Unlike Jamal Malik, Sid and I never found our third musketeer. But that didn't stop us from having the most incredible evening of our lives. When we were rushing places from nine in the morning, little did we realize that we would reach the concert venue with five hours to spare. That guaranteed one thing though-first row seats in our ticket section\m/
I looked around as we comforted ourselves on our prize seats. Tired of standing and yelling all afternoon the crowd was quiet, the sun was down and the stage was set (literally). It was an abnormal silence - not one of anticipation or awkwardness, or of tiredness or eagerness, not of grief or guilt or embarrasment or amusment. It was a silence I had never sensed before. People knew their expectations and were so sure of what was going to happen in the next few hours that they sat silently wondering why?
This dry stillness was soon broken as a smoke filled stage presented itself in dazzling lights while on a slowly rising platform was a man singing Jaage hai der tak..(Guru). 20,000 dumbfounded people sat in awe as this spectre in white rose above from understage to reveal his might over the rest of the cosmos. And as he delivered his last note the audience broke into a huge wave of uproar to welcome the man of the evening.
What followed next was an exotic musical extravaganza decorated with his own performances (Dil Se, Khwaja, Arziyan, Rehna Tu..) and with those of such mighty stalwarts like Hariharan (Roza, Tu hi re, Bharat humko), Roop Kumar Rathod (Khamosh Raat..), Rashid Ali (Kabhi Kabhi Aditi..), Raja Hassan (Masakali, Delhi 6, Guzarish), Benny Dayal (Kaise Mujhe), Sadhna Sargam (Roza) and the list goes on the on and on.
Another singer from the crew who performed the songs Genda Phool and Ringa Ringa mesmerized the audience as she left them spellbound with her belly dancing skills during her Mayya Mayya performance. Unfortunately I failed to identify her name. That was the the only one of the two times that night that people applauded for something other than Rahman`s excellence. The other one soon followed....
....He started it with Kala Bandar and while people were still bracing themselves he turned it into Azeem-o-Shan. It was not Rahman, it was a DJ(another one whose name i failed to get) spinning magic out of the king`s magical yarn, scale matching every song that has defined this musical genius. As his(the DJ`s) hand played with dexterity or ambidexterity (as my GRE friends would say) all awake souls revisited every song that has elevated their minds in the last few years . From Rubaroo to Humma Humma from Tanha Tanha to Muqabla he went through them all. The concert was nearing its end and it was not blood but adrenalin flowing in my veins. The situation wasn't very different around me.
Such was the level of excitement and revelry that finally in the end when Rahman continuosly sang Azeem-o-Shan, Humma Humma, Jai Ho and Vande Mataram back-to-back, half the audience (10000 people) pissed their pants and the other half lost their voice yelling and begging "ENCORE!! ONCE MORE!!".
Psyched and blown I was left thinking "Is this the best night of my life?". Little did I know what was awaiting me outside the stadium. It was definitely the most incredible evenings ever-but what followed that night made it legendary!! - A night to remember for the rest of my existence.....more on that in the next post!!....keep watching this place....
