Y: Yes Boss

No, I agree. That was a lousy movie. But this song on the other hand is a very nice one.
I love how he wants so many things but then says "Bas itna sa khwab hai!" Greedy much?!

In concert: Shaan se!

Yay!! This is my 50^th post. I know it comes a little late but what the hell, it is still a milestone.

Would you believe if I told you that I was at a concert in which the star of the show was right on time but the audience wasn’t? What if I told you that he was there on stage the moment the lights went out and stayed on stage until it was over! Well! You just had to be there to believe me.

After my experience with the last couple of concerts, which not only started late but also started with extra un-needed fillers, I was expecting a similar story at this one too. But there he was, right on time at 8 sharp as soon as the lights were dimmed. It’s a pity that the audiences kept trickling until 8:30 or so. (I’m sorry but I’m I am a stickler for time. And I really respect people who respect time. )

There he was, Shaan in person, dressed in all black. I’ve loved him since his ‘Love-ology’ and ‘Tanha Dil’ days. I was in awe for the first few minutes. Once he started singing, I had to restrain myself from jumping up and down, clapping my hands in glee .He was all I expected him to be and more. I just kept grinning ear to ear throughout the concert.

Starting the evening with “Behti hava sa tha woh” and introducing Kishore Kumar/Kishore da, whose memories the concert was to relive. And after that he wondered out loud, “ I was told it is a full house, but I see so many empty seats” adding, “ Well, its an Indian show, we have to prove a point here!”

This time the concert was at the esplanade theatre and the acoustics were really great. I wish more concerts were held here instead of the suntec convention centre or elsewhere.

Throughout the concert, you could see people enjoying themselves. People absent-mindedly bobbing their heads to the beat, doing subtle head banging moves, tapping their feet and clapping their hands in glee. You could see that everyone was really happy.

I know it would sound absurd to many if I told you he sounded so much like Kishore in some songs but I must say he came very close. I can’t think of any other voice that would do so much justice to Kishore’s songs. Shaan executed each song to perfection.

He did quite a few Kishore numbers followed by some medleys. He sang most of the favorites: Yeh dil na hota bechara, pal pal dil ke paas, O meri hansini, Tum bin. He classified them based on the actors Kishore sang for, starting from Dev Anand, Rajesh Khanna, Shashi Kapoor, and ending with Sanjay Dutt and Rishi Kapoor. It was an excellent mix of songs. Yeah, I know you can’t probably go wrong with any of Kishore Kumar’s songs but it must have been one hell of a job to pick just a few from them. As he sang the songs, he tried to mimic the actors and their mannerisms of the actors in question, which was fun to watch.

There was a female singer June-something, I think. She did the duets with Shaan and did a decent job of it although I’m happy that he did most of the singing. I went there to listen to him.

People who were hoping he’d sing his own songs too were not disappointed. He did a great “Main hoon don” and my favourite “Tanha dil” too, in addition to quite a few of the popular ones in the last hour.

When someone asked him to sing a Bengali song, he said “Arrey, tab to marathi gaana bhi gaana padega”. But sweet that he was, he sang a couple of lines in Bangla.

He kept forgetting his lyrics when he dropped some lyric-sheets during a song and sang adding his own words, which he admitted to doing and apologized profusely. I thought that was very endearing. He is one of the most down-to-earth singers that I’ve seen.

His message to the public was to quit smoking and chewing tobacco and apparently it is a message he gives at all his shows. He gave his message right before he sang “Khaike paan banaras wala”!

He was one of the nicest “stars” I’ve seen so far. He was extremely nice and he was one with the crowd, understanding just how to keep them happy. He sang most of the songs people asked for and even when he didn’t have the time, he sang at least a couple of lines when someone asked for a song.

It was one of the most memorable concerts for me. I loved him before but now I’m bowled over.  Shaan, I just became an even bigger fan of yours. Thanks for the great show!!

Simply Raahat

This post is long overdue. I went to this concert over a month ago and this half-written post has been in my drafts folder for too long. About time I posted it!

I’ve been a long-standing fan of Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan and I’ll always regret that I never got to see him perform live. I’ve also liked the songs sung by Raahat Fateh Ali Khan and he does seem to have a style of his own. So when R called me to ask if I wanted to go to this concert by Raahat Fateh Ali Khan, I was quite eager to go. After waiting eagerly for so long, D-day finally arrived.

One major grouse I have with these concerts is that they never seem to start on time. So far, only the Manna Dey concert started on time; all other concerts I’ve been to, started late. So it wasn’t a surprise that this one too started about 30-45 minutes late. But the good thing was there were no opening sequences or singers.  Raahat came on stage almost as soon as his musicians did and introduced themselves.

I don’t need to tell you that Raahat is indeed a very good singer but one thing I can tell you is that a performer, he is not. He did not seem to interact with the audience. Though it was quite obvious from the audience’s reactions as to what kind of music they preferred (bollywood), he refused to take the hint. Though I enjoy both bollywood and sufi music too, the overall audience obviously didn’t. He kept coaxing the audience to cheer for him but even when they didn’t, he refused to take the hint.

His team of musicians was obviously for qawwali music. The musicians didn’t really do justice to his singing. I thought they were out of sync a few times and the music wasn’t that great either. Even the acoustics of the hall and the sound organized by the organizers was bad.

But there is not a seed of doubt that the man himself is very talented. His voice was magic. His singing has a quality that I’m sure cannot be achieved without years of practice. Raahat sang some beautiful songs of his own like the bollywood numbers ‘Dil to bachcha hai ji’, ‘Teri ore’, ‘Surili akhiyon wale’, ‘Aaj din chadeya’ and many others. There was also some sufi music with like ‘Mera piya ghar aaya’, ‘Allah hu allah hu’. He also sang Nusrat’s ‘Afreen afreen’. He sang it well but I still like Nusrat better.

