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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: bam (@ 219.65.109.174) on: Sat Feb 15 13:25:09 EST 2003
  
  u'r taste suksssss smells.. arrrrgh!!
  
  
• From: magix (@ 219.65.109.139) on: Sat Feb 15 20:45:33 EST 2003
  
  How many of u ppl from Chennai are goin to the show?
  Forget my exams.. I'm in!!!! :)
  
  
• From: Are Yaar (@ 203.115.31.67) on: Sun Feb 16 01:34:42 EST 2003
  
  Rahman strings magic notes
  
  Hyderabad, Feb. 15: Sequins, huge props, beautiful girls in body-hugging outfits dancing to the pulsating music of A R Rahman and the moonlit sky. Indeed an intoxicating mix that set the mood for the Valentine's Day. Something that Lata Mangeshkar too acknowledged in all modesty, "This is probably the biggest show I had ever sung in my entire career, and I'm thankful to A R Rahman for it."
  
  Dressed in black with his locks covering most of his face, which has now become his trademark, A R Rahman started off the The Unity of Light concert with, "Hyderabad, Hyderabad, don't worry Hyderabad" sung to the tune of Mustafa, Mustafa.
  
  Soon, S P Balasubramanyam stepped on the stage to render the popular number from Rajnikant's Muthu. The melodious number was followed by a peppy number Ramta Jogi from Vasundhara Das, looking hot in a red and blue ensemble.
  
  Matching her versatility was Sonu Nigam, sporting a new cropped hairstyle, who sang a number from Saathiya. The string of solos finally gave way to duets when Mahalakshmi and Udit Narayan came up with Ae Ajnabi Tu Bhi Kabhi from Dil Se.
  
  And the musical sojourn continued with the Telugu-Hindi medley Snehituda Snehituda, rendered beautifully by Sadhna Sargam and G Srinivas.
  
  Even as the audience began to get impatient shouting for Lata Mangeshkar, came the perfectly choreographed Satrangee Re... number, sung by Sonu Nigam.
  
  Finally, giving in to public demand, and quite in contrast to the earlier singers, in came Lata Mangeshkar, as usual clad in a white saree. The formalities of felicitation by the Governor and Home Minister done, Lata went on to render her first song of the evening, a bhajan - So gaya hai, kho gaye hai - in tribute to the late Kalpana Chawla.
  
  Once again, it was time for some fast-track music from films such as Thiruda Thiruda, Rangeela, Prema Desam, Merupu Kalalu, Dil Se, Lagaan by Udit Narayan, Hariharan, Sukhwinder and the likes.
  
  A R Rahman later confessed, "When I told my mom I was going to Hyderabad, she told me that I should only play peppy numbers here. But you have been a good audience and thank you all for that."
  
  However, the crowd had their perfect ending when the best of Rahman's foot-tapping numbers Chaiyya Chaiyya and Shaka laka Baby were rendered by Sukhwinder and Vasundhara Das at the end. The grand finale was by the maestro himself, who belted out a soulful Vande Mataram.
  
  And adding local glamour at the GMC Stadium were Aarti Agarwal, Azharuddin and wife Sangeeta Bijlani, R P Patnaik, Jayant and Archana Paranje, apart from many local singers and socialites.
  
  Deccan Chronicle
  
  
  
  
  
• From: Are Yaar (@ 203.115.31.67) on: Sun Feb 16 01:37:19 EST 2003
  
  Another first hand review for some one who attended the program live and was actually near the stage all thru
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  Hi all,
  
  Read thru ****'s impressive review of the concert, ; i wasn't keeping track of the song names or the order, rather, I was busy trying not to get TOO star-struck. You see, throughout the concert, I was right beside the stage. There was a partition between even the VVIP seats and the stage ( it was removed once when the governor came in to felicitate ARR and Lata), and i was within that cordon, along with the rest of the artistes. Was there without a pass, of course, but what I found is that, if SOMEHOW u manage to get backstage, nobody gives u a second glance; you become part of the team. well, kindof! :-)
  
