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ARR's Unity of Light World Concert Tour 2003

Topic started by Anon (@ 202.41.76.192) on Fri Jan 10 23:11:30 EST 2003.
All times in EST +10:30 for IST.

Will kick off at the Salt Lake Stadium in Kolkata on March 1st. Other Indian venues are Mumbai, Chennai and Hyderabad. International venues are Dubai, Toronto, Fairfax(In Virginia) and two other venues in the USA. Possible additions could be London, Singapore. Lata Mangeshkar will perform on the international leg of the tour.

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Responses:

• Old responses
  
• From: dj ron (@ 66.185.85.76) on: Thu Feb 27 17:05:44 EST 2003
  
  OKKK!! here we go... for those of who don't konw the diffrence between Radio quality and the Cd quality.. clik on the link beneath. Special thanx to shanas.tk for his Radio (telephone) quality of uthaya and thanx to http://www.geocities.com/suuseendiran/dj_ron/index.html for the cd quality.
  
  www.geocities.com/suuseendiran/dj_ron/RADIOvsCD.rm
  
  
• From: KARTHIK (@ 210.210.39.176) on: Fri Feb 28 02:33:30 EST 2003
  
  IT'S REALLY AN AMAZING SHOW , SUCKWINDER SING MADE IT UNBELIVABLE, FIRST SONG ORUVAN MUDALALI IS SO RIGHT THAT HE DOMINATED THE WHOLE SHOW
  CHEPAK OR SOME WERE IN OUTSKIRTS COULD HAVE HELPED IN AVOIDING T JAMS, SHOW STARTED ON THE DOT 7 APPRECIATABLE.
  
  
• From: Are Yaar (@ 203.115.31.67) on: Fri Feb 28 03:09:52 EST 2003
  
  Superb show of light and music
  
  
  
  
  
  
  The Unity of Light ... a show that lived up to the hype. - Pic. by Vino John.
  IT FINALLY happened. A. R. Rahman did perform live for a huge audience - nearly 30,000 in strength - as part of the Unity of Light world tour. And by and large, the show lived up to its hype. Like all live shows, there were glitches. But it hardly mattered at the end of a concert that tracked the career of a man who has captured millions of music-loving hearts with his unique sound. The concert was organised by the Mahesh Memorial Trust to raise funds for those afflicted with cancer, especially children. A pleasant surprise was the show began bang on time.
  
  These days it is considered perfectly normal to start an hour late. One could see Rahman testing his instruments by 7.10 p.m. And by 7.15 p.m., S. P. Balasubramanium took the stage with ``Oruvan Oruvan Muthalali," his popular number from ``Muthu," much to the delight of the Rajni fans in the audience. Of course, all this was not before a dramatic introduction to Rahman with a cascade of lights.
  
  Then each singer played his/her part to near perfection. S. Janaki, Chitra, Hariharan, Shankar Mahadevan, Srinivas, Sujatha, Sukhwinder Singh, Swarnalatha, Anupama, Minmini, Karthik (he's a talent to watch out for), Blasse and Rashid Ali, whose variation of ``Ooh La La La" (``Minsara Kanavu") lent that touch of world music to the evening. Rahman's rendition of ``Vande Mataram" both in Tamil and Hindi had the audience swaying. Young fans simply sang along, lost to the music. As for the repertoire, the expected numbers were there such as ``Chaiyya Chaiyya," ``Chandralekha" and the evergreen masterpiece of a composition, the theme song from ``Bombay."
  
  The selection of songs seemed to highlight the more recent works such as ``Kadhal Virus," ``Alai Payuthey," ``Baba," ``Bombay Dreams" (two tracks performed by Vasundhara Das and Sukhwinder/Rahman were stand-outs) and ``Kannathil Muthamittal."
  
  But some really melodious numbers from such films as ``En Swasa Kaatre" (an under-rated album), ``Rangeela" and ``Kandukondain Kandukondain" were missing. Wonder why!
  
  Technically, it was a superb show. The lights captured the mood of the moment, and the sound was excellent (except for the couple of minutes when it failed).
  
  As for the accompanying artistes, flautist Naveen's soulful playing made a big difference to the overall impact. Percussionist Sivamani was subdued, but provided the right rhythm.
  
  The string section led by Kalyan deserves special mention. But there was hardly any work for the brass section. Srinivas Murthy wielded the baton of conductor. On the whole, a great concert for a good cause!
  
