BY KAVITA CHHIBBER

He is the hottest happening singer on the Bollywood music scene today. He is also the face that has made SAREGAMA, one of the most watched shows on Indian television. Shaan came to town on the 20th of January to give his first ever solo performance at twin concerts in Charlotte and Atlanta for the Robin Raina foundation in aid of Tsunami victims.

Robin Raina said in an exclusive interview that it was actor Sunil Dutt’s daughter Priya who had mentioned Shaan to him. What touched Robin was the fact that Shaan had already adopted some underprivileged children that were part of the Foundation.

“I always thought he was an outstanding singer,” says Raina, “what I found out later was what a stellar human being he is. On top of that he is bright and has a terrific sense of humor. We drove to Charlotte and back and he kept me in splits with his jokes and imitations of celebrities from tinsel town all through the journey.”

The show in Charlotte was a sell out as well. “The generosity of people there was unbelievable” said Raina, and added that in spite of the Indian population in Charlotte being far smaller than that of Atlanta, they collected more in terms of donations from there. “I can’t forget this 60 plus woman who came up to me, and handed over the check and then touched my feet,” recalls Raina, “I reached over aghast and gave her a hug and said WHAT you are doing. She burst into tears, and then I did too…it was a terribly emotional moment, until Shaan walked over and said hey get a grip over yourselves! But these moments happen because we have the compassion to appreciate humanitarian efforts.”

The show in Atlanta was held on the 22nd, and was very well attended. It began with a video clip about the Raina Foundation and its work in India. Robin Raina then came on stage and talked about how initially the concert had been planned to benefit the Foundation’s work with underprivileged children. “Then Tsunami happened and changed everything. People opened up their hearts and contributed all over the world,” said Raina and added that everyone can relate to the religion of pain and suffering. The foundation now plans to adopt two villages, one in Port Blair, and another in Chennai and rehabilitate people there. Raina says he felt that while the donations have poured in, there is confusion about how to dispense them in the most helpful way. “There is no point giving fishermen clothes. They need a boat and fishing net and if you provide them with sanitary conditions they will find a way to generate income.” 

Raina said, to make sure the funds his foundation received were utilized in the best possible way he decided to head to smaller areas, adopt them, utilize every penny and make an impact. The places will not just be adopted by the Raina Foundation but also by Atlanta and to have that happen talks were going on with officials to see how they could help and be a part of this endeavor. 
The show began with standup comedy by Aaron Tikkoo who works for Ebix and Neeraj Mehra a famous mimicry artist who used to dub for actor Mithun Chakraborty and presently dubs for a number of stars on the NDTV comedy show – ‘Gustakhi Maaf’. The duo did impersonations of famous film stars, added fun jokes to the repertoire and had people cracking up at their wise cracks throughout the four hour show.

The show was livened up by sizzling dances by the local dance group “Silent Killer” which were choreographed by Prem Rehman.

This was followed by the entry of up and coming singer female Varsha Mathur, who gave a flawless rendition of ‘Jadu hai Nasha Hai', from ‘Jism’, ‘Kaisa Jadu dala re’ from ‘Khakee’ and the block buster ‘Dhoom Macha l’e from the film ‘Dhoom’.. Kumud Savla then showcased the talent of her students from Nritya Natya Kala Academy, the dance school she runs and they ranged from nine year old kids to teenagers. The stage was a panorama of color as they danced to “Aisa Desh Hai Mera” from ‘Veer Zara’. The audience later commented that the dances really added to the show.

As the song was ending Shaan and Robin Raina entered dancing with the kids. Robin also acknowledged Air India and Air Tran for picking up the airfare of the singers and the troupe. He then asked Shaan and the representative from Air India to help him inaugurate the new glossy magazine in town-Lifeline.

Robin said that the idea of having a magazine like Lifeline was borne out of the fact that “there is no publication today that spreads the message of hope and healing to the people, in a consistent manner. The fact that the Bhopal tragedy was forgotten so soon made me feel that a publication needs to be brought out that can keep issues like tsunami alive. The goal of lifeline is to be the voice of the under-privileged while updating all about the hope that can be imparted to these folks by all of us - by showing examples from the past as also showing a clear direction in terms of what needs to be done.

