AR Rahman brought Calicut (Kozhikode) dancing on their feet during his first music concert in India after his Oscar win on 3rd May 2009.

Around 40k people shrieked in joy on watching Rahman each time as he walked on the stage. Khwaja mere Khwaja, Hamma-hamma, Vande matram, Urvasi, Mustaffa and but of course the Oscar winner Jai ho were few of the songs sung by AR Rehman and the experience explains why he is, what he is.

I simply loved the showman Hariharan. Well, I have always loved him. The romantic me is crazy about the sweet glint in his voice. My heart went mmmm when he got to singing his numbers from Roja and other Tamil numbers. Other veterans who set the stage on fire were Sadhna Sargam and Chitra.

I am completely bowled over by Suzanne D’Mello also Suzie Q and her western singing style. What a voice! We have heard her singing Dreams on Fire and Latika’s theme song from Slumdog Millionaire…just that I never checked who the singer was and put a face to the voice. I am so glad I watched her perform live.

Rashid Ali, the guitarist, singer and musician swayed the crowd with his original Kabhi Kabhi Aditi number from the super hit movie Jaane tu ya jaane na. The crowd went ecstatic when the dancers threw Frisbees with cute smileys drawn on it into the audience. It’s nice to see how Rehman pick up talent and promotes them; Rashid Ali btw is a lead guitarist with Rahman whom he gave an opportunity to sing in Jaane tu ya Jaane na and the solo duets of Ada.

There were other performances by artists who have already sung couple of songs for Rahman either in Hindi, Tamil or Malayalam or completely new finds who we will see singing for films in the near future.

Q had told me about his friend George Peters (vocalist for 13 AD rock band) but it was such a delight watching him perform on the stage. I am looking forward to hearing more of him in the future. George sang a track from “Yodha” the only Malayalam movie AR Rahman directed music for so far.

Lighting and sound arrangement were perfect and the singing was superb Now that I have praised so much I think it will only be fair to bring out the negatives of the show just in case AR Rahman Googles himself and chances upon this particular blog then he should know what we think.

Show came across a little loose. There were too many gaps between two performances. Considering that singers were getting rotated there was enough and more time to be ready backstage. Hariharan didn’t get his mike for his first performance. It was quite funny to see the mike going back and forth between him and Sadhna Sargam during the performance. Sadhna’s mike got on after probably 2 seconds after she was into singing. Oh yes, we also heard someone getting mad at someone backstage. He definitely didn’t realize that his mike was on! Dancers would have been better (just being polite here). Dancers are expected to be well coordinated and to remember their steps. Will say no more.

May be people didn’t notice but coming from the events background I am more than aware of what goes wrong . Actually, cant blame anyone, somehow Murphy’s law preside over all events. No matter how much you are on top of things, things can still go wrong. Otherwise, for a person like AR Rahman who is called a nit picker or a perfectionist and who did a stage rehearsal whole of the night till 6:30 in the morning of the day of the show, the concert should have been absolutely error free.

But whatever said and done, Rahman ji …you are simply terrific. I love your music and I love your songs.