A R Rahman - Intimate Concert 2015 - Grand Prairie TX

Five more years have gone by since the last A R Rahman concert. It was time for another one. This time it was the AR Rahman Intimate concert.

Wednesday evening 8pm is never a great time for a concert! Then it is Rahman right!!
No ads. No promos for the event. High ticket prices!

Firstly, the learning from the previous concert in Dallas as i listed in my post, were taken care as though somebody actually read my post and implemented each one of them!
1. 8 pm concert started at 8.30
2. Much smaller halls, which was full, unlike partly full AA center
3. No screen display of the performers.
- Eliminates irritating shoddy camera work
- You cannot identify lip-out-of-syncs unless you had a binocular and managed to dodge the blinding lights that were on the audience.
4. No 'ye to des hai...'
5. No Hariharan
6. No Bombay theme music...

Now
Show was designed with a barebone singing talent. It was Haricharan, Jonita Gandhi, Annette and Rahman who did 90% of the songs. Now compare this to the 2005 experience. Night and Day. Chalk and Cheese.
The selection of songs were also restricted to what this quatret can afford to accomplish. Also songs like "Uyire" or "Roja Jane Man" better bet left alone for Hariharan, than having had HariCharan!

Given most singers have started touring US and other foreign land themselves and filling in their coffers, it might not have fit for them to join in a music director's tour and add color here...

First half of the program was very slow, dull.  No peppy numbers. No superstar song. That is right... "NO SUPERSTAR SONGS.." are you kidding me?!?!

Later part of the show got few songs!! No Merasalayitten. No Sonapariya No kadal Raasa naan No Adiye Adiye. Though.. Aruvai pattus galore here too.

For someone who goes to this concert every five years, i expected this to be stocked well with music produced since 2010.  However it was a lot of Rahman's early years music. Roja, Sathiya, Bombay, Dil se, Taal.  Have heard them in the past, from better singers too...

Mahive, and highway songs had good effect in working the crowds up. There were some who were shouting "Telugu", but not even one song was from telugu.

Exactly what i said in 2010 applies here as well..

"If what Dallas saw is what this tour is all about, you will lose nothing by not attending it.!"

Read more!

Shrewd move!

I had explained in detail here on how splitting opposition votes was the key to winning the election.
Five years hence, it is now AAPs turn to play the role, vijayakanth, chiranjeevi and raj thackeray.!

Read more!

Corporate leaders retiring into political life.

Per Mahabaratha, good governance is defined by the axiom, "To save a family, abandon a man; to save the village, abandon a family; to save the country, abandon a village; to save the soul, abandon the earth." 

Well, our corporate leaders have been trained and rewarded to save the few (the stock holders and self interests) by continually abandoning interests that they were best positioned to protect. I get it. They are paid to do it and it is their job.

However what they have been doing all life long is just opposite of what is required for good governance.

So till you prove by fire that you have unlearned your trade, you will never get my support, vote or acceptance.

Any corporate leader entering public life should be answerable in public domain for the decisions they made in corporate life. 

It is important to understand the workings of their mind, their intent and values. 

Anyone who was party to whimsical, totally inconsiderate, undemocratic, policy making (in the name of rationalization) in corporate life has no place in public domain.

A great leader of a nation should inherently have compassion towards the most under privileged. They should be the voices for those who need it.

The new crop of corporate retirees entering politics have had a successful career (admired by me, a lot...) in doing self and share holder bidding. What they ended up doing for the large population of people whose life they had the biggest impact everyday directly (their employees) is the world to see.

Standing for fundamental rights, ethics, livelihood of underprivileged is the quality that needs to be demonstrated to be a leader. 

Scariest part is to have a primary key solution designer or a in-god-we-trust-everybody-brings-data-to-table manager trying to tweak-levers to achieve-KPIs. We know how it works right!!! 

I am ready to welcome every honest person to politics. However i will not throw in my support unless they clearly articulate what is the change they want to bring, for they have potential to do lot more damage than good to the system.

Read more!

Avani Avittam 2011

Found the site www.avaniavittam.org that has mantras and procedures for iyer and iyengar.
Googling for avani avittam 2011 spits out lots of results and suggest to look for the one closest to your tradition and follow.

Read more!

Veda patasala + CBSE school

In an earlier post i had talked about "Establish Anglo-Vedic schools [in the true sense of it], and create English-educated society with Vedic fundamentals."

Well, i came to know of a new school in chennai. Sri Kanchi Mahaswami Vidya Mandir. Check it out.

Read more!

Elections 2011

Well, It has been a long time since i smiled on the election results day. Still i am not extremely positive with the outlook.

I really hope VaiKo develops the grassroots, takes over the moth eaten DMK and grows as a viable honest alternative in time for 2016.

Read more!

Endhiran

Watched Endhiran. Cant agree more with this.
Thankfully no corruption, no dishonesty, no black-and-white flashbacks, no social preach dialogues.!! Give all marks to Shankar for that.

Read more!

A R Rahman Live in conert - Jai Ho tour. (review??)

It was about five years ago that i attended Rahman's 3D tour in London and posted the review here.

I attended the Jai Ho - Journey home concert today in Dallas. I would not call this post a review, but my opinion (more comparison) of the whole thing.



The show scheduled on July 4th was rescheduled to today, spoiling our otherwise plans for the independence day weekend. The show was scheduled to start at 7 and it started at 8.30. A big let down on the part of the organizers.

They had been publicizing in the radio about having indian food stalls, which had extremely tasteless food.

It was expected to be very expensive but, they were selling items costlier than what they had written on the menu.! And then provided the rudest response when questioned. The American Airlines center ticketed zone was not more than 70% full.



Now, Dallas is not London. However there was a glaring lack of star singers. Daler, Shankar, Kailash Kher, Sivamani, yes, no Sivamani!



Lip synch was very obvious and at most places it was lip-out-of-sync.



Let me copy the parts from my earlier review, that are applicable ditto for this concert as well.


".......The man behind the camera was pathetic. He made sure, the camera is always not on the right person...."
"....... along with ‘yeh to des hai tera’,[again tamil mixed in the second stanza.]......"
.......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...."
".......chaiyya chaiyya looked out of place sans Sukhwi......"
"........nd the 'Bombay theme' flute were stopgaps in the middle....."


The parts that i enjoyed are
1. Superstar song from Sivaji
2. Superstar song from Endhiran
3. Aaroomaleeee.
4. New singers Alphonse and Vijay Prakash.


Most songs from slumdog were played, they put some effort in the visuals and stage setting, but as we all know it is irrelevant. Women singers were jazzy and wore western costumes, unlike the chitras and kavitha krishnamurthys. (transforming into entertainers, instead of singers?????)


The London concert was 3.5 hrs, this one was 2.5 hrs (probably they performed in Houston yesterday and got delayed?


If what Dallas saw is what this tour is all about, you will lose nothing by not attending it.!

Read more!