Bollywood Dhamaka, a fantastic musical evening. The program started on time and it was almost a full house [about 500 people]. The instrumentalists were fantastic and supported the vocalists well. The band consists of a drummer, a bass player and guitarist, Keyboards, Tabla and Alto-Sax/key Flute. The Sax player Ramesh was simply outstanding. I have never seen an Indian sax player with such musical body language while playing, he was moving all round the stage and was pumping air to generate fantastic music. I had an informal chat with him, he plays jazz in NYC and he is actually from the West Indies.

Vocalists, Rajag need no introductions, from the word go he simply rocked audience with his vocals and stage presence. RajaG has lots of Spb Built in him – a compliment, [he also looked similar on stage] and however surprise! Being a Hindi show, there was very minimal SPB references in vocal Tone. His modulation was more of Kishore Kumar and Rafi. I never heard him sing this fashion and was amazed.

In my opinion the Sangathees and placements he sang for manjolai kilithano was better than original. Also RajaG played the MC role, after every song he gave tidbits and explained the composition with raga quotations from few other songs etc, this added lots of value to the show.

Alisha - had lots of local following, when she walked on stage I heard lots of applauses already. She was as amazing as she used to be in the studio, this is rare quality for singers. Be it Recording or live, Alisha’s singing sounded just the same – fantastic talent. After the show I told her that she is so famous now, very soon I would have to take an appointment to schedule a recording with her. Though I joked, for the amount talent she has - I wish this happens;

Rohini, another Local female vocalist from Dc area, already had some of her fans out sitting in the crowd. She sang all the numbers with ease and was never tensed. More than anything her range in the lower octaves got my attention. She seems to have the husky tonal quality that would work best for modern rowdy teen songs.

There are certain things this band was different from others I have seen. 1st All of them met just 2 hours before the show. The musicians or the vocalists did not have any tension or stage pressure. This is a great quality. I have seen bands where most of the members would shift into a fussy mode and will be touchy just before the show. Pressure will eat them alive. Here it was different; I did not witness any tension or pressure on or off stage. Musicians kept really cool and coordinated well with the lead singers’. In the professional circuit I have seen bands in Chennai, where they will have one good leader who is in charge and will have a good control over the production. When you have one good band leader giving instructions and everyone following it things seems to work well, here it was Rajag. He controlled the execution very well.

There were about 30 songs in the program. Every thing was done well; my song of the Evening Vote goes to Kora Kagaz Tha from Aradhana. This fantastic S.D.Burman classic was sung by RajaG and Rohini. This song still keeps ringing in my ears. Maine Chukar Dekha Hai by Alisha from the movie Black [Music: Monty], it was an excellent composition which she rendered it to perfection.

With singers from 3 different generations, and band of professional musicians, the whole evening was a fantastic experience. Frankly I never expected it to be this good. Kudos to the Organizers from the Art of living foundation - Mr. Bhasker and his team of volunteers for a fun filled evening. It was really worth spending my money and my precious time.