By - Ameeta
Sorry for taking so long. I know u must eager to hear what happened, but coming home so late and having to deal with the family - cooking and the kids and putting to sleep and catching up on sme sleep myself - it took me parctically the whole day to do this write up. Every spare moment I had I spent writing what I could remember for u.
Preamble (haha getting a bit formal here)
In a few short words the show was fantabulous! Duggu was great! I just wish there was more of him. Btw, they promised a four hour show, but it lasted almost six and a half hours. With getting out of the stadium and then out of the parking I only got back home at 3 o'clock. It was a great show - certainly a night to remember. I hope you guys get to see it soon. They mentioned that it would soon be aired on Sahara TV - a local channel of India. I just hope I remember -everything.
THE show itself
Well first of all they had the South African welcome to the stars. They had theall kinds of african drums going thump thump and gudoong gudoong gudoong, :-)They beat was great, true african style. As they did this different styles of dancers came on stage - african tribal, european ballets and indian style kathak abd bharath nathyam. All
looking very spectacular - displaying the variegatedness of South African heritage.
Then came the fabulous Raageshwari. She looked truly stunning. She had two songs and then introduced the "Bollywodd teeny Bopper" as she put it. So there on stage was Miss Pooh - u all know who I am talking about - it was Kareena all dressed in a Miss Pink Cat outfit, (just kidding - a bit on my synicism) but he was all dressed up in pink. They also the It's Raining Men number. I did wonder what all the hype is about her not dancing so well, because she did do quite a good job. Maybe it takes her a bi of a while - but the end was good. NEway Duggu always says that he has to practice a lot before he gets his steps right. Hey, hey, hey - don't get me wrong I am not a big Kareena fan - just trying to see things a little objectively and giving credit if its due.
By the way after each of the stars gave their performance - they would disappear back stage. Raageshwari and the crowd would scream for them to come back to say a few words. Then the say their hello's and how happy they are to be here in Durban, etc. etc. And the some musical artist would sing a song or two. There was Sadhana Sargam, Sapna Mukherjee, Sunidhi Chuahan and Chetan Rana and off-course Raageshwari herself. Sometimes they did solos and other times Cheta Rana sang with one the ladies. Raageshwari did one song almost towards the end with her dad. She got off the main stage and onto the ground. Off-course there were all these guys in red (security) making a
path for her and just making sure that she was ok. I think all this singing is what made the show really so long. But they sang some really nice songs including Whitney Houston's "I will always love u".
Hah after the first singer Chetan Rana's performance was Yours truly make that ours truly Duggu - the overnight success after his first film. The green eyed boy whose is the the most exquisite and fabulous dancer. She said other things I can't remember the quote. Anyhow, all dressed up in the classic black leather thing - he did the most exquisite dancing. I haven't seen this in any of the movies before! Stunning Stunning stunning! Wow - for me it was really breath-taking - maybe because I am so crazy about him and I love dance so much - his body grooving to the beat and the rhythms in such exquisite and calculated motion. There was some moonwalking, break dancing on the floor. Oooh now that I remember it again it was brilliant. No one else except the choreographer could do a performance like that. Speaking of whom I will tell u something about Ganesh Hedge a little later as the story of the show goes on. Neway, I don't know if this was planned or what, but it sort of seems like a trend, well at least it is the second time I have seen Duggu do this. A little gets up to the stage and does a little jig with him. She was very sweet. Matched him too - she was dressed in all black - jumping and all trying to do the same as Duggu. Big hugs and kisses for this little girl - oohh so lucky!! Neway after a sort of short, but breath-taking performance, it was time for another song.
Then came "Miss Pretty woman walking down the street." That is the way that Rraageshwari introduced her. First she had a veil covering her and then she quickly disappeared and came back with less clothes, no veil and open hair. She gave a good performance. After her came "the girl with the champagne colored eyes and the husky voice" - Miss Rani. Her entrance was grand - coming from the top sitting on a swing, dressed all in red and veil covering her face. The crow really loved her. So far I think they cheered them most for her. A blue convertible came on stage giving her ride across to the other side and down to the audience. Everybody was going crazy, but I don't think she went very far, 'cos She came back up pretty soon. She thanked the crowd for their love and appreciation. I think she was here before, she said that they loved her just a much after two films then and now after twenty they still show her so much love. For me, when she spoke it felt so real and spontaneous, maybe that's why the crowd loves her - cos one can sense her reality even though she may appear complicated one feels a genuineness about her. Neway, as you can see I have a biased opinion towards Rani.
One of the singers performed more songs and I think it was time for SRK to make his appearance. I have to tell u that the Durban crowd is definitely an SRK fan crowd. I was disappointed. Even when they were interviewing guys on radio lotus - most of them said they were there to see SRK. I told my family if nebody asks us, we are all here to see Hrithik! They just laughed at me. SRK also came from the *ceiling* of the stage in a sort of box. Raags had said something about him setting our hearts or so on fire. As he was doing his descent he was busy blowing fire in all directions. The crowd was literally roaring for him. Needless to say, I was wishing they were this crazy about Duggu. NEhow, SRK is a much more established actor with these crowds. He did some great numbers and spiffy moves.
More singing, I can't remember who sang what now, but then there was Shilpa Shetty and Sushmita Sen. I can't remember who appeared first.