  Oruvan Oruvan began in the same way it was practised, a techno-synth drone followed by a symphonic overture, and then suddenly SPB's voice starts up....as arun said, the song was in telugu. Inside info: the first "he-he-he-he" ( SPB's voice in the song was a recorded one, probably to make it easier for him to start the song.....the ending directly fuses from the orchestral of the Oruvan Oruvan to the title track of BD. It was sung by a new singer named George, who also plays the guitar, and is part of the harmony. The full song wasnt sung, though.
  
  Guys, I gotta tell you that I found Rashid's guitar and stage presence amazing. I think it's a measure of our man's genius that he manages to find MAJOR talents and use them properly. Right now i dont think Rahman needs a John Themis or a Dominic Miller to play guitar. There was this all-out jam piece what ARR said "Me and Rashid did together", which started off with an exquisite acoustic guitar solo by rashid ( a lot of jazz and flamenco influences), with Rashid scatting for sometime, and slowly merging into Ooh-La-La-La....the kind of spontaneous playing this was - i could just stare open-mouthed! Sivamani wore this armour kind of thing which he struck with a brush, basically used it as a percussion instrument, with which he jammed with Veda and Neelakantan...Rashid then followed the percussiion phrases with guitar chords, and all the while the harmony section were clapping and chanting "ooh la la la". guys, i hope this one, or something better, is there in Chennai too, you gotta hear it to believe it. Rashid, man, you ROCK! (Hehehe, earlier in the day, me and Rashid were discussing the weather in Hyderabad....everybody was finding the weather a lot extreme, it was hot in the day and cold in the night, and i said it gets even worse after two months )
  
  George, Srinivas and Kartik sung O Humdum, with BlaaZe singing a rap piece, that was completely Hyderabad-centric.
  
  Sukhwindara was introduced as the "Ramta Jogi" by Vasundhara, and the man really was mindblowing. Initially i couldnt recognise him at all, and when i did, i realised he had been standing next to me for about 2-3 minutes before going on stage. :-) vasundhara did alka's part, not too badly, and not too well wither. I think she was saving her voice for the rest of the songs.
  
  Ae Ajnabi - .Udit flubbed some timings, all the interludes of Ae ajnabi start with a characteristic beat, udit began it too early, and he was singing it too slowly....Mahalakshmi was in form, she added some flourishes of her own, in the second interlude of the originalsong, there is this time-gap between the time she sings "Paakhi Paakhi", here she sang just as udit was finishing, nice effect it created.
  
  Hariharan, Sadhna Sargam was flawless. Nuff said. She sang the last line of Chupke Se in Telugu.
  
  guys, this mail might be getting too long, i will split these up into parts and mail them one after the other.
  
  Lata Mangeshkar sounded better than she did on the last day. but the harmonium was still there. Info: the song she started Khamoshiyan Gungunane Lagi with was "Babul Mora" from the KL Saigal film "Street Singer", her first duet with Saigal. It's the same raaga as Khamoshiyan Gungunane lagi, i think, cos the two songs really flowed into one another. there were some problems with the timing here too....she sang one line too late, but things got better. Even Jiya Jale didnt sound so impressive.....
  
  Naveen, on the flute was pulling out all the stops. His variations were awesome, guys! The intro of Kurukku, Radha Kaise Na Jale.....but really, the practice session had been better, cos he was REALLY improvising in the middle of every song. Here, too, he did that, but it was slightly more carefull improvisation. :-D
  
  Another Jam piece was the Rukmani-Muqabla-Baba-rap theme. I think George was the guy playing the Rock guitar in the Baba theme, and i didnt recognise who it was who played the Saxophone for Rukmani....couldnt have been Kadri Gopalnath, for sure....the Muqabla number suited vasundhara's voice well, but Kartik was somewhat lacking. The Baba rap was done by BlaaZe.
  
