Viki's weblogs: Jai 'nahi' in Rahman's Jai Ho concert !

Chennai always has this habit of sophisticating the superlative and suppressing the others. History continued when a huge, 50,000+ galored in MARG Swarnaboomi, a vast-waste land, 100 km from chennai for the A.R.Rahman's JAI HO music concert. As obvious, ticket prices were never been affordable by a 'comman man' (A term recently hyped after kamal hasan's stunner "unnai pole oruvan").

Starting from 5000 Rs, the other ticket prices were 2000, 1000, 500, 300, 200. I went along with my colleagues opting the 500 one. After a 3 horrible hours, we finally managed to snail through the unusual traffic in the ecstatic ECR. A land of around 2 Sq.km been enlightened by giant focus lights.

First shock came when there is no armed forces or an enforcement of bomb detectors. One can easily drive in and repeat a Jallian-wallabagh or the recent Mubai's Taj hotel type of assault. Except for those VVIP's easily sneaked to the front row, the police forces showed very less importance to the 'common man's.

Second shock came when we are showed the seating for 500rs tickets. It was so long from the screen such that people actually started to search, "Where is the stage ?". People who had the 200rs, 300rs tickets didn't mind occupying our seats. Expect for the VVIP's section, no tickets were checked. By the time we managed to find 4 chairs, it was 7:15 PM & crowd was storming in. As the event is supposed to be started at 6, the 100+ minutes delay was totally annoying.

Third shock came when someone started to speak but we don't even know where the stage is & more shockingly, we don't even hear what he was talking. What I heard is just murmors around me. "Onnume kekkala gna", A disappointed wife. A typical chennai youngster, "Aw dude, this sound engineering sucks man !". Almost everyone said "I hardly hear anything".
The only speakers placed was seemed to be the VVIP's section.

It was around 8:30 PM when the 3rd song was completed. All we saw was the mini screen projected placed near us. We don't even know whether it's telecasting a live show or just broadcasting a recorded dvd. We are never in a mood to stay there & decided to call it a day. By the time i went out to 'search' our car among the 5000 others, crowd started to leave in batches. I could hear agony as i walked. A person leading a group, "Why the hell did i spent 40,000 bucks for this ?". Another youngster on the way, Machi, 500 waste பண்ணதுக்கு 5 full ஏத்திட்டு படுத்திருப்பேன் டா". Simply put, no one was satisfied.

It definitely wasn't the maestro's fault. Either the organizers aren't capable enough to handle 60,000+ crowd or they didn't intended to. If it (the money) wasn't for Sakthi Foundation, the concert arena would have become a war zone.

The final shock came when we realized we were actually standing in the 1000 Rs stand !
By that time, we are well on our way back. It's the first time in my life i have been to such a concert and honestly it's not something i would like to remember.

Pictures from my mobile:

1) An elated crowd in the 1000 Rs. stand peeping across the huge crowd trying to catch a glimpse of the oscar winner. It never materialized !