Shreya Ghoshal

Mandar's concert report

Attended a concert of Shreya Ghoshal. Shreya was accompanied by male singer Kinjal Chatopadhyaya and supported by a number of musicians. Abhishek  (Keyboard), Prasanna (Flute), etc. The program was anchored by Sahil. This concert was organised by India Social and Cultural Center on 16th Nov 2018 at ISC rooftop. I attended the concert with Mane, Patil, Oak families, Priya, Santosh, Aditi and Mihika.

Concert started with Kinjal, who set the stage for Shreya's entry.  He sung three songs 'Tere mere sapne', 'O mere dilke chain' and 'Tuhi re'.

Shreya made her entry with a shimmering silver evening gown. She started with 'Kahate hai diwani Mastani to gayi' from film Bajirao Mastani. She has won Filmfare and many other awards for this song.  She followed it with 'Bahara bahara' from film I hate luv stories,  'Jadu hai nasha hai' and 'Tum mile dil khile'.

She then sung songs of Rahman 'Aja main Bahron mein' and 'Muze sans ayi'. Then they sung 'Manwa lage'  from film Happy New year, 'Main tenu samzawan ki', 'Shukran Allah' from film Kurbaan, 'Tere masta masta do nain' from Dabangg, 'Main wari jawan' and 'Dhire dhire' from movie Tango Charli. To appease majority local audience she also sung two Malayalam songs back to back. 

She then sung 'Rabta' from movie Agent Vinod followed by 'Pinga' from film Bajirao Mastani. Audience enjoyed this song very much. 'Barso re megha' and 'Ye ishq hai'. 'Nagare sang dhol baje' from film Ram Leela was the last song before she took a break. 

Kinjal filled the gap of Shreya"s absence by singing mukhdas of various songs like 'Aj janeki jid na karo', 'Ranjish hi sahi', 'Abhi na jao chodkar', 'Eshan tere hoga muzpar' and 'Kehna hai'.

Shreya reentered with a section dedicated to old songs. It was a medley of 'Chaudhvi ka chand', 'Wo sham kuch ajib thi', 'Kabhi kabhi', 'Aapki nazron ne samjha', 'Ab to hai tumse', 'Kya janu sajan', 'Aa Janejan', 'Piya tu ab to aaja' and 'Dum maro dum'. Speciality of this section was that she started every song unconventionally from antara, not mukhda. Shreya sung this section mostly on chords and audience sung with her. She then reluctantly moved to new songs of her own.

'Zubi dubi zubi dubi' from Three idiots, 'Karle maiden fateh' from Sanju, 'Uh lala' from film Dirty Picture, 'Radha teri chunri' from Student of the year, 'Chikni chameli' from Agneepath and 'Ghoomar' from Padmavat.

She then sung another Malayalam song in seven beats and turned back to Hindi with 'Teri meri meri teri prem kahani' of film Bodyguard. Then she moved back to regional with a Tamil song of Rahman and a Kannada song. 

In the last section she sung 'Tuzmein rab dikhta hai' from film Rab ne banadi jodi, 'Teri ore' from film Sing is king and then Bengali 'Ekla chalo re' of Rabindranath Tagore, 'Lagja gale', 'Sun raha hai' from Ashiqui 2 and concluded the concert with 'Mere dholna sun' from film Bhool Bhulaiya.

Shreya has a beautiful voice and She is an accomplished singer. Although she had the ipad on stand,  she hardly looked at it for lyrics,  she had them by heart. Even the non Hindi ones. Kinjal is also a very good singer and we will see more of him in future. 

Sahil, the anchor, tried to say a number of Shers, but many of them were poorly composed or not really rhyming. They sounded more Gadhe (गधे) than Sher (शेर).

Shreya made a faux pass in the beginning by thanking ISIS instead our ISC, but quickly rectified. She announced names of musicians but we were not able to pick all the names in the melee. Concert was supposed to start at 9 pm, but stated an hour late.

Lights on stage were overdone. Moreover, too many times harsh lights were thrown on audience, hurting eyes. It was irritating. Sound system was good but the audience at the very back complained that they could not hear clearly. 

Seating arrangement left a lot to be desired. We were seated half way down the seating area and the stage was at the same level as us,  so we were hardly able to see the stage relying on screens and ears. A graded arrangement is a must when the audience is more than thousand. 

All the songs were good and popular. Shreya is an excellent singer and musicians were good too. So the concert should have been wow! But somehow,  I felt that something was missing. Can't put a finger on it. Open air did not help either. 

Entertainment rating 7/10.