By: Selvi (Asst. Webmaster, HrithikRules.com)
Location: San Francisco, CA. Oakland Arena
I went to the Breathless concert in the Oakland Arena in spite of most unformidable circumstances. Boy am I glad I went!!! It was a spectacular show and let me also add that I thought this show was better than the last one. I went for the $100 tickets, hence had a decent seat although I would have liked to be closer and I could not be a part of any of the show interactives.
The show was supposed to start at 7:00pm. We were there around 7:15pm. The auditorium was almost empty at that time. I was very disappointed to see so few people. But as time went on, the auditorium was completely full and 8:15pm the show started. Before the show there was heavy advertising for Main Hoon Naa and the SRK's show that is coming in Aug-Sept.
The show started with Celina Jaitley's 'Aaja Mera Aaja' from Janasheen and she was introduced as beautiful ravishing etc by Sajid Khan’s voice. She was okay, nothing very spectacular.
After her dance number Sajid Khan came on stage introduced himself with some clips showing how he was a part of last years successful films like tere naam, koi mil gaya etc. I think this clip was shown in Filmfare awards or one of the awards that he hosted. Then he went around distributing song cds of Hrithik’s songs that were autographed by Hrithik. He asked a few questions like what was Ash’s first Hindi movie, what was Fardeen first movie, what was Hrithik’s occupation KNPH to give away the cds. These interactive parts get to be boring since it is concentrated on the VIP and VVIP crowds. The reset of the crowd gets really restless.
Then it was Lara who was introduced as beautiful and also how she was in quite a few of the hit numbers of last year. She performed parts of two songs back to back. One was Aisa Jadoo dala re from Khakee and the other one I forgot.
Then it was Shaan. He started of with some slow numbers but soon caught up with toe tapping fast numbers. His voice was mesmerizing and he had a truly amazing presence on stage. He could dance very well too. He really woke and shook up the sleepy crowd. Some of his spicy numbers were the mirchi song and it’s the time to disco.
Next Fardeen came on stage limping and sat down and said that anybody could ask him any questions. Most of the questions were can you go out with me? Can I give you a hug etc. He let many people come upstage and give him a hug. There was this one girl who asked him can you ask Hrithik if he would marry me and he replied “Hrithik is already married to my sister Suzanne”. Then there was this 11 year old boy who asked him how old he was and he said I am old enough to ask you to shut up and sit down.
Then came Ash in the Devdas attire and the stage was set with pillars diyas etc and she did the silsila hai chahat ka with the diya and then Dola re dola song from Devdas. She was very good. She then stopped to say a few words and kept saying how she loved to be in SF. She was totally breathless and hence kept laughing and could not talk much. She kept saying how it is the love and support of her fans that keeps her going. Then she left.
Then it was the moment that the whole auditorium was waiting for. They showed the training clip from Fiza. He was introduced as the most handsome superstar . He came down standing on a ring kind of a thing that was lowered from the roof. There were lasers shooting off in all directions and he was wearing black pants a black leather jacket halfway zipped up and a hat. When he got down, he threw the hat in Micheal Jackson style and took off his coat too to reveal a tight fitting tank top that accentuated his rippling muscles. He then danced to a remix of some of his with fast music. Actually the songs were hardly recognizable since the music was so fast and it was getting drowned by the screams of the audience. (infact I was screaming too so could not pay any attention to the music)
He was just awesome. He moved at the speed of lightning and every move was not only graceful, but powerful. I guess if there was somebody dancing close to him and his hand hit them by chance, they will be on the ground He… Hee… just my imagination. Then at the end he turned showing his back to the audience then took out his tank top. There was spot light just on him. He flexed his muscles and the lights went off leaving a deafening roar from the crowd. He then came back with his jacked half zipped up to address the crowd. How are you San Francisco? I love you all and thanks for being here to support us. He kept smiling and thanking. It was not a very long speech. I thought last time he spoke more and threw heart shaped balloons. This time nothing of that sort.
