Jai Ho...

"I thought you only enjoy rock concerts and not the Bollywood ones"
"That's right"
"Then how come you are going for Rehman concert"
"Isn't he our own rock star"
Yes I think so... you can't put A.R.Rehman in the same category with likes of Anu Malick and Udit Narayan. He is class apart! And how on earth I can resist the opportunity to listen to the maestro live in concert ... Despite the hubby's protests against standing for hours together in cramped crowd with feeble possibility of getting a good look at the man, the wify made him attend the concert. I was sure Rehman would make him forget all the agony and oh boy ... ARR did that in most spectacular way !

As expected, there was huge young crowd and all Pune roads seemed like flowing towards the Balewadi stadium. But there were aunties and oldies too and even families attending with 2 year olds. Hats off to Pune's music lovers... they attend Sawai Gandharv and Rehman with equal enthusiasm !

Given our great time management, we reached the place dot on concert time. I had slightest hopes of catching any good view of the stage given my previous concert experiences (and my not so good height). So first thing we did was to find a good position in front of one of the screens and settled down on the ground. What I didn't expect was that I would be able to enjoy almost whole show sitting right there. People were more interested in sitting comfortably and watching the screen than jumping up and down to catch a view of the stage. I guess it only happens in Pune !

I really didn't have any choices for songs to be played given vast number of songs of him that I adore. He started with "Jage hai der tak" followed by a Tamil song. I thought ab toh gaya... people will boo him for playing Tamil song. They just waited patiently for next one to come. The patience was paid off very well when he started "Jiya se jiya". That song has enchanting beats which make it more enjoyable live.

There was Hariharan singing "Roja janeman", Rashid Ali singing "Kabhi kabhi aditi", Sadhana Sargam singing "Chupake Se"... all the Delhi6 songs were sung and so were "Kaise muze tum mil gayee" and "Maiyya Maiyya". No singers were introduced apart from Raja Hassan whose name flashed across the backstage. I really wish he doesn't sing again after the way he almost killed "Masakkali". Sivamani made a brief appearance. We were hoping to get a small solo peace from him but in vain. There were some dancers and light show but who had time to pay attention to them, while dancing to those songs and cheering our hearts out.

The man himself performed "Dil se", "Rehana Tu" and "Maula mere maula". What I loved most was that the man did less talking and played more music save a futile attempt to "interview" people from audience.

Turn offs of the show, RJ's who were anchoring as if they were on air...( RJ Shrikant you suck big time) and the winglis speech by Karad. Yes we saw Lata Mangeshkar and also one lady snoozing in the front row.

My verdict ... awesome show!!! Still have hangover of it. Afterall You don't get to listen Rehaman playing piano live with Hariharan singing "Tu hi re", Roop Kumar Rathod singing "Roshan Sama" "Bhini Bhini" (just awesome!) everyday...

ARR you ROCK !!!