The magazine will initially be distributed to all the donors spread across the world by mail, sponsors as also will be kept at all major Atlanta outlets like Global Mall, Filmfare, Planet Bollywood, Taj Imports etc. “In coming days, we would look at the possibility of distributing it in India too,” he said.

After that it was Shaan all the way- the charming singer came, sang and conquered. His warmth, kindness and exceptional musical capabilities had the crowd dancing in the aisles. Each song was greeted with screams from the audience. Shaan sang all his popular hits from his private albums, specially the block buster ‘Tanha Dil’ and songs from his latest offering ‘Aksar’, which he dedicated to his wife Radhika. He also sang popular Bollywood numbers from ‘Jhankar Beat’s, ‘Hum Tum’, ‘Main Hoon Na’, ‘Main Prem Ki Diwani Hoon’, ‘Lakshya’, ‘Munna Bhai MBBS’ and ‘Dil Chahta Hai’. The audience screamed at ‘Musumusu’ from ‘Pyar Mein Kabhi Kabhi’ which was his first song for a film and catapulted him to fame, to name a few. His soulful rendition from ‘Aksar’ was heard in pin drop silence.
Shaan also gleefully mentioned that while he got to sing exactly three and a half lines in ‘Ghanan ghanan’ from ‘Lagaan’, he was now delighted to be singing the entire song. He nailed every line to perfection.

All through the performance Shaan kept everyone regaled with his instant wit, humor and warmth. Back stage he met with all the little kids, took pictures, signed autographs in spite of little sleep and a hectic schedule.

The Shaan show was special also because Raina had decided he was going to showcase local talent. He asked Prem Rehman to get his popular troupe ‘Silent Killers’ together and in a little over month’s notice they came up with spectacular dances throughout the show.

Kumud and Sandeep Savla are well known in the community for their contribution to Indian music and dance, apart from being very unassuming and humble. Raina had promised Sandeep that he would get him involved in the show. The music was taken care of by Sandeep. “In fact when Shaan came in he was not very confident about the idea of using local talent, but I knew Sandeep’s worth and stuck to my guns,” says Raina. “Shaan had arrived on the 20th pretty late and we left early morning the next day for Charlotte. He had very little time to rehearse with Sandeep, but he was completely bowled over by the quality of their music and their professionalism!”

The Savlas had perhaps a couple of weeks to get down to business. Sandeep says they received an incomplete list of Shaan’s songs, around December end, managed to hear some of them, couldn’t find others, but got a grip on things pretty quickly. “Just before the show in Charlotte Shaan said these are the songs we will be singing till the interval-that is how spontaneous it was and at such short notice. We had a list of about 70 songs but we were prepared with most of them!” Sandeep Savla added they were very wary before Shaan arrived not knowing what kind of a star he was. “He turned out to be the kindest, most accommodating person we have ever met,” said Sandeep who also added that he was amazed by the fact that in spite of being an entrepreneur, Robin Raina and his team did such a spectacular job of putting this show together. “He is also such a down to earth human being. It was a pleasure working with him.”

The musicians did a marvelous job of keeping pace with Shaan. There were several songs that Shaan sang spontaneously and also took requests. Ajit Pasegaonkar lives in New Jersey, has toured with Lata Mangeshkar and has played bass and Spanish guitar, on her shows. Ashok Matthews on electric guitar and guitar synthesizer has toured with Sonu Nigam among many other celebrities and lives in Connecticut, rhythms expert Pappu Franks has lived here for 32 years and is self taught but is a rhythm genius, says Savala-he can do the work of 10 people, and was the backbone of the group. Kalpesh Patel was on drums. He also sings in the voice of Shamshad Begum and actor Salman Khan’s company is coming out with his CD which is a Shamshad Begum remix. He is from Edison New Jersey as well. Local artsist Sohel Ali who has been working with Sandeep for past few months and is an emerging talent also accompanied Sandeep on key board.
Kumud Savla took barely a week of weekend practice to get her girls ready to dance to the ‘Veer Zara’ song. It was greatly appreciated by the audience.

The show ended past 2 a.m, and every one had a great time. It was interesting to see what a mixed audience there was- from teeny boppers to little kids who went on stage and danced with Shaan, to people in their late sixties and 70s and they stayed for the entire duration of the show. Raina says every thing has not been tabulated but he is confident that the concerts raised close to 50,000 dollars for the Tsunami victims.