  
  
  
  SAVITHA GAUTAM
  
  http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/fr/stories/2003022800950300.htm
  
  dj ron:
  
  Yesterday, I downloaded one or two songs...but was able to do into half of it. The anglefile.com site did not work it seems...but what ever I downloaded I heard it in my home..wow man...it was fabulous in sound...
  
  Who ever is the one who posted the radio quality...kindly don't do such things again...first impression is the best impression...those who have heard that version would have felt pain in their heart.
  
  I have now dowmloaded all the songs fromn your site...Hope they are good.
  
  The file size of Thiru' rani song is over 7 MB.
  
  
  
  
• From: GOODY (@ 212.138.47.12) on: Mon Mar 3 08:21:55 EST 2003
  
  EVENDA AVAN,,,ARR AI THAPPA PESURATHU...
  
  
• From: GOODY (@ 212.138.47.27) on: Mon Mar 3 08:23:00 EST 2003
  
  DON'T WRONG SAY ABOUT ARR
  
  
• From: Are Yaar (@ 203.115.31.67) on: Tue Mar 4 02:12:35 EST 2003
  
  Music maestro A. R Rahman's first live show in Mumbai on Friday night
  turned out to be quite a memorable event as Rahman and his protégés
  enthralled Mumbaikars with melodies from popular films. The event was
  held in aid of Smita Thackeray's Mukti Foundation. Rehman and other
  singers like Yesudas, Mahalaxmi, Rashi Ali, Udit Narayan, Sukhwinder,
  Sonu Nigam, Sadhana Sargam and a host of other singers regaled the
  audiences with Rahman's hit scores from films like `Roja', `Dil
  Se', `Sapnay', etc. Javed Jaffri in his inimitable style hosted the
  show. Stars like Fardeen Khan, Kareena Kapoor, Govinda and even
  director Farhan Akhtar and others enhanced the evening as they
  individually expressed their opinion on safe sex, and the acceptance
  of Aids infected children in the society. Due to time constraints,
  the show, much to the disappointment of the huge audience, had to be
  wrapped up before Rahman could complete his bagful of melodies. And
  he decided to end it with his `Vande Mataram'.
  
  http://filmfare.indiatimes.com/cms.dll/xml/uncomp/articleshow?
  artid=39052402
  
  
  
  
• From: Are Yaar (@ 203.115.31.67) on: Tue Mar 4 02:16:23 EST 2003
  
  Mumbai Concert- a big disappointment
  -------------------------------------
  By Swapnil Mistry ....
  
  
  
  Lights....camera....Action!!!
  
  The Action could not sustain for long though!
  
  What a low-key concert! I didnt expect this kinda response from this city. Mumbai has become worse. Mukti Foundation (Smita Thackerey) should be blamed for not publicising enough. It was only Mid-Day that carried small ads. No T.V. ads, no banners or hoardings. It was surprising. To add it all, it was the 10.00 pm deadline which is almost like killing the essence of such concerts. Even pure Classical concerts have to be put off by 10 pm. Though Ganesh Utsav & Navratri go on till 11.30. Thats ridiculous!!!
  
  May be thats the fate of Mumbaikars. First of all, the Mumbai concert was not sure of happening. We kept waiting till 15th Feb and then suddenly the ads appeared in papers abt the concert on 28th Feb. The publicity sucks! I think this was the biggest concert in recent years....ARR doesnt perform everyday!!! Mumbai is considered to be the heart of Film Industry...this is where it all begins...but I have discovered that this is where it all ends..that too very abruptly!
  
  Coming to the concert, the management was messy. We (Rakesh, Niyant, Ravikiran, Karthik) were in the queue since 5 pm. The security was still figuring out abt the entry of the audience. The gates opened at sharp 6 pm. We were the first ones in the queue. As soon as the gates opened we rushed to claim our seats. To our surprise, the Rs.1000 ticket seats were miles behind. We cud hardly see the stage. We took our seats and were waiting for the show to start. There were screen though. Till 7.15, the stadium was half empty. We were shocked. But then, this is Mumbai...the traffic & the roads are never predictable. At 7.20, the lights went on and there was the host, Jaaved Jaffery (Thank God, he's the best one to host such shows). He welcomed everybody and then called upon Smita Thackerey & mitabh Bachchan to light the lamp (it was so windy that it took 10 mins to light it...time waste!!!). Then, they showed an audio-visual of Mukti Foundation (boasting abt how great they are). The concert was abt AIDS Awareness (a good cause...but too much of hammering on the subject). The video was too long. The audience was patient-enough. Till then the empty seats started filling in. It was 7.35 then.
  
