Tuesday, March 28, 2006

Bollywood @ The Bowl

Last Saturday as part of the Festival Melbourne2006 there was a free Bollywood concert at the Sidney Myer Music Bowl just behind Alexandra Gardens. This show was organised by the delegates from India who will be hosting the next Commonwealth Games in Delhi.

Because this was the only show and because it was free we knew we had to get there quick if we wanted to get a good view of the stage or even just to get in! We arrived at 4 o'clock and there was already a queue forming!

On the entrance of the Bowl there was a list of all the things that are not allowed into the venue like alcohol, any kinds of drink bottles that are opened, weapons (huh?) chairs, skateboards...the list goes on.

The show doesn't start until 7.30 pm and they won't let people in until 5.30 pm so we had to wait in the stinking hot sun for an hour and a half! Meanwhile the queue was getting longer and longer until it reached St. Kilda road which was about 1 km away!

Finally came 5.30 pm and everyone had to go through bag checks to make sure none of the prohibited things were smuggled in. Terese decided to carry the bag leaving me with no bag for security check so I could go in first to secure good seats and it paid off! We were seated 6th row from the stage which was pretty good!

The late comers didn't even get a seat but they were able to sit on the lawn behind which was ok with some people but I don't think I like to sit all the way back here with or without a big screen.

Come 7.30 pm we still had to endure a speech from Mary Delahunty who is the Minister for Arts telling us what a wonderful job the government is doing spending our tax dollars for the Commonwealth Games! After her Indira Naidu a TV presenter from SBS was our announcer for the rest of the evening. By this time everyone was getting excited from the anticipation!

Finally the performers came out from the back, an entourage coming down the aisle amidst roaring cheers and applause! Most of the audience were of Indian descent and they were cheering their guts out!

I've never seen so many Indians in one place in Australia! This was the first time I've ever been to a Bollywood concert! Actually I can't remember the last time I went to a concert!

These are the Bollywood dancers, you can be forgiven if you think they're not very Indian that's because I believe they are local dancers! Can't bring everyone over from India!

And this is the star of the night, Indian's rising star Miss Sunidhi Chauhan who has sang in 100 Hindi movies so I heard! Sorry Yvy if you were expecting Aishwarya Rai I'm sorry to disappoint you. She's at the Closing Ceremony but not here tonight.

The show started with the joyous Jaipur Kawa Brass Band, all the way from Rajasthan and the Musafir Gypsies before they had to take 20 minute break to reset the stage for the main attraction.

This is the lady everyone came here to see tonight, Sunidhi Chauhan! The audience went ballistic! I felt so out of place. She actually has a really good voice!

All her songs were in Hindi but she did do 1 english song originally by Whitney Houston from The Bodyguard movie, I can't remember what its called!

Halfway through the concert the audience was getting more and more excited and they were starting to let their hair down! They were singing and dancing in the aisles from the very young to the very old! I've never thought Indians love to dance so much!

Sunidhi had a strong stamina, she didn't even take a break, only to swap costumes quickly and she's back on stage again rocking away much to everyone's delight. We were enjoying the show too though I couldn't shake my ass like them!

By the end of the show everyone was standing! No one was sitting, everyone was jumping up and down, singing and dancing with Sunidhi. Indians love to dance, why can't Chinese love to dance like them I wondered. Chinese are too stiff and boring!

When it was time to say goodbye, people were shouting encores begging Sunidhi to do 1 more song and 1 more song until she couldn't delay the inevitable anymore and had to call it the night.


There was fireworks outside to finish off the evening! I didn't get to capture any of it coz I couldn't get a nice view of it from inside. It was a night to be remembered. I've never knew Bollywood could be this much fun. I saw it in the movies but this was the first time I experienced it first hand!

Watch Sunidhi performs below;


12 comments:

Anonymous said...

Knock! Knock!
May I come in to make comments? ;)
Of course mah! I've got to ask 1st...since you said that you are scared of me on JC's. hehe

Hey! Mr Snake King! Now I know why you have been writing so much about "lau-chua". Haha :)

Thanxs again, mate!

Anonymous said...

Btw... that song from "The Bodyguard" is 'I will always love you'.

Anonymous said...

Chinese too stiff, u say! Gee! Isn't that good to be "stiff" and standing??? Ha ha ha! When I saw them at the closing, my 1st thought was: Gosh! So many "lau chua" and told QV. QV said they came to pay respects to King Wuching!

Anonymous said...

Wow what a night to remember.
Ohh yeah Bollywood rock!

Wuching said...

siao cha bor: i want to see u shake ur bon bon!

amelia: this is not lau chua story, we went on saturday night so no need to catch snake to go..thankz for the name of that song, i forgot! duh!

STP: si tua pui! lak sak nau u have! & what lau chua at the closing? chee sing! QV was right to pay respect to king snake here, so should u!

che-cheh: it was my 1st time at bollywood concert & it was fantastic!

Anonymous said...

Well, wuching! Wise men think alike, fools seldom differ...! It takes two to tango! Oops! Nope! Am not asking u to tango with me! Cannot lah! So tuapui, my pot belly gets in the way!

Jeremy C said...

yeah - bollywood rawks, babee...!!

"...kuch kuch hota hei..."

Wuching said...

STP: oh i know u want to tango, u can tango with KNB mah!

jeremy: yeah baby!

Robin Wong said...

wahh...
first hand bollywood experience !! Syookness...

hcpen said...

wah...so jealous u managed to see the show....i went as well but by the time we arrived there, it was FULLY PACKED and a long queue of ppl were outside with the place shut off....so we only got to sit outside chatting and listening to the music...sad...

Anonymous said...

hi, i was one of the dancers. great blog piece on the concert and would love to share it with friends, but some of them may be a little sensitive towards the content in other posts you have in there. is there a way you can send me just the piece on the concert ( ie the pics and video file along with what you wrote)?

marshie_perera@yahoo.com

Wuching said...

hcpen: sorry u didn't get to go inside, it was really cool!

marshie: which one were u? why do u think my posts r sensitive? they're just good clean fun! anyway, u could just go directly to the permalink here; http://wuching.blogspot.com/2006/03/bollywood-bowl.html but u can still find ur way back to the main page & other posts..