Friday 26 / April / 2024
New York: AR Rahman's IIFA Rocks concert, which saw the crowd groove to the Oscar and Grammy winner's popular Hindi and Tamil tracks, was proof that music trumps all language barriers. Rahman brought the audience to its feet with his Tamil hits Urvasi urvasi and Humma humma, a scene so different from his recent UK concert for which he was trolled on the social media by concertgoers who felt there were too many Tamil songs.
There was a demand for an encore even after he regaled the crowd for almost two hours. "What? Once more... I can't hear you... Isn't it too late?," Rahman said on the stage before taking up the mic again to sing Humma humma. He performed his Oscar-winning hit track Jai Ho as the lighting on the stage changed to orange, green and white. "I am thankful to you all for coming and supporting the concert... love you," he said.
The musical extravaganza, which is part of the International Indian Film Academy (IIFA) awards events, celebrated 25 years of Rahman's glorious journey that began
with the success of Roja in 1992. Rahman, 50, was joined by Diljit Dosanjh, Benny Dayal, Javed Ali, Neeti Mohan, Jonita Gandhi and Haricharan Seshadri at the MetLife stadium.
The music maestro teamed up with Mohit Chauhan to croon Nadaan parindey while Neeti Mohan and Hariharan joined him for a duet on Bin tere kya jeena and Mere paas hai tu, respectively. The other hit numbers from his vast repertoire were Dil hai chota sa, Agar tum saath ho, Aye hairathe, Tere bina and Tanha tanha.
Punjabi star Diljit's songs Ek kudi and Patiala peg and Mika Singh's energetic performance brought the audience to their feet. "I am feeling very happy and proud that he (Rahman)
called me here. Make some noise for Rahman sir. Love you all," Mika added. "I thank him for being an inspiration. I am honoured to be here," Jonita said.
Rahman, who recently composed the music for Sachin Tendulkar's biopic, asked the crowd, 'do you like cricket.. do you like Sachin?', before singing the title track of the film as the master blaster's photograph was displayed on the screen.
