Photos : Anita Gupta
 
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He is the hottest happening singer on the Bollywood
music scene today. He is also the face that has made
SAREGAMA, one of the most watched shows on Indian
television. Shaan came to town on the 20th of January to
give his first ever solo performance at twin concerts in
Charlotte and Atlanta for the Robin Raina foundation in
aid of Tsunami victims.
Robin Raina said in an exclusive interview that it was
actor Sunil Dutt’s daughter Priya who had mentioned
Shaan to him. What touched Robin was the fact that Shaan
had already adopted some underprivileged children that
were part of the Foundation.
“I always thought he was an outstanding singer,” says
Raina, “what I found out later was what a stellar human
being he is. On top of that he is bright and has a
terrific sense of humor. We drove to Charlotte and back
and he kept me in splits with his jokes and imitations
of celebrities from tinsel town all through the
journey.”
The show in Charlotte was a sell out as well. “The
generosity of people there was unbelievable” said Raina,
and added that in spite of the Indian population in
Charlotte being far smaller than that of Atlanta, they
collected more in terms of donations from there. “I
can’t forget this 60 plus woman who came up to me, and
handed over the check and then touched my feet,” recalls
Raina, “I reached over aghast and gave her a hug and
said WHAT you are doing. She burst into tears, and then
I did too…it was a terribly emotional moment, until
Shaan walked over and said hey get a grip over
yourselves! But these moments happen because we have the
compassion to appreciate humanitarian efforts.”
The show in Atlanta was held on the 22nd, and was very
well attended. It began with a video clip about the
Raina Foundation and its work in India. Robin Raina then
came on stage and talked about how initially the concert
had been planned to benefit the Foundation’s work with
underprivileged children. “Then Tsunami happened and
changed everything. People opened up their hearts and
contributed all over the world,” said Raina and added
that everyone can relate to the religion of pain and
suffering. The foundation now plans to adopt two
villages, one in Port Blair, and another in Chennai and
rehabilitate people there. Raina says he felt that while
the donations have poured in there is confusion about
how to dispense them in the most helpful way. “There is
no point giving fishermen clothes. They need a boat and
fishing net and if you provide them with sanitary
conditions they will find a way to generate income.”
Raina said to make sure the funds his foundation
received were utilized in the best possible way he
decided to head to smaller areas, adopt them, utilize
every penny and make an impact. The places will not just
be adopted by the Raina Foundation but also by Atlanta
and to have that happen talks were going on with
officials to see how they could help and be a part of
this endeavor.
The show began with standup comedy by Aaron Tikkoo who
works for Ebix and Neeraj Mehra a famous mimicry artist
who used to dub for actor Mithun Chakraborty and
presently dubs for a number of stars on the NDTV comedy
show - Gustakhi Maaf. The due did impersonations of
famous film stars, added fun jokes to the repertoire and
had people cracking up at their wise cracks throughout
the 4 hour show.
The show was livened up by sizzling dances by the local
dance group” Silent Killer which were choreographed by
Prem Rehman.
This was followed by the entry of up and coming singer
female Varsha Mathur, who gave a flawless rendition of
Jadu hai Nasha Hai, from Jism, Kaisa Jadu dala re from
Khakee and the block buster Dhoom Macha le from the film
Dhoom.. Kumud Savla then showcased the talent of her
students from Nritya Natya Kala Academy, the dance
school she runs and they ranged from 9 year old kids to
teenagers. The stage was a panorama of color as they
danced to “Aisa Desh Hai Mera” from Veer Zara. The
audience later commented that the dances really added to
the show.
As the song was ending Shaan and Robin Raina entered
dancing with the kids. Robin also acknowledged Air India
and Air Tran for picking up the airfare of the singers
and the troupe. He then asked Shaan and the
representative from Air India to help him inaugurate the
new glossy magazine in town-Lifeline.
Robin said that the idea of having a magazine like
Lifeline was borne out of the fact that “there is no
publication today that spreads the message of hope and
healing to the people, in a consistent manner. The fact
that the Bhopal tragedy was forgotten so soon made me
feel that a publication needs to be brought out that can
keep issues like tsunami alive. The
goal of lifeline is to be the voice of the
under-privileged while updating all about the hope that
can be imparted to these folks by all of us - by showing
examples from the past as also showing a clear direction
in terms of what needs to be done.
