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Nagpur is growing at its own pace and recently the pace of growth is being accelerated due to many political, economical and social reasons. While global brands are recognising us as good consumer market, other companies are also seeing potential in engaging with Nagpur consumers through various platforms.
On Saturday, 17th Jan, 2015, Seagram’s popular brand Royal Stag took an opportunity to reach out to its customers through its association with the MTV Unplugged. Through this Royal Stag MTV Unplugged concert tours, Amit Trivedi was chosen as performer for Nagpur. Nagpur must thank Royal Stag for this choice as Amit Trivedi’s Music is closely followed by music lovers.
Amit Trivedi’s Music can be said are most refined level of fusion. It has unforgettable mix of melody, peppy beats, unique blend of traditional instruments like Shehnai, Sitar and western instruments like Saxophone and sometimes even Bagpipe too. His songs are mostly lyrically rich and thus have better longevity.
Most of his songs have a life or story of their own. It starts differently, flows in the middle differently and ends differently. The orchestration and music arrangement is not just copy paste of Mukhada, antara, antara type. At every moment in the song, the song has a different flavor. Due to these unique differentiators, his music gets time to grow on the common listeners. But once it does, it can become a life time favorite.
For, his fans, Amit Trivedi’s work is piece of musical genius and brilliance. For them, he is like a God of Music. To be frank, for me too. So the new of concert had a lot of ripples around his music lovers. But as it was an invite only event for CP Club members and their guests, many true fans of his music, could not get the chance to attend his perform live.
An enclosed auditorium is always better for unplugged concerts, but otherwise, CP club provided a classy venue for it. Ample parking, secure atmosphere and filtered crowd. All this helped in being the event as a good success.
There were no hassles at the entry gate and the inside layout was properly planned. Stage had seating arrangements
Amit Trivedi performing live in Nagpur
for pure music lovers and after a gap there were table arrangements for the ones who enjoy the music along with wine. A food stall was available for some quick snacks.
It was a small stage with an almost non existing mosh pit followed by rows of chairs placed very closely. A bigger area for all 3 parts could have been better.
Good part was the time discipline followed at the concert. It started on time and closed on time. Although, they played for 1.5 hrs only, it was a perfectly satisfying set while leaving the audience crave for more (a sign that it was good).
Ankit had few words with the Audience explaining about MTV unplugged and immediately started doing what he does best, playing the music and singing. He opened the concert with his famous song, “Ha Raham, ha Raham”, from the film “Amir”. It set the mood for the concert and audience got involved immediately.
As soon as the song finished, audience started shouting their song requests. Amit skillfully handling the crowd and interacting with them and then he dropped “Nayan Tarase” next in the set which got loud shot-outs and sing-alongs from audience. It continued throughout the next songs, “Badra Bahar”, “Pardesi”.
He changed the atmosphere with the next songs, “Manjha” sung by Divya Kumar, “Zinda”, “Ektara”, “Mithi Boliyan” sung by “Mili Nair” and then “Yatra”. “Pareshan” and “Ishaqzade” was played too charging the atmosphere with its rock base.
Then came Amit Trivedi’s favorite (as per him) number from “Udaan” that touches everyone’s heart “Azadiyan”. It mesmerized them audience and drenched them completely with emotions and musical pleasure.
After such lyrically enthralling musical feast, Amit Trivedi took complete control of the crowd playing his foot tapping numbers. He got everyone stand up and dance to his tunes to which the audience obliged with fervor. One after the another dance numbers were played and everyone enjoyed every beat of it.
Amit Trivedi was ably accompanied by Mili Nair, Devya Kumar and Arun Kamath, not only providing backing vocals but providing replacement of original singers in few songs. All the musicians playing Drums, Base Guitar, Acoustic Guitar, Keyboard, Shehnai, Saxophone, etc were outstanding in their performance. They blended in and stood out whenever required. Got applause from audience too.
Overall, it was a musically enriching experience. There were some glitches though. The stage being small, and stage plot being too cramped, the lead Singer was not isolated from the clutter properly. In fact, people were asking “Where is Amit Trivedi?”
A better unplugged kind of production was possible using the lights properly like keeping the stage dark and spot-lighting the respected singer or prominent instrument player as and when required. Sound equipment used were top notch but Sound engineer could have configured the sound better. In fact, Amit Trivedi’s sound had some problem. Everyone else was sounding better than him. Also the sound was not very well rounded. Once ears got accustomed to it, it was ok but could have been better. The concert producers/executors should have given attention to details in these aspects.
Barring these issues, it was a one memorable night for life time. With a decent audience around responding properly to the music being played, the overall fun multiplied. Thanks Royal Stags for choosing Amit Trivedi for Nagpur. Kudos to you for that!
Rating:
(An extra star for our lead performer, Amit Trivedi!)
–Prashen Kyawal
