June 3, 2007 - A Day with the stars

Had been to the ARR concert in Vancouver BC last weekend and since my friend's friend was the organizer of the whole show, we got to be part of the organizing committee. We reached there on Friday night and spent the rest of the 2 days in volunteering for the concert and more importantly, getting to spend some time with all members of the troupe. Some highlights from the actual show and also the behind the scenes happenings of the memorable weekend.

• Hariharan and Madhushree sang the Vaaji Vaaji song and midway through the 1st and 2nd charanams, Hariharan started dancing to the catchy loops and needless to say, there was a tremendous response from the audience. Next to ARR, it was Hariharan who was the biggest hit with the crowd. Hariharan and Sadhana Sargam sang the Hindi version of the Vennilave vennilave song but the response to it was not as expected and so when he started the pallavi after the 2nd charanam, he started singing in Tamil and you should have been there to believe the response. Awesome...


• One could see that ARR was not at his best as he clearly lost his pitch while singing his portions in the Adhiradi, Kannaalane aalaap and Dil Se re songs. But the one thing you can notice is that you will never see the man getting excited and the only time he did so during the whole show was when singing the Humma song. He was seated on a raised pedestal from where he was watching the singers. Since we were part of the organizing committee, we got to watch the show from the very first row. It was interesting the way he was watching them sing. The utmost reaction you could see from him was a very mild smile (& admiration whenever Hariharan or Chithra sang) and it was only for one song sung by Aslam that he actually applauded.


• Sukhwinder Singh was completely off color. He bungled both the songs (Ramta Jogi and Chaiyya Chaiyya) he sang and did not even turn up for the Rang De Basanti number that he was supposed to sing. More about him in the off-the-stage happenings section.


• Naresh Iyer was the most enthusiastic of the lot. Every song he sang, one could see that he was relishing the occasion and more importantly, he was giving his best. Not that the others weren't giving their best but you could see it most clearly in the way he sang and he cheered the other singers when he was not singing.


• Blaaze was the one who got the crowd right into the mix of things. He even had prepared a mini-rap for the Humma song which is not part of the original song. And it was after that rap that ARR started singing the actual version. To me, his rapping in the The Boss and the Saregame songs were the highlight of the evening.


• Neethi Mohan - she is a new kid on the block. I am sure folks in India might be aware of this, bcos of her appearance in popular TV shows. I was the one who drove her from the hotel to the airport but did not take much notice of her. But on stage, she was too gorgeous and she was the only one who danced while she sung. Looks like this was her first tour but she was an instant hit with the audience.


• The only thing I did not like about the show were the dancers who danced to many of the tunes. They were dancing their way through the singers who had to move around the stage to accommodate them, in some cases. I mean, dancing in songs meant for such purposes was OK (say Maiyya maiyya in Guru) but dancing for songs like Tere Bina, put me off completely.


• There was an overdose of his latest songs - 4 from Sivaji (no complaints there), 5 from Rang De Basanti and 5 from Guru. The second biggest applause of the night came for the Sivaji songs, especially the Sega fight-aa song. I am sure the team would have planned this, assuming that Sivaji would have been released by the time these shows happened. Even without the film having been released, the response was terrific. Folks in DC & New York will feel the excitement more, as by the time the concert reaches their cities, Thalaivar' Sivaji would have been released.


• The biggest applause was reserved for the Arabi kadaloram song and that kind of said the story - that his most popular songs are the ones from his hey days and not from the recent years.

Now, to the behind the scenes excitement:

• Just like how he was the most enthusiastic guy on-stage, Naresh Iyer was the most friendly off-stage. He was what girls would call 'so sweet'. He was so down to earth that he even came and shook his hands by himself, even without us asking him :)


• Vijay Yesudoss was way too cool. My friend (who took all these pictures) owns a Canon digital SLR camera and while taking a picture with him, Vijay Yesudoss noticed that and he and my friend actually began discussing about the camera & the different models they both were possessing.


• Looks like Sivamani has an aversion to anything that has got to do with the number 8. Unfortunately, for him and for us, the organizers, the total of the digits of the room number allotted to him was 8 :) We came to know about this from one person who travels with the crew to all the venues and who got out of immigration earlier than others. So, we had time for damage control and so we swapped the room numbers of Blaaze and Sivamani.


• Blaaze and Sivamani were the most talkative persons in the group. Sivamani was asking my friend when lunch was being served as to if he will be able to get some good muttai paratha somewhere here.


