The drive through the E.C.R /O.M.R is always known for ease and has been a source of relaxation. Things were pretty different on Sunday, October 11th 2009. It looked like the happening crowd of Chennai city opted to attend MARG and A.R Rahman's Jai Ho concert far away from the city. From die hard fans to week end entertainment seekers, a few planned family outings and a few solely for music. I was among those few, who expected to dance in the rain of A.R. Rahman's music. Well, I danced; but it was not a music rain but just a drizzle.

It was amazing that the organizer had provided for a free toll ticket -just showing the concert tickets was enough - many chartered buses for free bus trips to concert place and police officials of all cadres standing a few meters apart through out the stretch. All this gave a good feeling until we realized that this place is just not after Mahabalipuram as advertised, but much farther away. Lack of research from an ardent fan like me to madly rush just to be a part of the concert!

The crowd of more than 50,000; this was ARR's first concert in Chennai after winning the Oscar.  The concert had Hariharan, Blaaze, Sadhna Sargam, Chitra etc.. Drums Sivamani also gave his bit of performance too without the singers.  Songs like Mayya Mayya, Jashne Bahar, Chaiyya Chaiyya, were enjoyed by the audience. Almost all songs had portions of Hindi, Telugu and Tamil.

ARR also performed at the concert rendering his favorite compositions including the theme bit of 'Bombay', and 'Rehna Tu' et al... For the fans of different languages, songs were performed in a mix of Hindi and Tamil while later the crowd did feel let down for having more Hindi numbers.  According to a website, Rahman concluded by thanking the audience for their patronization that led him to the Oscar glory and expressed his joy on being present in Chennai.

The concert experience cannot be completed without mentioning the hardships faced at the parking lot, less enthusiastic audience due to the poor audio set up, and all the more the struggle for dinner at that late hours. If only the organizers had thought of organizing food and water facilities at the venue, the experience could have been better. After this entire struggle, the call of next day's work pushed us to leave the concert before its completion.

I remember attending the Changing Notes concert which was held in April 2008, now with a small comparison I feel that the sound system was not up to the mark. The LED screens got stuck once in a while, the place where the seats where empty had no speakers etc. All for you maestro and your music! Fans like us can take all this and even more just for your music. Hoping that there more pleasure and lesser pain for fans in other Jai Ho concerts!