A memorable experience

I just came home after witnessing an event which I will remember for a long long time. It's AR Rahman's Show here in hollywood. I grew up listening to the tunes of Illyaraja and Rahman and off late I am not in a good touch with the happenings in Indian cinema. But AR Rahman draws a special attention. I have not been a hard core fan of Rahman but without making any conscious effort, its his and only his music that fills my play list.

Did I enjoy the show ?? Hell yes I did but with a few considerations here and there. I had that hair raising experience after seeing THE MAN in flesh and blood which I never expected that I could feel. Anyway as I said I have a few things on my mind which has bothered me throughout the show and here they are:

1) Rahman did not speak for more than a minute during the entire show. As he made his appearance he went straight to his keyboard and started humming "Dilse" and I thought may be that’s his way of starting the show and may be he would greet us after the song. But that did not happen and near the end of the show there was not even a proper goodbye. I did not wish or hope for a full blown speech but at least a minute's greeting for the people who have come all the way from hundreds of miles would have made me happy. The only words that came from his mouth at the end were "Thank you". Yes, those were the only words.

Speaking frankly, by the time I reached home and thought about this I formed a convincing explanation for all this. May be that’s his nature and may be we should not expect him to wear a false mask for us. Its much better being himself rather than pretending being nice to make us happy. May be he is very happy to see all this crowd and may be he doesn't know how to express it.

2) Well coming to the second reason, Rahman never sings or lets his singers sing in telugu on his shows !!!!! I cannot find a possible convincing explanation for it.
Yes, I don't know if he does that intentionally or he just fails to notice that his music has more fans (and does much more business) in telugu than in tamil. I don't know.
Rahman worked as a keyboard player for "Koti" ( a successful music director in telugu) before starting his career and that makes me feel he does know the language. Then why Mr Rahman, what's wrong with us ???

3) Coming to the actual show and the music, I expected "Chaiyya Chaiyya" to rock the stadium but surprisingly it was way worse than the semi-finals on the "Indian Idol 2". "Rang de basanti" was sung by an american with horrible pronunciations but still it was good.

Enough about my complaints. May be I am giving the impression that the show was not worth it. No way, It is AR RAHMAN up there and catching a glimpse of him itself is worth buying the ticket. Though I get a little bit disappointed about his aversion to telugu, I admire his love and respect for his mother tongue. His rendition of "Humma Humma" in tamil would be the second best song in the show. My pick for the best song will be "Vandemaataram" which made me very emotional and to my surprise even a bit patriotic for a moment there.