  ARR's voice was a little low on the first part of Wedding Qawwali, but the problem was rectified later. There was some kind of an explosion towards the climax of the song, we wondered if it was a technical problem, but ok, they kept singing. So must have been part of the show.
  
  Comment: a lot of stuff throughout the show was prerecorded. Shakalaka Baby, Dil Se Re, Vande Mataram...Basically some instruments like the Mohan Veena on Radha Kaise Na Jale, or the Veena on Khamoshiyan were not there at all, and yet they were playing.....the drums, and the flute were the only things that seemed to be constantly inprovised on. Even Rashid's guitar, he would give a few phrases every now and then out of the blue.....and AR himself would add different chord progressions to most of the songs.
  
  Poornima who sang Anjali Anjali is the same Poornima who is there in the harmony section of most ARR films.
  
  remember the piano from "Ek Tu Hi Bharosa?" ARR doesnt play that.....his other keyboardist( i dunno his name ) does, and ARR himself harmonises ( again on the piano) In the final "Meri Pukaar Sun Le"lines , the backing orchestral arrangements were changed; ARR adds his voice and sings "Mera Pukaar Sun Le Rabba" or something like that....
  
  ARR flubbed some lines in Dil Se Re...he murmured them through, though, and there were no beat-problems as such, i guess he's to experienced for that to happen. Udit Narayan changed some of his lines in O Paalanhare....i think that was done on purpose cos he was lookiing at a paper while singing.
  
  One interesting thing was seeing Srinivasa Murthy enjoying himslef, he was conducting the orchestra during "O Humdum" and i could see him singing (or mouthing) "Dheem dheem tanana"while conducting.
  
  The dancers at the back of the stage were really awesome, they were VERY well-coordinated, and as soon as a song would end, they would come running and change clothes, and get set for the next song.
  
  That's my "review" of sorts of the concert.
  
  
  
• From: av (@ 132.206.72.96) on: Sun Feb 16 11:43:38 EST 2003
  
  ------------------------------------------------
  Lata Mangeshkar................................. harmonium was still there. Info: the song she started Khamoshiyan Gungunane Lagi with was "Babul Mora" from the KL Saigal film "Street Singer", her first duet with Saigal. It's the same raaga as Khamoshiyan Gungunane lagi, i think, cos the two songs really flowed into one another.
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  Are Yaar:
  
  Yes, "Khamoshiyaan gungunaane lageen" and "baabul mora naihar chhuto jaaye" are based on the same raaga, i.e. Hindustani Bhairavi. "baabhul moraa" is a standard "bandish" and has been sung by several greats like K L saigal, Kishori Amonkar and Jagjit Singh. Kishori's version is quite mesmerising. However, AFAIK, Lata hasnt sung the song "baabhul moraa" with K L Saigal in "Street Singer". It is a solo by KLS. She however sings it on stage quite often as a tribute to the master, whom she considers her guru. Jiya Jale is also based on Bhairavi. According to ARR, the alaaps in the end were conceived by Lata spontaneously during the recording.
  
  Thanks for those interesting reviews. ARR as usual proves his ability to enthrall millions with quality music! I am sure his tour will be a grand success all over the world!
  
  
• From: av (@ 132.206.72.96) on: Sun Feb 16 11:48:01 EST 2003
  
  Despite Lata's age having taken a huge toll on her voice, I will add that only she could have done justice to ARRs song in Pukar "ek tu hi bharosa", sung with the kids (and picturised on herself alongwith the kids!). The way she pronounced the words "bharosa" and "sahaara" are trademark LM. LM is THE singer who pours beauty and divinity into the simplest of songs, and I am talking of her present voice, which is not even a pale shadow of her voice from the 40s till the mid 80s. I would have no words to describe her singing of the yesteryears!
  
  And yes, I salute ARR for tapping the good points in Lata's voice even today. Only he can do that!
  
  

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