Mirror
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A
night of temptation Herded in to the jam packed Race Course (Reid Avenue) Grounds last Saturday night (Dec 11) to witness ‘Temptation 2004’ live in concert, the atmosphere was absolutely electric! Fans were pouring in from all ends of the grounds quivering with anticipation at seeing their Bollywood heart-throb, Shahrukh Khan and the other popular Hindi film stars take the stage to perform excerpts from their favourite movies. Once excitement levels had reached fever pitch and Sharukh had not yet made his entrance, the crowd took matters into their own hands. The chants of “Shahrukh, Shahrukh, Shahrukh…” reverberated through the grounds. Finally, the chanting was put to a halt by the sound of his voice, which came from backstage welcoming his fans and then asking everyone to stand up to observe a minute’s silence to commemorate the one year death anniversary of the Ven. Gangodawila Soma thero. It was more the ‘Shahrukh Khan Show’ than anything else, but Preity Zinta, Saif Ali Khan, Celina Jaitly, Zayed Khan and Priyanka Chopra didn’t by any means go unnoticed. Each of them did their part to add life, energy and colour (literally) to the concert. Shahrukh was obviously an instant hit! Having done a little research into what exactly makes Sri Lankans ‘tick,’ he greeted the crowd with an “Ayubowan” and “Kohamadhe machang?” The crowd quite predictably, was ecstatic! He went on to speak of Sri Lankan cricket (with negative references to the ‘Aussies’), living in Colombo and the ‘hot’ Sri Lankan people. All sure topics to win over the Lankans. His charismatic personality, cute smile and sense of humour, was reason enough for his mass, ‘almost fanatical’ following. He sure lived up to the title of being the ‘King of Hearts,’ as he captured the hearts of all his fans young, old, male and female alike. Miss World 2000, Priyanka Chopra opened the show, to a shower of fireworks that were set off in front of the stage. Each performer made their initial appearance, solo, in keeping with a specific theme. ‘Greed’ was Priyanka’s theme, to which she and the dance troupe performed a dance routine appropriate to the theme. Her shimmering costume and sensuous movements had quite an impact on the audience. Relatively new to the scene, Zayed Khan was up next. The flames that engulfed the front end of the stage portrayed his theme, ‘Power,’ to perfection. Clad in black leather and surrounded by either female or male dancers at one time, their moves were quite well synchronised. However, the best was yet to come. As the song was coming to a climactic end, his shirt was quite unexpectedly ripped off by the dancers. It, of course, got the required effect on the crowd. ‘Pretty Preity’ (as Shahrukh referred to her) whose theme was ‘Passion’ appeared next, doing the ‘Charleston,’ a popular dance of the 1920s. In a tasselled, short, red dress she danced, as though she actually lived during that era. The Charleston had excerpts of Madonna’s “Material Girl” which, flowed straight into a dance sequence from the Hollywood hit musical ‘Chicago.’ Running out for a quick change, she was back, this time in full red pants and top, and a hip band which said ‘Disco.’ She went through the moves of the song “It’s The Time To Disco” from her popular film ‘Kal Ho Na Ho.’ She was justly rewarded with thunderous applause by the very appreciative audience who even sang along. ‘Envy’ was Saif Ali Khan’s theme. Dressed in full suit and hat, with a green tie, he played the typical philandering, rich, businessman type. Seated on a chair he sweet-talked girl after girl, to the music. Depicting ‘Lust’ was Femina Miss India Universe 2001, Celina, who was initially facing backwards, perched on the shoulders of two dancers, whilst playing the violin. Last but, hardly least, was the appearance of the ‘main man’ himself. Shahrukh, appropriately portraying ‘Love’ was dressed in full white and virtually came to life from the slides being projected on the back drop. The first few notes of the song were hardly audible as the hysterical screams of his fans resonated throughout the stage. In the middle of his performance, he suddenly went into a popular snippet from ‘Kuch Kuch Hota Hai’ when he actually kicked a ball into the audience. I didn’t even try to imagine what would have become of that ball! A mini, comic skit created especially for the show titled ‘Kal Hona Ho, Parso To Hoga Hi,’ gave a sneak preview into the lives of the rich and famous of Indian society. A special appearance was made by Ganesh Hegde, winner of American Choreography Award 2001, who has trained performers to dance and sometimes sing, for the past ten years. He has choreographed opening acts for the likes of Michael Jackson, Shaggy, Diana King and Apache Indian. He sang a slow, ‘ballad-ish’ song, moving smoothly and effortlessly across the stage. All the actors then proceeded to reveal a few of their hidden talents that they have never before done in their films. Preity did a classical Indian dance, accompanied by the dance troupe, all dressed in bright, colourful costumes. Priyanka sang a medley of her personal favourites off some of her movies. Saif displayed his prowess on the electric guitar and even gifted one of his guitars to one of the spectators whom he took up on stage, much to her delight. The tragic and abrupt end to the concert was close at hand, as Shahrukh took the stage to do a medley of his past movie favourites, along with his female co-stars. Starting with a song from Mohabbatein, followed by the ever famous theme song from ‘Kuch Kuch,’ then one from ‘Devdas,’ ‘Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge,’ ‘Chalte Chalte,’ ‘Kabi Kuchi Kabi Gham’ and one from ‘Kal Ho Na Ho.’ Although another song followed, it was impossible to fathom exactly what it was, as absolute chaos broke out then, for someone decided to shatter the atmosphere of unity, peace and happiness surrounding the entire area, forever destroying the lives of some and the treasured memories of all… |
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