RAHMAN CELEBRATES TIMES OF INDIA’S LAUNCH IN CHENNAI
AR and friends draw a record turnout
TIMES NEWS NETWORK
Chennai:
Guitars, ghatams, tablas, trombones and trumpets played second fiddle
to A R Rahman on Sunday at the Times of India Changing Notes concert.
Chennai’s
most musical son performed for a 50,000-strong audience in his hometown
after years. “I can’t remember the last time he performed live,” said
one fan, keeping a wary eye on a policeman with a wicked-looking lathi.
And Rahman himself started the show saying, “I haven’t heard sound and cheering
like this in at least two years.”
Eager
fans turned up on the St. George’s school grounds as early as 4 pm on
Sunday evening, to “catch places” in the front rows. Shouts of
“Rahman-Rah-Rah” filled the air and the excited audience waved posters,
phootgraphs and sketches of Rahman. A bright green and red “Thank you
Times of India” poster was waved around. Even the normally-staid VVIPs
let their hair down to cheer
and screech. The fashionably late found themselves standing in the
aisles until accomodating organisers brought in more chairs.
The
songs were as thoughtfully ordered as they were chosen. Rhythm
alternated with melody, classical with rap and rock. Rahman opened the
show and then retreated behind his keyboard, with a polite “Enjoy
yourself, I’m gonna play now.”
The tempo built up as Shankar Mahadevan
took over from him with ‘Kadal Ilaiyo’, and Hariharan followed with
‘Vaji Vaji Sivaji’. Kartik had the audience roaring with the rock-based
‘Enakoru Girlfriend Venum’ from ‘Boys’, and then the calm Jaaved Ali
appeared to soothe the audience with ‘Jashn-e-Bahaara’ from ‘Jodhaa
Akbar’.
There were some wonderful oldworld moments capturing Chennai’s ability to
blend the classical and the contemporary.
The
Times of India Changing Notes concert saw a blend of the old and new.
Nithyashree sang ‘Kannodu Kanbathellam’ while Sivamani was on the drums
and a musician on a nadaswaram accompanied Nithyashree who performed
seated on the floor in Carnatic style. In the final moments, Rahman
brought the crowd cheering and surging forward with ‘Humma Humma’. The
finale saw the composer closing with a soulful ‘Vande Mataram’. With
the grounds packed to capacity and thousands waiting outside the gates
hoping that they would get a chance to sneak in, Rahman even apologised
to “the 20,000 people who couldn’t watch my show...I promise I will
have a show again and everyone who wants to watch will find a place.”
The show’s sponsors were TVS, Olympia, United India and SAE College.