Over all, it was a decent concert. Not so paisa vasool.

Face the music

I doubt that you would want to but if you ever want to stop liking your favorite song, I have a solution.

Just make that song your daily wake up alarm tone.

And I learnt this the hard way.

I used to love the song “ Beautiful Day “ by U2.

Now every time I hear the song playing, I have the strongest urge to make it stop. 

E-Manna-ting Radiance

So, we were arguing on whether to go to the concert or not, because the tickets were priced quite high. “But, it’s Manna Dey!!, It’s definitely going to be worth it”  I told R. After much debate about the costs of the concert, we finally decided to go and booked tickets a week before the show. “ Manna Dey-In the flesh”, the concert was called. Though I have been a fan of his singing for a long time, I wasn’t sure what to expect from this concert. I was crossing my fingers, hoping to hear him sing for at least half the time of the concert without too many ‘fillers’ as is the trend today.

All excited, we were at our seats by 7:15, though the show was supposed to start only by 7:30. Though the curtains were drawn, we could hear notes of instruments being tuned and a voice I guessed was Manna’s. It was a pleasant surprise at 7:30 that even though half the seats were still empty, from behind the curtains, Manna Dey’s voice said, “ I promised I’ll be here at 7:30, I am here. Are you there??”

And there he was, the legend himself, sitting at an old harmonium and all set to start. No one to give long speeches (read irritate),no nonsense MC, no gimmick, he was all set to start the show. But as the organizers would have it, they wanted to do a short interview with him before he started singing. Though he expressed displeasure at not being allowed to start with the music, he agreed to answer a few questions. After the Q&A session, he started the music with “Ae malik tere bande hum” along with another lady with a decent voice by his side. She accompanied him for the duets. 

And then started the saga of the 3-hour musical fest that was. With each song, he remembered the music director, the composer and the lyricist, which I thought was a herculean effort. And he mentioned a few anecdotes with each one of the songs. It was like adding a personal touch to each one of his songs.

The musicians who came with him were all one of a kind. You could see that they had been with him for a long time, as they knew exactly what he expected of them. One person played the tabla, another the dhol, one on the piano and one on the bass guitar. But the most interesting of them all was this old man who had like a magic box of odd things, with which he added beats at different times in different songs. He had this set of ghungroo (musical anklets) and then so many other things that I can’t really name. He made these beats that were so much a part of the old hindi film songs that made each song so unique. And the best part was this 85 year old MC who had a very  “shayarana mizaj” and kept reciting sher after sher and made fun of all the things that he could set his eyes on and mostly himself, and left the audience in squeals of laughter. Listening to the music however was once-in-a-lifetime experience for me atleast.  Few of the songs he sung were, ‘Kaun aaya mere man ke dwaare’,  ‘Tu chupi hai kahan, main tadapta yahan’, ‘Yeh raat bheegi bheegi’, ‘Laga chunri me daag’, ‘Ae meri zohre jabeen’ and 'dil ki girah kholdo', among many others. And every one of them, he made sure he sang the complete song.

When asked what he thought were his favorites, he mentioned “Kasme Wade pyar wafa” and “Ae mere pyare watan”, which are my favorites too. My only complaint from this concert was that he didn’t sing these songs. I was anticipating that he would definitely sing them but he didn’t. And they ended the whole thing so abruptly, that there was no time to even request the songs. The audience gave him a standing ovation in the end and applauded for a good five minutes, which no doubt he truly deserved.

This man was so old he had trouble standing by himself after a while. But he sang with this soulful melodious voice, which didn’t show any signs of aging at all. I consider it my honor to have witnessed his singing. It will be one memory that I will cherish for the rest of my life.

Buying music CDs: $

Tickets to a concert: $$

Witnessing a 90-yr old legend sing in-person: Priceless

Celebrating Independence Day in a foreign land

Found myself at the Indian High Commission on an early Sunday morning to celebrate the Independence Day. After getting out of school, August 15 meant little more than an annual holiday. Now being in a foreign land, I was compelled to be there at the Indian embassy to celebrate the day. May be I was compelled by a sense of duty to be there when the Tricolor was being unfurled. May be it was a need to justify to my country that I’m not a foreigner, to tell her that I still love you even though I am not with you right now. I don’t know what it was, but I am glad that I was there.

At the celebration, a bunch of school kids were performing to this song and then as is the way with things, they go wrong and all of a sudden, the music just stopped. The poor kids were in a fix, not knowing what to do. Then, something happened. There was this chorus from the audience, singing the song so melodiously and so in sync that it sounded like a practiced performance. The kids then continued to dance as the chorus sang on till they set the audio right.

Had a depressing discussion with a friend about what India doesn’t have and what we have that we should be really proud of. Of course, we argued on a few things but what we agreed upon without a doubt was Indian music and how music binds us all together, in one way or another. I think it’s in our blood.

In the evening, I went to this concert by Shreya Ghoshal. She’s a popular playback singer who made it big recently. She sang quite a few popular hindi numbers and then sang a Bengali song. Though probably 80% of the audience didn’t understand Bengali, they still enjoyed the music, applauded and encouraged her through the song. This can happen only in India, the acceptance to other languages and cultures. We enjoy music in any form, language no bar. Music does bind us all together.

And in the end, when she suddenly burst into the national anthem, the response of the audience was almost synchronized; every single person rose without a moment’s hesitation and sang along. I know it is what we are supposed to do but it was a feeling I cannot begin to describe. For a moment, it was as if we all knew each other. It was a sense of pride, a sense of belonging.