Next Shaan came back again on stage and he said that he was going to sing some melodious numbers to help everybody relax since everybody was all charged up. He said something like he had to stick top singing since there were so many powerful performers her. He sang some really good songs like kuch to hua hai from KHNH and Chura Liya hai dil ko. His voice was so soothing and I was so glad he performed.
Next it was Fardeen turn again. This time he said that he will be selecting men from the audience to dance his dance numbers with Lara and Celina. First he chose a young guy to do Kambat Ishq hai Jo. That guy was pretty good.
Then he chose a big sardharji to do a number with Celina. He was asking the guy to keep his hands off Celina since she was so hot. After Sardharji was all over the place, literally. He had the huge ponch that was dancing to a different tune than his body. Sorry I was just rolling with Laughter. He asked Celina how the Sardarji did and how she would rate him. She said she would give him a 9.5/10. He then thanked her for being so sportive and she thanked the audience.
Next he chose a 11 year old (the same one who asked him how old he was )to dance with Lara. The boy did a pretty good job and Lara said that she has found a new leading man and if she lasts long enough in the industry, she will love to dance with him.
Then he left and Ash and Duggu came on for a competition/duet mix of songs. They were doing bits of their own movies songs alternating and then they did two duet songs. One was the duet song from Khakee and the other was Mein Idhar Chala Mein Udhar Chala. I am personally not a big fan of Ash but she really looked good with Duggu. They made a hot pair. He was giving her these piercing looks and running his fingers over her..it was electrical.
Then it was Ganesh Hegde and his troop who performed. They were excellent. He also managed to introduced all the dancers by name. Ganesh Hegde was introduced as the Justin Timberlake of India and he sang too. I must say he was very good. The background music was a hot mix of fast music. The dancers were absolutely breathtaking.
Then Hrithik came back again to do his jadoo land act that was done in Screen awards. The one were he goes to Jadoo land and there are some villain aliens and they would kick everybody who do not dance well from the planet. Jadoo gives power to Hrithik by passing electricity that was shown as a projection. Then he comes out and does I am a disco dancer. Then the vilian alien does Dunak Dunak Dun Dunak Dunak Dun Darare Bangara number then he finally does hi sits magic they all become friends. The screen award version was much better because they had better special effects. But if you have not seen screen awards, you are in for a treat.
Next Shaan came back on and did a small Sa Re Gama Pa. He picked out singers from the audience and had three rounds. The people who came up and sang were really good.
Next the grand finale was announced as how love songs have emerged from the 50’s to today. When in the 50’s the heroines and heros would be playing hide and seek behind the trees. Ganesh came up first for a song from the 50 and there was this other guy who was holding a tree in front of him all the time and he was trying to go around it, it was very funny. Then Celina came and then they were running behind each other. There were songs from 60’s. The numbers were very popular ones.
Hrithik was dressed in Dhothi kurta for one song. He just looked so cute. Then he did impersonations of Dev Anand, Mithun Charkaborthy, Shammi Kapoor, Raj Kapoor, Rajesh Kanna, Rishi Kapoor. He was very good and the whole segment was so hilarious. After sometime I lost track of who was doing who since the three heroines, Ganesh and Hrithik came one after the other.
All I could say it was really good especially when it got the 70’s with roop thera mastana and some really weird numbers that were done by Jeetendra. Then for the nineties they had k3g songs, DCH, Ishk Kamina, Kambhat Ishq, Ding dong ding bole, Nikkamma kiya Jis dil mein. The songs were changing so fast but it was a great collection. For the last numbers all the three girls and Ganesh and Hrithik along with all the dancers were on stage.
It was truly Breathless…
After that they all waved and left and I am getting tired of all the typing. I could not sleep for two nights wishing how great it would have been to see him up close. But I was glad I was at least able to go to the show. We were not allowed to take cameras of any sort into the auditorium, but I checked out Kanwal’s pictures they are just great.