The magazine will initially be distributed to all the
donors spread across the world by
mail, sponsors as also will be kept at all major Atlanta
outlets like global
mall, filmfare, planet bollywood, taj imports etc. In
coming days, we would look
at the possibility of distributing it in India too.
After that it was Shaan all the way- the charming singer
came sang and conquered. His warmth, kindness and
exceptional musical capabilities had the crowd dancing
in the aisles. Each song was greeted with screams from
the audience. Shaan sang all his popular hits from his
private albums, specially the block buster Tanha Dil and
songs from his latest offering Aksar, which he dedicated
to his wife Radhika. He also sang popular Bollywood
numbers from Jhankar Beats, Hum Tum, Main Hoon NA, Main
Prem Ki diwani hoon, Lakshya, Munna Bhai MBBS,Dil Chahta
hai. The audience screamed at musumusu from Pyar mein
kabhi kabhi which was his first song for a film and
catapulted him to fame, to name a few. His soulful
rendition from Aksar was heard in pin drop silence.
Shaan also gleefully mentioned that while he got to sing
exactly three and a half lines in ghanan ghanan from
Lagaan, he was now delighted to be singing the entire
song. He nailed every line to perfection.
All through the performance Shaan kept everyone regaled
with his instant wit, humor and warmth. Back stage he
met with all the little kids, took pictures, signed
autographs in spite of little sleep and a hectic
schedule.
The Shaan show was special also because Raina had
decided he was going to showcase local talent. He asked
Prem Rehman to get his popular troupe Silent Killers
together and in a little over month’s notice they came
up with spectacular dances throughout the show.
Kumud and Sandeep Savla are well known in the community
for their contribution to Indian music and dance, apart
from being very unassuming and humble. Raina had
promised Sandeep that he would get him involved in the
show. The music was taken care of by Sandeep. “In fact
when Shaan came in he was not very confident about the
idea of using local talent, but I knew Sandeep’s worth
and stuck to my guns,” says Raina. “Shaan had arrived on
the 20th pretty late and we left early morning the next
day for Charlotte. He had very little time to rehearse
with Sandeep, but he was completely bowled over by the
quality of their music and their professionalism!”
The Savlas had perhaps a couple of weeks to get down to
business. Sandeep says they received an incomplete list
of Shaan’s songs, around December end, managed to hear
some of them, couldn’t find others, but got a grip on
things pretty quickly. “Just before the show in
Charlotte Shaan said these are the songs we will be
singing till the interval-that is how spontaneous it was
and at such short notice. We had a list of about 70
songs but we were prepared with most of them!” Sandeep
Savla added they were very wary before Shaan arrived not
knowing what kind of a star he was. “He turned out to be
the kindest, most accommodating person we have ever
met,” said Sandeep who also added that he was amazed by
the fact that in spite of being an entrepreneur, Robin
Raina and his team did such a spectacular job of putting
this show together. “He is also such a down to earth
human being. It was a pleasure working with him.”
The musicians did a marvelous job of keeping pace with
Shaan. There were several songs that Shaan sang
spontaneously and also took requests. Ajit Pasegaonkar
lives in New jersey, has toured with Lata Mangeshkar and
has played bass and Spanish guitar, on her shows. Ashok
Matthews on electric guitar and guitar synthesizer has
toured with Sonu Nigam among many other celebrities and
lives in Connecticut, rhythms expert Pappu Franks has
lived here for 32 years and is self taught but is a
rhythm genius, says Savala-he can do the work of 10
people, and was the backbone of the group. Kalpesh Patel
was on drums. He also sings in the voice of Shamshad
Begum and actor Salman Khan’s company is coming out with
his cd which is a Shamshad Begum remix. He is from
Edison New Jersey as well. Local artsist Sohel Ali who
has been working with Sandeep for past few months and is
an emerging talent also accompanied Sandeep on key
board.
Kumud Savla took barely a week of weekend practice to
get her girls ready to dance to the Veer Zara song. It
was greatly appreciated by the audience.
The show ended past 2 a.m, and every one had a great
time. It was interesting to see what a mixed audience
there was- from teeny boppers to little kids who went on
stage and danced with Shaan, to people in their late
sixties and 70s and they stayed for the entire duration
of the show. Raina says every thing has not been
tabulated but he is confident that the concerts raised
close to 50,000 dollars for the Tsunami victims.
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