Rating: 7/10
Featuring: A. R. Rahman, Mohit Chauhan, Javed Ali. Harshdeep Kaur, Natalie Luccio ( a Canadian-Italian singer), Asad Khan (sitar) ,Vijay Prakash, Suresh Peters (sang some tamil songs), Neeti Mohan, Shweta Pandit, Ann Marie (violin), and Ranjit Barot (drums)
Nerul was very crowded that day, as would be expected. And the Autowallahs were having a great time, charging almost triple the fare for a ride, due to the large influx of people coming to Nerul from all over Mumbai.
The security was good in handling such a large crowd, but the management was not as great as I would expect. What I did not like was that the chairs we had to sit on were plastic chairs. The ticket had a seat number printed on it, but their was no number on the seats. It would have been a lot better if the chairs were heavier, so people would not lift them from the back rows and take them to the front, because that led to people re-arranging the whole seating arrangement, and the ensuing fight between the management and those people. I am talking about the Rs. 900/- section, in case you came to the concert too and aren't able to relate with me. Anyway, once the concert started, we would forget this tiny little disappointment.
The concert was to start at 6:30 pm, but started at 7:00 pm. I guess I should be thankful that it was only half an hour late, yet I wasn't very happy because it meant 30 minutes less of precious time listening to A. R. Rahman. It ended at dot 9:57 pm, instead of the 10 pm end time - that meant 3 more minutes (1 song) less than what could have been.
The concert was kicked off by Ranjit Barot on the drums, and Ann Marie on the violin. They were awesome!
Then came Rahman, starting off with his song from Rockstar - "Naadaan Parindey". Mohit Chauhan joined into the song. The audience was entranced.
The visuals and the animation teams had worked pretty hard. I still have impressions embedded in my memory of the flying bird visual displayed on the screens during 'naadan parindey ghar aa jaa', and of the dancing girl visual displayed during 'manmohini morey'. The lighting effects and the visuals people deserve a round of applause. Their hard work showed.
All the performances were very good. But, the best part was the sufi section where Rahman and his co-artists sang 'Khwaja', 'Kunfaya', and snatches from 'Arziyaan'.
I love the 'Lukka Chhuppi' song, but it was a little weird watching Rahman sing the duet with an on-screen vision of Lata Mangeshkar. Maybe, Rahman wanted to get across the message that no one can replace Lata Mangeshkar's singing in that song.
I loved the violin performance of Ann Marie too. At one point of time, she even plucked the violin strings as if she was playing an iktara. That was a new style of violin playing for my ears, and I liked it. I really seem to love the violin music more and more each passing day.
Yet, my overall concert experience did not stand up to my expectations. Maybe, my expectation level was too high, having never been to a large-scale concert before. I guess I will never even know whether my level of expectations was valid because I have decided to attend only intimate concerts (like The Corrs' MTV concert), if I ever attend one again.
The concert lacked a proper introduction to all the artists.
Maybe, that's only my personal opinion because according to me, the only proper way artists should be introduced is the way they are introduced in The Corrs' Geneva concert.
I knew only a few of the performers and was left wondering who the others were because I could not even hear their names in the introduction that was made (an almost inaudible introduction from where I was). I have tried to list out all the artists in the troupe by searching through google and going through notices/blog posts announcing the concert. I might still have missed out listing some of them above.
Of course, there were the credits, that were shown in the middle of the concert, baffling the audience on whether the concert was already over before time. As the word is going around, some people actually left the concert when the credits were played, thinking the concert was over (Poor souls) !!
My word of advice: Try to go to Intimate concerts, or get the front most place to view a concert.
Featuring: A. R. Rahman, Mohit Chauhan, Javed Ali. Harshdeep Kaur, Natalie Luccio ( a Canadian-Italian singer), Asad Khan (sitar) ,Vijay Prakash, Suresh Peters (sang some tamil songs), Neeti Mohan, Shweta Pandit, Ann Marie (violin), and Ranjit Barot (drums)
Nerul was very crowded that day, as would be expected. And the Autowallahs were having a great time, charging almost triple the fare for a ride, due to the large influx of people coming to Nerul from all over Mumbai.
The security was good in handling such a large crowd, but the management was not as great as I would expect. What I did not like was that the chairs we had to sit on were plastic chairs. The ticket had a seat number printed on it, but their was no number on the seats. It would have been a lot better if the chairs were heavier, so people would not lift them from the back rows and take them to the front, because that led to people re-arranging the whole seating arrangement, and the ensuing fight between the management and those people. I am talking about the Rs. 900/- section, in case you came to the concert too and aren't able to relate with me. Anyway, once the concert started, we would forget this tiny little disappointment.
The concert was to start at 6:30 pm, but started at 7:00 pm. I guess I should be thankful that it was only half an hour late, yet I wasn't very happy because it meant 30 minutes less of precious time listening to A. R. Rahman. It ended at dot 9:57 pm, instead of the 10 pm end time - that meant 3 more minutes (1 song) less than what could have been.
The concert was kicked off by Ranjit Barot on the drums, and Ann Marie on the violin. They were awesome!
Then came Rahman, starting off with his song from Rockstar - "Naadaan Parindey". Mohit Chauhan joined into the song. The audience was entranced.
The visuals and the animation teams had worked pretty hard. I still have impressions embedded in my memory of the flying bird visual displayed on the screens during 'naadan parindey ghar aa jaa', and of the dancing girl visual displayed during 'manmohini morey'. The lighting effects and the visuals people deserve a round of applause. Their hard work showed.
All the performances were very good. But, the best part was the sufi section where Rahman and his co-artists sang 'Khwaja', 'Kunfaya', and snatches from 'Arziyaan'.
I love the 'Lukka Chhuppi' song, but it was a little weird watching Rahman sing the duet with an on-screen vision of Lata Mangeshkar. Maybe, Rahman wanted to get across the message that no one can replace Lata Mangeshkar's singing in that song.
I loved the violin performance of Ann Marie too. At one point of time, she even plucked the violin strings as if she was playing an iktara. That was a new style of violin playing for my ears, and I liked it. I really seem to love the violin music more and more each passing day.
Yet, my overall concert experience did not stand up to my expectations. Maybe, my expectation level was too high, having never been to a large-scale concert before. I guess I will never even know whether my level of expectations was valid because I have decided to attend only intimate concerts (like The Corrs' MTV concert), if I ever attend one again.
The concert lacked a proper introduction to all the artists.
Maybe, that's only my personal opinion because according to me, the only proper way artists should be introduced is the way they are introduced in The Corrs' Geneva concert.
I knew only a few of the performers and was left wondering who the others were because I could not even hear their names in the introduction that was made (an almost inaudible introduction from where I was). I have tried to list out all the artists in the troupe by searching through google and going through notices/blog posts announcing the concert. I might still have missed out listing some of them above.
Of course, there were the credits, that were shown in the middle of the concert, baffling the audience on whether the concert was already over before time. As the word is going around, some people actually left the concert when the credits were played, thinking the concert was over (Poor souls) !!
My word of advice: Try to go to Intimate concerts, or get the front most place to view a concert.
