical Bombay Dreams.
I did not understand whether this time the expression 'journey home'
was supposed to represent Rahman's passage back to the US -- now
that he reportedly spends more time in Los Angeles; or was this
concert reconnecting his fans in the Indian Diaspora to their roots
by traversing through the highlights of his rich career.
Last Friday before the first show started at the Nassau Coliseum in
New York, I stood with two friends -- an Indian musician and an
American blogger -- at a bar at the venue doing something very
politically incorrect. We were conducting our own non-scientific
poll of white Caucasian faces in the crowds that were entering the
arena. There may have been more than 15,000 people in the audience,
but we counted about 20 white faces and perhaps we may have missed
another 30 to 40.
We posted on Twitter and later during the show other friends texted
from different locations in the venue. Why did not Rahman's so-
called non-South Asian fans show up? This much was clear -- 99.9
percent of the audience that arrived in their cars from New York and
other neighbouring states (I even met a family that had driven six
hours, all the way from Boston) were brown desis -- more Indians,
but surely also other South Asian fans of Rahman.
I am not an expert in booking musical shows, but I do know that when
artists like Bruce Springsteen, Madonna [ Images ] or Lady Gaga
[ Images ] perform in New York, they seek venues like Radio City
Music Hall or Madison Square Garden. And in order to reach all
shades and colours of New Yorkers, those shows are promoted in the
mainstream press.
But this Rahman show was mostly promoted to the South Asian market.
Desis know Nassau Coliseum since that has long been the site for
Bollywood shows, but it is hardly a venue that would draw other New
Yorkers.
Some may argue that a brown man's dollar has the same value as that
of a white man and I will agree with that. The Coliseum was filled
to about 75% capacity and so how does it matter who bought the
tickets? But I still feel that with a grand show such as this --
well produced by choreographer-director Amy Tinkham, who has worked
on concerts with artists including Paul McCartney, Madonna and
Britney Spears [ Images ] -- Rahman the artist was not able to
crossover into mainstream America.
The show -- one friend described it as a desi Lion King -- was
stunning to watch. The lights, set design, sound, the selection of
songs was simply quite spectacular. Rahman touched upon a lot of
hits -- recent Bollywood films like Rang De Basanti [ Images ],
Delhi 6 [ Images ], Jaane Tu [ Images ]... Ya Jaane Na to his best
works with Mani Ratnam in films likeBombay and Dil Se.
There were quieter moments such as when Rahman sat down to sing Yeh
Jo Desh Hai Tera from Swades [ Images ] orKhwaja Mere Khwaja from
Jodhaa Akbar [ Images ] and later when the orchestra performed the
haunting theme fromBombay.
We were treated to the celebratory Holi song from Mangal Pandey
[ Images ] and Mehndi Hai Rachne Wali from Zubeida. And in a
technological wonder, Rahman performed Luka Chuppi from Rang De
Basanti with a projected image of Lata Mangeshkar [ Images ] --
quite like Natalie Cole's hit Unforgettable video in which she was
featured with her father Nat King Cole [ Images ].
But the show had its inconsistencies. There was a flat attempt to
pay tribute to Michael Jackson [ Images ]. The performance of
Chaiyya Chaiyya was dull. The male singer just did not have the
range of Sukhwinder Singh's [ Images ] voice. In fact, his voice was
drowned by the loud orchestra.
Two months ago at a press conference to launch this concert Rahman
and Tinkham emphasised that they had picked the best back up dancers
for the show. The big question though was why all the dancers
dressed in colourful Indian costumes were white, with a trickling of
black performers.
Not a single dancer at the show was brown and a desi. Was this an
attempt to appeal to Rahman's non-South Asian fans?
Whatever may be the reason, it looked odd to see non-Indian dancers
dancing to the beat of Indian film songs -- not once, but through
the entire show.
And one more contradiction. There were very two very strong Indian
nationalist performances, one towards the middle of the show with
colours of India's flag flashed in the auditorium and the other a
rendition of Vande Mataram -- the encore act after the elaborate
grand finale of the song Jai Ho!
I am not opposed to Indian nationalist sentiments, but those tend to
work much better in India. There were a couple of people holding an
Indian flag at the venue, but Rahman should not forget that his
popularity crosses beyond Indian Americans. There were certainly a
number of his Pakistani, Bangladeshi and other South Asian fans at
the concert. He risks losing their support and ticket revenues if he
makes the shows very India-centric.
Image: A R Rahman during a moment in his concert at Atlantic City,
New Jersey. Photograph: Paresh Gandhi
http://movies.rediff.com/report/2010/jun/15/is-jai-ho-a-r-rahmans-best-song.htm
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~ ~ A.R.Rajib ~ ~
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