Shankar - Ehsan - Loy (शंकर एहसान लाॅय)

Attended concert of 'Shankar - Ehsan - Loy (शंकर एहसान लाॅय)'. Apart from the trio, musicians were: Soumya Shringarpure on keyboard, Abhay Sharma on Saxophone, Deepak Bhat on Dhol and purcussions, Manoj Sapre on drums, Anupam Ghate on Congo, Prasad Malelkar on dhol and side rhythm, Shyam Pinto electric guitar, Dibya Jyotinath acoustic guitar, Ashish Saxena sound. Accompanying on vocals were Raman Mahadevan and Shrinidhi Ghatate. Joe Mohan was Emcee. Shankar also played the anchor. 

This concert was organised on 28th Nov 2019 by ISC Abu Dhabi as part of annual India Fest. I attended it with Mihika, Aditi and friends. We were seated in the third row right in front of the stage. 

Concert started with Ganesh vandana 'Ekadantay vakratunday', a perfect start. He immediately went into masti mode with 'Dil Chahta hai', 'Rock on' and 'Pretty woman'. He then sung melodic 'Sajda' from film My name is Khan. Next was a Malayalam song that sounded like 'Piccha viccha nal'. It was a sweet sonng that has got Shankar Kerala state award. He also had sawal jawab with saxophone in this song. 

Then he presented 'It's the time to disco' followed by 'Baware baware baware' based on Rajastani folk and 'Bumro Bumro' from film Mission Kashmir based on Kashmiri folk. Then there was a section of percussionists,  where he also introduced the drummer, Congo player and dhol players to the audience. He also had sawal jawab with percussionists. Vocal and percussion sawal jawab was a novelty and audience enjoyed it thoroughly. I thought this would be interval,  but they skipped it and Shankar sung 'Uff teri ada'.

Then he presented a mash up of various songs including a Tamil and a Malayalam song. Request for Marathi song fell on deaf ears due to numerical inferiority of Marathi community. He also had a jugalbandi of akar with audience where he sung a taan and audience followed. Audience did pretty well and Shankar appreciated it. This knack of involving audience kept the audience always engaged and excited. He also had sawal jawab with Saxophone. To entice the audience into masti mode, he also played VVIP against back benchers, ladies against gents etc. 

Next was 'Tu dhup hai' by Raman from film Tare zamin par. Raman has sung the original song as well. Loy then played a solo keyboard piece that transposed into one of their very favorite song 'Har ghadi badal rahi hai'. Shankar then presented one of the most emotional song 'Meri ma' from Tare zamin par. Upon Shankar's recommendation entire audience was waving their mobile torches for this song. It appeared as if literally they were tare zamin par. What a sight! The song is so beautiful and touchy that it brought tears to Aditi's eyes. It was followed by 'Mere man ye bata de tu' and then a small section for Indian classical music lovers that contained variations in sargam.

As the concert approached the end he sung the sing that waltzed Shankar into limelight many years ago; 'Breathless'. Although it was very good, he could not conceal breath. Was it age? Probably he did not get enough rest before this song. Perhaps a break and then this song immediately after break would have done the trick. Last song was Galla gudiyan.

All the songs were either composed by the  trio or sung by Shankar. Shankar encouraged and applauded young talent like Shrinidhi and Abhay.

Shankar presented many variations that are not in the original soundtracks. In some songs he took additions customized for the city. Shankar's maliflous voice ke kya kehne? Everything is possible and nothing seems difficult. It was bliss!

Concert lasted 2 hours. This felt inadequate because of short duration and because you never get satisfied with Shankar. Moreover, I thought that the end was little abrupt and did not reach peak. In my opinion either Breathless or Meri ma should have been the last song. Ye dil mangta raha more.

There were no speakers at the back. Although audience did not mind, had the arrangement been made, it would have enhanced experience for all. A drone was filming the concert and audience.

A special acknowledgement for organizers and artists for starting the concert 4 minutes before time. It was a pleasant and welcome surprise. The open air seating arrangement was comfortable and not cramped. Parking arrangement was also good. 

They had installed multiple LED scenes in the background of stage. In the digital age, the background graphics were very good and designed for each song.

 A very good concert.