Either way Shilpa came on one of those Durban rickshaw things. Looking very splendid and grand. Sushmita also looked very stunning. Actually they were all dressed in fabulous outfits and I think that they gave the best of themselves. One very admirable and notable thing about all the stars was that they moved throughout the stage. The didn't just keep the center spot. They moved as far to the left and right as they could, so even those who were at sky height could get a good view of them. They kept acknowledging all their fans especially those who were seated very far away from the stage. I am not sure if they coached about this or what - it almost seemed like each and every one of them made a point of it.
After a few more songs came Mr Sanjay Dutt. He made his entrance from the grounds, so it was a bit of walk wearing his black leather stuff. He had this long trailing jacket. After the first song he threw of his jacket showing us his very spiffy sort-of vestish t-shirt. I think being an older star, he also has quite a fan base here. Karishma also had a sort-of grand appearance. She came from the top. Somehow I think that audiences weren't so ecstatic.
More songs and then came the Big B. Crowd was crazy, especially since it is also his idea to put this show together. Dressed all in black he did his Shava Shava from K3G with the girls in short dresses like in the movie. When the Rahul part of the song came on, SRK did another appearance and then Rani also came in. It was awesome with the three of them Crowds were roaring. Btw when SRK came in he did the good son thing, touched his *dad's* feet and then a big hug - oh so sweet!
Then Kareena did another dance to the music of Ashoka - sa sa ni sa ....Interestingly enough they didn't pair her with Duggu for any of their songs. With Bole Chudiya at the end, she was with SRK and Later Duggu did the Oh My Darling alone. After Kareena's solo came Duggu and Preity for Bumburo and Vinde poshe ma. Duggs was dressed all in
cream with a tassly effect all the way from the knee down - something like a zulu warrior effect, :-) . He dedicated Sitaare ... "to his father -the man who made it all possible for him" as he said. After his number he ran down from both sides into the crowd. Unfortunately only if u were right in the front, u could see him. More singing and then came SRK. This was really nice - interacting with the crowd and I think 4 people will never forget this night for the rest of their lives. SRK did a bit of dialogue from Devdas. Then he was looking for a girl who would dance with him for Ahumbole from Josh. All the people who went up to stage were such great sports and they were rewarded well. He gave the first girl a jacket, which he signed. Needless to say she was ecstatic. Then he was looking for someone to dance to Pardes. He gave this one a live size picture of himself. Then a guy came on. He got a guitar. Before this guy left SRK asked him if he can singa song. He started singing Kabhi Kabhi and then they both sang it together. And finally another girl got another of his jackets. He autographed each of the things he gave away. Off- course when they got on stage he had a little chat of sorts finding out the names, what they do, how many children, etc. And making jokes out of some of the answers etc. The audience had great fun. And I think those guys will never forget that moment. Some of them just kept hugging him, :-)
More songs again. Then Big B came on. Did some dialogue from Kabhi Kabhi, Deewar namak haram and one more. Then he sang Mere Aanganeme. For each jhiski biwi - he called another lot of biwi - mauti's chauti's, lambe's, kali's and gauri's. They had lots of fun dancing and hugging him. The security guys seemed to get a bit worried there, but
evreything was okay. After that Big B invited Sadhna Sargam to do a classical number - great sa sa ni pa pa ni sa ...
After this Raageshwari acknowledged all the dancers were dancing non-stop. She called Ganesh Hedge. Asked him to sing a song. After that he did a little dance performance. The guy is fabulous. He was so smooth and exact. The only one who could do Duggu's dance sequence better than Dugg's himself. I recognized the sequences that Duggu did. I have to admit again - Ganesh's dancing phenomenal. Then Raageshwari came down to do her number with the crowd that she promised. This one she sang with her dad.
By this time I thought that the show was coming to an end. It seemed like cos they were acknowledging dancers and choreographers, so I thought it must be coming to a close. At this point we almost left - so that we could avoid the rush. Luckily we stayed a bit, else we would have missed the best parts. After Raageshwari's performance she introduced "the 4 men in black" Amithabh, SAnjay, SRK, and Duggu. Each off-course in their MIB suits. Duggu was wearing glasses - it was the Raj look from Kaho Na Pyaar Hai. This item was so much fun. Each of the guys sang bits of songs from movies they acted in and the rest followed and tried to do the dance moves. It didn't seem choreographed to me. I noticed Duggu checking what the others were doing and did the same. Duggu did the kaho na pyaar he, pyaar ke kasti, oh my darling, you r my sonia. I think the MIB themselves had great fun doing this. I think one or two songs more and then the grand finale. Bole Chaudiya was the closing song. Started with Miss Pooh appearing first, SRK,
Duggu (in his bole chudiya outfit ) and then the others came in. Can't remember the sequence so well. I think by this time everybody was so exhausted including the stars themselves. My brother said he saw Preity looking very tired. After their bows etc. they were still on stage throwing kisses and waving etc. and then Duggu did something funny. I think it was Preity who he carried and pretended as if he was gonna throw her into the crowd. And that was the end of the show.
It was long but quite a lot of fun. I heard many people say that they got their money worth. Everybody seemed happy. Overall I think that the whole show ran very smoothly. So, that's all folks. This is what I remember and it is my account of what I saw last night. As much as I admired other stars for their performances, I am still absolutely Du-crazy.
I just tried to be honest and objective about all the performances.
ttfn,
Ameeta
PS. I haven't spell-checked, so don't mind the errors. I am still so tired -so don't mind me. Btw, Reena in the Souvenir Brochure it says, "Don't miss the SA Television premiere of the Now or Never Concert only on E" Let me know if u see an ads for when they might screen it.