  Jaaved came in and started his regular countdown. 10-9-8-7.....2-1- A R RAHMAN. The stage was raining Fireworks. They were playing this heavy symphony (May be the Unity of Light theme) and suddenly we cud see ARR in his position on the keyboards. SPB took centre stage to start "Oruvan oruvan". This song was the perfect start. SPB was as usual. The sound & lighting were amazing. He sang only 1 antra & the song merged into "Bombay Dreams". (I cudnt recognise the singer). They just sang the first 4 lines. Then ARR picked up the mike to say "Hi Mumbai" and then he went on to sing "Salaam Bombay". I think the songs of B'bay Dreams were not at all famous. Nobody cheered or even applauded.
  
  Then it was the turn of Sonu Nigam to sing "Saathiya". The crowd went crazy the moment he started singing "Saathiya ahaa...". The song was great...though Sonu goofed up in the 1st antra. But he sang it with his heart.
  
  Jaaved introduced Alka Yagnik & Sukhwinder Singh to start "Ramta Jogi" from Taal. Both the singers had no clue from where to start their lines. The track was going on & the lines were all jumbled up. This was the major mistake done by all singers including ARR. Only SPB & Sadhana were perfect.
  
  Suddenly, there was a pause and out of nowhere, a song started... The moment the beats came in, the public went ga-ga..."O humdum suniyo re" from Saathiya. Kunal, Karthik, Shankar & Blaaze (proudly from our grp) rendered this amazing song. No mistakes. I must confess that Blaaze is really talented. He composed the rap himself. It was on Mumbai. He was flawless.
  
  Then, it was the turn of Udit Narayan. Jaaved, in his own humourous stlye, introduced all the singers. Mahalaxmi shared the stage to sing,"Paakhi paakhi pardesi...". The duff was great. Udit just punching in "Ae ajnabi..." from Dil se. He did a good job. Mahalaxmi seemed a bit inconfident though.
  
  Sadhana Sargam took centre stage along with Murtuza & Qadir to render "Chupke se" from Saathiya. We kept waiting for atleast one line in Tamil..."Snegidhane..." but alas! Never mind...the song was just perfect. Sadhana poured her heart into it.
  
  SPB arrived on the satge alon with Mahalaxmi to sing the evergreen "Roja janeman...". Mahalaxmi started the alaap but her voice was shivering. She cud not reach the notes. She managed to get there...but it was too late. SPB sang the whole song superbly. We cud easily make out...the track was being played. Only SPB was singing live. Even in the interludes, Mahalxmi was just doing lip-sync. We cud hear Sujatha's voice.."La la lala....". The audience creaved for more. Another great composition.
  
  The Base guitar started strumming with live claps. Alka came in..."Mehndi hai rachnewali". The song was totally live. There was no punch. The rhythm (tabla, dholak) was very weak. The sound was rebouncing. Alka just sang the mukhda. I dunno why they did like this to such a beautiful song. The chorus was not heard. May be bcoz this was the first time Alka was singing for a live concert with ARR.
  
  Alka stayed there to render "Taal se taal" with Udit joining her later. This was also done on tracks. The ryhthms ending abruptly while Alka was still singing. But the overall song was great to hear. Both the singers were splendid.
  
  The next song had this immensely talented singer. As soon as Jaaved took his name, the audience started applauding and gave him a warm welcome. He was none other that Hariharan, with his small pony! He did a classical improvisation of "Chanda re", later coming to the original song. He was too good. There was a live dance on it. The choreography was excellent. On the screen behing the stage, there was a picture of a moon and shining stars. It was wonderful. Sadhana did her part with justice.
  
  Soon, Naveen (the flautist) took centre stage and played beautiful tunes. He was so competent that the sound was actually echoing in the whole stadium. We guessed the song...Radha kaise na jale" from Lagaan. The dancers clad in typical Gujarati costumes entered with Sadhana & Udit. For a moment, we thought it was Ashaji singing. That was the perfection! Sadhana was just right on the expressions & diction. The last part (where Vaishali sings the fast taans) was done live by Sadhana. Oh God...she stole the show! The audience cudnt stop clapping. Everyone exclaimed "Wah wah..."! After the song ended, Udit also congratulated Sadhana for rendering such a perfect song.
  