• Chithra did not talk much, though that was bcos of the fact she was very tired. She was very cordial though and completely had no 'one of the best singers of Tamil cinema' air about her. She was damn hungry and she was like Pasikkuadhu. Saappida edhaavadhu irukkaa?. I assured her that there was some good food awaiting her at the hotel :)


• After walking Chithra to her room, I saw this small crowd outside of Sivamani's and Blaaze's rooms and since I had to go somewhere else, I thought 'OK I will talk to them later'. But it was then, as I was leaving, that I heard that they were talking something about Sivaji. So, naturally, I rushed towards their room and this was the first thing I asked Blaaze "You had mentioned in the NDTV interview that there is a suspense in the movie. Can you tell me what it is?" He smilingly dodged that question and then told me that he will tell it to me after the show got over.


• This was the thing that was utmost on my mind as the show was going on and once it got over, I did go to him and after taking a picture, I asked him the secret. And surprises of all surprises, he told me the secret he was referring to in that NDTV interview. But he asked me not to spread the word around bcos he said if Shankar came to know about it somehow, he would be really mad. So, I am not going to divulge it here, either :) It is indeed a pleasant surprise but nothing huge and I am sure when we see the movie, you all will know what the surprise is.
  


• Hariharan was the only person about whom I had my doubts as to if he will be friendly, not bcos of any incident that I had read about before but mainly bcos he was the most popular of the other singers in the troupe. But he too turned out to be a very humble and friendly guy. This one incident kind of conveyed it all. At the hotel where all of them were staying, our point of contact with the singers was this one guy from their group. He was the one communicating with all of them and let us know when each one of them were ready to leave, so that we can get the cars ready. The moment the guy arrived, he said Sukhwinder can be really a pain in the ass as he usually takes off on his own, after landing in any city and over here in Vancouver, it was all the more bad bcos he had a handful of friends based in that city. So, as expected, after the flight landed he took off with his friends. The show was supposed to start at 7:30pm and Hariharan was the last the leave the hotel with his wife. And it was when he was about to leave, that Sukhwinder arrived at the hotel with his army of friends. So, the guy who coordinates between us & the artists, told me that it will be my duty to make sure that Sukhwinder starts form the hotel in another 15 mins. Looking at myself being assigned the most challenging of tasks, Hariharan smilingly said "Good luck to you"


• ARR, as expected, was very reclusive and remained secluded. I was the first one to spot him as he came walking out of the arrivals area at the airport. The person who had the access cards for all the rooms had left the area for a few mins when he arrived. So, the moment he came, I went and received him and he was like Can we go to the car? and I am like The hotel is inside the airport. So, we will just walk you to the hotel room. He looked really tired and later we came to know that he had some mild fever. But he had freshened himself up a few hours later when he came down from his room to go to the concert place. Even at the backstage area of the concert place, he did not venture out of the room unnecessarily, knowing that he will be crowded with requests for photos and autographs. So, while others had dinner in the hallway common to all the rooms, food was sent to his room.


• He was indeed a man of few words. I should also say he was very simple. We had actually arranged a limo to take him from the hotel to the concert place and separate cars for taking others to the concert place. So, when he came down and as he was getting into the limo, he goes Indha car-la thaan ivvlo edam irukkE. Why don't we take some more people with us? But we told him that separate cars have been arranged for everyone and then he left. He even joked :) Looking at the walkie-talkie that myself and my friend were carrying, he is like Adhu rendum edho bomb detonator-nnu nenaichen


• ARR's mother and 2 sisters had accompanied him and it was them who were so friendly and took me by complete surprise. I mean, they had completely no "We are ARR' sisters" aura around them. Rehana, who is the more popular among the two and who has sung portions of the Ballelakka song, was very tired when the concert began but after the concert was over, she mingled with all of us very freely. She said "Why are you asking for photographs with me when there are so many popular singers around?". While taking a picture with her, I told her that her rendition in the Ballelakka song was awesome and she went "Oh..you guys know that!!".


• Missed opportunity - One of my friend's duties was to scroll the lyrics of the songs from a laptop, whose display was projected on to a bigger screen which the singers could see from the dais and they were using that as their guide for the lyrics (I will have to mention here that almost 90% of the singers did not even bother to look into that screen for help since they seemed to know the lyrics of their songs by heart). Hope all Thalaivar fans would have noticed that there are some extra lyrics of the Sega fight-aa song which we could hear in the trailer and which is not in the audio CD. Looks like my friend got to see the complete lyrics of that song (though they did not sing it on stage) and since he was more occupied with other stuff, forgot to tell me and it was only the next day he told me that. Imagine what if I had laid my hands on those lyrics. How exciting it would have been to have the lyrics of one song in Thalaivar's movie even before it was released. That hurt and I am now left ruing this greatest missed opportunity. Anyway, 3 more days and we all should start hearing the complete version.

All in all, it was a very memorable evening. Well, I should say the most memorable day of my life. After all, how often does one get to spend an entire day with so many celebrities.
More pictures from the concert can be seen here and here.