ARR in Bangalore - The New Dimension Tour - Oct 8, 2005

Hmmm... I just noted how long has it been since I published my last post. It would be eons in Blogsphere. Anyways, I just had to do it now. Lotsa news to share you see..

1. I became a Daddy on Sep 7th 2005. We named our daughter Gauri because she was born on Ganesh Chaturthi day. Moreover, I had decided the name of my child way back on Jan 26 2005. Coincidentally she was born on Ganesh Chaturthi. I am so happy, I cannot express the joy of being a Dad. It is just so wonderful to watch your own child doing all sorts of things, some which you take for granted like sneezing, yawning, coughing... seems so lovely when your child is doing those. You marvel at the creation that God has blessed you with.

2. ARR in concert @ Bangalore on Oct 8th 2005.

Oh, you should have seen the crowd and it rained like it had never rained before. The clouds opened up and sent forth such a volume of water that not one soul was left dry at the venue. The 3D props and the stage decor were ripped apart by the blowing wind. In between, a singer from Bangalore - Badri Prasad - sung a devotional song (prayer) to stop the rains. Instead the rains strengthened all the more! The crowds yelled at him to stop his lament!

We were worrying if the concert would be called off. We were not prepared to leave until our hero, ARR, showed up and sung atleast one song for us. He did briefly appear, amazed by the support that he was receiving from the crowd. His spiritual side was so evident that he claimed that the rain was blessing being sent down on us by the Almighty.. and that too in torrents. He promised that he will play for the audience and he needed one hour to start the show. Sure enough in an hour, the show started. 9PM as against 7PM as scheduled. 2 hours delay... and the rest is history!

You have to read a much more detailed blog from my friend Prabhu to get the entire story... song to song, event to event... I was able to take some videos and sound clips which would be available from Prabhu's blog. So, please check it out... and relive the "new dimension tour" as Blaaze always said... Man! He really rocks!! If there is a man of the match in cricket, so there can be a man of the evening in a concert. Shankar Mahadevan gets that award. Hands down! Sukhwinder, Kailash Kher, Hariharan - everyone was at their best. Chitra, Madhusree and Sadhana Sargam lent their sweet melliflous voices to make the evening even more wonderful. Chitra sang the "Kannalanae" or "Kehna Hi Kya" song from Bombay in Kannada. Translation provided thanks to P B Srinivas.

Some brief highlights of the concert, which I found very very memorable are:
1. ARR included "Aayo Re" from his unreleased album "Water" as a special for Bangalore.
2. ARR sung his UN song - very very touching.
3. There was a grand 11 minute solo by Sivamani. He rocked every single bone inside of us!
4. Shankar Mahadevan started singing the song "Ghanan Ghanan" from Lagaan. And he just finished the song, he announced in the same singing tune that the song was not over. And then he said - how would have ARR continued the song if in the movie the rains had actually begun. What followed then was just pure brilliance on exhibit - Shankar going into extensive and deep intertwining alaaps ably supported by Sivamani on drums and ARR on keyboards. That was brilliant!
5. Humma Humma - The most humourous event I would say. Shankar and ARR came on stage and said they would sing a song that was known to everybody and sing it differently. Can you believe it if they started singing Humma Humma in carnatic overtones... :-) and then later singing the actual version with Blaaze blazing away with his rap on the stage.
6. Bombay Theme Song played by ARR and his troupe. The flute piece by Navin was brilliant. One of the violinists actually stood up and played his parts of the melody. That was beautiful.
5. Finale was brilliant. Started with "Azaadi" from "Bose" movie and ended with his "Maa Tujhe Salaam" song from Vande Mataram. Like Megh Malhar sung by Tansen to invoke the rains, ARR's Vande Mataram brought down heavy downpour as if being called on cue! That was one of the most amazing moments in the concert.
More at Prabhu's... && Dont miss the posts at Magix's blog! They are a sure treat to read.

And ofcourse there was Durais (RadioCity FM91 Bangalore) to compere the show. And he was pretty good at it. Never overdoing it...