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A.R. Rahman's Biggest Show with
Harshdeep
A.R. Rahman's Biggest
Show with Harshdeep
OAKLAND, Calif. — A.R. Rahman’s latest show has all the gloss of a Las Vegas spectacular, with a global touch and a respectful nod to history. The Oscar-winning composer’s live shows have always been must-see events, but this latest tour — titled “Jai Ho! The Journey Home” — marks a new high in terms of ambition and visual splendor.
A parade of colorfully costumed musicians and dancers brought life to the title track of “Rang De Basanti,” and a female vocalist sang the haunting “Latika’s theme” from “Slumdog Millionaire” as an acrobat performed a suspended dance within a pale lavender aerial curtain high above her head. Later, there were more fireworks as the dancers writhed and thrashed on a metal cage suspended from the ceiling, to another “Slumdog” track, the electrifying “Escape.” Neeti Mohan and Vijai Prakash got the chance to shine with “Irumbilaye oru” and “Oh baby” from Rahman’s latest release, “Robot,” and she teamed with Pandit again on “Slumdog’s” saucy “Ringa ringa.” Although Rahman offered up a selection of Bollywood hits, he was careful to balance out the set list with a few South Indian songs, such as “Urvashi” (“Premikudu”), “Say na na” (a Tamil song he used in “Couples Retreat”) and others. Rahman’s live performances have always been highly collaborative, as he’s toured with many of India’s leading musicians and vocalists. Here, he stepped into the spotlight as he’s never done before, with the lead vocals on many of the songs. But despite his myriad costume changes and the extreme staging, Rahman still displayed a shy demeanor — his between-song patter was limited to brief comments like “I love you, too!” He closed out the show with “Jai ho” and his perennial closing number, “Ma tujhe salaam.” Amy Tinkham, the “Jai Ho” tour’s creative director, has masterminded concerts for artists as varied as Paul McCartney, Britney Spears, Madonna and Kenny Ortega’s “American Dance.” She told India-West in Oakland that the entire team was glad to be back in the U.S. on tour since reworking the show after a stage mishap in Detroit in June. Rahman also performed some European dates over the summer. “Our first show was last night in L.A. Everybody was so ready,” she said. “It’s a great gift to work with an artist like Rahman with such a body of work,” Tinkham added. “He’s everything to everybody. I just wanted to do him justice, making the show fluid, like a journey — not just song after song after song. “Since he is a composer for films, the show had to have that vast scale of composition to it,” she said. “It’s about a merging of cultures.” |
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