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Entertainment
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
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