  The audience had no clue what was gonna happen next...when Rashid Ali (with his spanish guitar) took the spot light. He started singing Jazz. He was just amazing...what control! The way he played the guitar and filled in his vocals was out of this world. He poured in a lot of sensuousness. The song merged into "Ooh lala la..." from Sapnay. But was totally different.
  
  Sonu came in and started an alaap in Raga Yaman. He was so perfect in his notes. It was only his voice & ARR's magical chords. The song turned out to be "Ishq bina". It was a slower version with only cymbals & base guitar in the background, It was nostalgic! "Kahin aag lage" from the same film was sung by Mahalaxmi. This time she was good.
  
  ARR held the mike..."Mubaraka...." with Sukhwinder. ARR was a bit shaky in the beginning..but Sukhwinder managed to adjust. The wedding qawwali from B'bay Dreams..."Sona sona". Its still better to hear the original.
  
  Then a hoard of people came in with bats & ba lls in their hands and started playing cricket. It was the World Cup fever and what a song to sing.."Mitwa" from Lagaan. The singers & dancers passed on their good wishes to the Indian team for the biggest match to be held on saturday between India & Pakistan. I still cudnt figure out why Sadhana sang the song when Alka was there. May be she must not have rehersed the song. She did well...better than Alka!
  
  Jaaved said that the next song was one of Rahman's earlier Hit songs and that the Mumbai audience loved it. It was "Muqabala" by Shankar & Mahalaxmi. BUt they sang only the mukhda. Suddenly, there was a chaos on the stage. Dancers were runnung from one end to another. Was this deliberate? Yes...Blaaze came with force to sing the "Baba rap". This was just great. Then Sivamani, Christy (elec.guitar) & Rashid Ali did an impromptu Jugalbandi. The audience was spell-bound. One of the highlights if the show.
  
  There was a small break...it was time to do some formalities. Smita Thackerey took time to come on stage (when there was shortage of time). She came with 3 children who were HIV +ve. She felicitated ARR by giving him a shawl & a bouquet. She wasted a great deal of time & then she said that the show wud end by 10.00 pm becoz of the deadline. They had wasted time like hell. I duuno why she invited so many filmstars (Kareena Kapoor, Fardeen Khan, Govinda, Dino Morrea, Akshaye Khanna, etc.) to speak on AIDS. The topic was stretched like gum. When she gave the mike to ARR to speak, he said, "Dont woory I m not gonna speak on AIDS". Hehehe...that was well-said. He sure speaks less, but to the point! He was very upset when he said that they had to do 20 more songs but becoz of time-limit, only 3 more songs cud be done. It wud have been better if he'd not said that. We were so disappointed! Its so crazy...such a legend performing and you restrict him due to time restrictions.
  
  Not wasting more time...ARR shared the stage with Qadir & Murtuza to sing "Piya Haji Ali" from Fiza. Another great song. We had seen ARR rehersing this song till 3.00 am the last night with the singers. He put in so much effort..he almost gave notations of the song to the singers & musicians without hesitation. Thats the passion & dedication he has! A true genius.
  
  The show cud not be complete without "Chhaiya chhaiya". So Sukhwinder along with one of the harmony singers (I think it was Rehana or Ishrath, ARR's sister). She was too loud. Sukhwinder added his own version, as usual. ARR had to end the show by "Vande Mataram". The grand finale. The audience stood up, mostly dissatisfied, craving for more. The song shaped up well when all the singers joined him for "Jana Gana Mana". The show ended at 10.15 pm. What a disgrace!
  
  I specially felt bad for Vasundhara, who was there all night for the rehersals, dancing & singing, "Shakalaka Baby" & "O ri chhori". She didnt get a chance to perform. That was so sad. Surely the public wudnt have known that she was gonna sing. It was only us who knew how hard she'd work the last night.
  
  We all were disappointed...but there was this feeling of satisfaction as we had seen the rehersals from the front row & even from the stage till 3.00 am. Paisa vasool! Barring the time-limit, no Tamil songs & some managerial ailments, the show was splendid, as was expected. Definitely, Rahman will think 10 times more if he has to perform in Mumbai next time.
  
  Somethings are beyond our control, time being one of them...but surely we've had the best time seeing this great Man sing & perform with such dedication.
  
  God Bless Him....
  ---Swaps
  
  
  
  
  
• From: ANKIT GULIANI (@ ) on: Sat Mar 22 09:38:54 EST 2003
  
  I WANT JUST A AIRTEL TUNE FROM MR.A.REHMAN
  
  

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