A R Rahman Live in Concert – 3D(?) Tour

The evening of Saturday, July 30 2005, Wembely Arena Pavilion, witnessed the premiere of A R Rahman’s 3D tour.

Let me first do the short Crib.[to ward off kaN drushti]

The minor one was to reach Wembely that evening, as Jubilee line was closed from West hampsted, and the rail replacement bus took abt 1 hr [thanks to the rain and traffic snarls] to cover that distance which is normally done in 8-10 mins. So had to enter the show late by 10 mins.:(

The man behind the camera was pathetic. He made sure, the camera is always not on the right person. It was damn glaring during the half time break, when ARR was introducing the accompanying artisits.

The real one was the absence of 3D glasses as described in the webpage. There were no glasses available and we saw nobody wearing it.:( When asked one of the crowd control persons [though I knew he was not the right person to ask, but thought he migt have hade have a briefing on this], he did not have any idea of what I was asking. Wondering, was there an announcement or anything, just before we entered? Still in the dark!! There was a huge screen behind the stage, and something like the 3D screen savers were running there! Is this what the 3D thing was??

The show is effectively a 2D show. Now enuf of cribs, the fun and partying started !!

But before that, first a round of applause for the commitment these guys displayed. It was said on stage that, the show was abt to be cancelled, first because of security concerns in london, and then due to the incessant rains and flight cancellations in Mumbai, that would have made it impossible for the artists to come to London. Mumbai was floating and most of the artisits, shankar mahadevan said, had to wade their way in hip and neck deep waters to reach the airport.!! Thanks guys for making this show after so much 'personal trauma'[in ARR's words].

Rahman was at his best!! Hamma Hamma[Tamil paattu] was the pick of it, along with ‘yeh to des hai tera’,[again tamil mixed in the second stanza.]


Daler, for the large Punjabi crowd, did his Hindi ‘thaniye thannan thaniye’ with the usual pep, and the Chinnama Chilakamma from Minaxi.

Alka yagnik’s Taal, Sadhana Sargam’s hindi ‘snehidhane..’ along with madhushree’s yuva piece did justice for the female voice.

Some songs, I heard there for the first time. Like this one from Zubeida [hearing this for the first time as well, forgive my not following bollywood ], were the dampers for me, to relax and get seated for sometime,. :p

In comes the great Hariharan, packed with tons of energy. His asking ‘Tamillu paatu padalaamaa??’ in a proper ghazalic tone, and the roaring response to it, followed by Vennilave vennilave.. Super..
Then came the solo Nila kaigiradhu + Uyire Uyire..
izhachchu izhachchu padaradhunu periya solluvale…adhaampa adhu.
Apporam, andha 'pachai nirame, pachai nirame' paatu…
sorry adhe solradhukku andha vaarthai.. varthai dhaan vara mattengaradhu.. abirami abirami..

‘Sandhana Thendralai..’nu namba prodigy Shankar mahadevan pudicha pudila yengayo poittaru. His best was the Lagaan ‘ghanana ghanana..’. At the end of the song he said, ‘the story goes that the clouds disperse after this song, but had the story been such that, it rained heavily after this song, Rehman would have composed the following piece’. Then started raining in voice, in combination with our one and only Sivamani, and got Mumbai in Wembely! Real breathless.!!

A 10 minute solo was just the tip of the percussion maestro Sivamani. When he got the crowd clapping and them drumming alternating to the claps, it was so involving.

Kailash Kher’s voice was new and fresh. The Yuhi Chala chala and the Rising song – Mangala mangala were testimonials.

There was this youth Aslam, who was humming in the background and took Sukhwinder and Udit’s voices, and did it to perfection. Though chaiyya chaiyya looked out of place sans Sukhwi, Aslam did a great job.

A solo from Bombay dreams, and the 'Bombay theme' flute were stopgaps in the middle.

After abt 3.5 hrs, which flew like just 3 mins, the VandeMatam summed it up!!

The journey back home, which was longer and tiring than the To journey, didn’t seem tedious. The concert was a recharging experience. I forgot myself so much so that only after thumping the feet and dancing for a long while, did I realize that, I am recovering from multiple fractures in my feet and needed to play it cool :P

I would recommend people to hop on the 3D tour, if it comes to ur city. Worth a visit, but don’t have expectations on the 3D part. :)