Hollywood beckoned, the man arrived
AR Rahman finally made it to Hollywood, quite literally this time around. In front of a packed crowd that was braying for his arrival for well more than 3 hours, Rahman walked in with the ease of a man that was enjoying his job - quite unlike many other international artists that have played at the Hollywood Bowl before. For it is quite a huge theater that has an overbearing presence and is as much in the heart of Hollywood as any place can be.
The audience looked up and see the huge HOLLYWOOD sign right behind The Bowl. And we smiled. Rahman now follows in the illustrious line-up of musical giants to have performed at the Hollywood Bowl - The Beatles, Jimi Hendrix, Elton John to name a few.
His band kicked things off with Naveen Kumar's mesmerising rendition of the Bombay theme on the flute. Naveen is an integral part of Rahman's troupe and is one of Rahman's favorite artistes who invariably takes center-stage in all his conerts, along with the other magician Sivamani. Rahman then rendered a softer version of Dil Se on the piano and hummed softly along, just the first stanza. And then he went Dil Seeeeee and the crowd erupted. The noise was deafening, and the people were already having a ball. He followed it up with a very well rendered Roja Jaaneman, by the ever-so-gimmicky Hariharan and the shrill Sadhna Sargam - Rahman clearly missed the ageing yet dependable voice of SPB and Shankar Mahadevan's energy to fall back on.
Hit after hit after hit flowed from the troupe, including Khalbali that was an instant hit with the crowd. Disappointing, though, that Rahman would bring Naresh Iyer all the way to LA and not have him render Roobaroo. But, perhaps, he was not ready for the big stage yet. Madhushree then sang "Kabhi Neem Neem" and its tamil equivalent and looked at ease on both occasions and was, apart from Rahman himself, easily the best singer of the evening. Rahman's alaap in the middle of that song drew a huge round of applause from the crowd.
Sivamani then got his regular 10 minutes of fame like in every other Rahman concert, and had the crowd in raptures, with his command over his pair of drumsticks. Rahman then finished things off in style with another exquisite rendition of Vande Mataram. The power in his voice is unbelievable - there is not another voice in the country that could evoke your sense of patriotism as well as this man.
There were disappointments too. For one, there were very few songs sung that evening. And a lot of my choices of songs not being sung - of course, it is THE most difficult array of songs to choose from, every one of them a gem. And then there was the usual delay in starting proceedings.
But, in spite of all the misses, Rahman easily increased his global following yesterday - almost 40% of the audience was american and almost every one of em of impressed. Rahman has clearly made inroads into Hollywood, now to just take it ahead, slowly but steadily. Forget Aishwarya Rai, this man is India's safest bet to make it big in Uncle Sam's own den.
The audience looked up and see the huge HOLLYWOOD sign right behind The Bowl. And we smiled. Rahman now follows in the illustrious line-up of musical giants to have performed at the Hollywood Bowl - The Beatles, Jimi Hendrix, Elton John to name a few.
His band kicked things off with Naveen Kumar's mesmerising rendition of the Bombay theme on the flute. Naveen is an integral part of Rahman's troupe and is one of Rahman's favorite artistes who invariably takes center-stage in all his conerts, along with the other magician Sivamani. Rahman then rendered a softer version of Dil Se on the piano and hummed softly along, just the first stanza. And then he went Dil Seeeeee and the crowd erupted. The noise was deafening, and the people were already having a ball. He followed it up with a very well rendered Roja Jaaneman, by the ever-so-gimmicky Hariharan and the shrill Sadhna Sargam - Rahman clearly missed the ageing yet dependable voice of SPB and Shankar Mahadevan's energy to fall back on.
Hit after hit after hit flowed from the troupe, including Khalbali that was an instant hit with the crowd. Disappointing, though, that Rahman would bring Naresh Iyer all the way to LA and not have him render Roobaroo. But, perhaps, he was not ready for the big stage yet. Madhushree then sang "Kabhi Neem Neem" and its tamil equivalent and looked at ease on both occasions and was, apart from Rahman himself, easily the best singer of the evening. Rahman's alaap in the middle of that song drew a huge round of applause from the crowd.
Sivamani then got his regular 10 minutes of fame like in every other Rahman concert, and had the crowd in raptures, with his command over his pair of drumsticks. Rahman then finished things off in style with another exquisite rendition of Vande Mataram. The power in his voice is unbelievable - there is not another voice in the country that could evoke your sense of patriotism as well as this man.
There were disappointments too. For one, there were very few songs sung that evening. And a lot of my choices of songs not being sung - of course, it is THE most difficult array of songs to choose from, every one of them a gem. And then there was the usual delay in starting proceedings.
But, in spite of all the misses, Rahman easily increased his global following yesterday - almost 40% of the audience was american and almost every one of em of impressed. Rahman has clearly made inroads into Hollywood, now to just take it ahead, slowly but steadily. Forget Aishwarya Rai, this man is India's safest bet to make it big in Uncle Sam's own den.