Rahman’s “Jai ho” concert finally came to town this past Friday September 17th. It had been originally scheduled earlier in the year, but due to an accident on stage in Detroit, they had cancelled all the remaining shows and rescheduled for September. Held in the Toyota Center in downtown Houston, the show here was well worth it.
Firstly they immediately got down to business. And by that I mean that they didn’t waste much time thanking one another; there was a short emcee routine, and then that was it. The show started. The first few numbers were kind of low-key and I remember thinking that if this is how it was going to be, getting some cheese nachos to chomp on might not be such a bad idea. Well, then it ramped up, and the 2.5 hours passed rather quickly.
Now, Rahman is basically a composer and a singer although I’d say he is better at the first. He also seems fairly modest, and on the songs that he was not singing seemed content to walk around playing an instrument (an electronic keyboard/guitar) slung around his neck. Accompanying him were singers Hariharan, who has this beautiful, strong, sonorous voice, and Javed Ali, Benny Dayal, Blaaze, Shweta Pandit, Neeti Muhan. All of them were pretty good, and energetic – they danced and sang, which is pretty hard to do simultaneously.
And then there was the presentation of the show. Since this was a “singing” show and there was no film star around, you’d think it’d require some creative thinking to keep it alive. But keep it alive they did. They were dancers for most songs – some desi and some non-desi. Then there were the lighting effects and the props, which were most creatively used. The stage had this movable staircase which the singers sat upon (like for a jugalbandi session) , and it could come apart, rise up or down as required. Very interesting.
The stage had a large sheer curtain upon which images were projected. And Rahman did a duet number with Lata Mangeshkar, who’s image was projected on the curtain – quite spectacular.
The stage also extended into this half-moon ramp walkway which the performers walked upon, so they seemed to be in the middle of the audience.
