Rajiv Vijayakar Posted online: Thu Jul 22 2010, 14:47 hrs
Aamir Khan literally ‘drummed’ out a surprise for all the high-profile guests and the extensive media guests at the music launch of his co-production with UTV Motion Pictures, the satire Peepli [Live] at a mid-town Mumbai pub on July 13. He himself played – and pretty well too! on the percussion during the performance of the last-presented track, Zindagi se darte ho, performed by the Indian Ocean, one of the five songs on the film’s original soundtrack album. Both his turn at the beats as well as the fact that the song was one of the last renditions of the late Asheem Chakravorty, founder of the band Indian Ocean, who passed away in 2009, made the crowd ask for an encore.
In a milleu where music release functions are an insipid norm every month, there are very few such functions each year that stand out. This one certainly did, for all the tracks of the film were presented on stage by the artistes who feature on the album too. Indian Ocean members Susmit Sen (Electric & Acoustic Guitar), Rahul Ram (Bass Guitars & Vocals) and Amit Kilam (Drums, Gabgubi and Vocals) also performed the rousing Des mera rangrez yeh babu to a thundering ovation, and if you thought that applause was restricted to a music band, the cheering was equally wild for the two rural ditties presented from the film. Mehangai daayan, a traditional village song that is sung by the Bhadwai Village Mandali along with actor Raghubir Yadav within the film was also performed at the venue by the same artistes, with the Mandali specially present in Mumbai for the occasion. Similarly Nageen Tanvir performed her composition Chola maati ke Ram, which also got deafening applause. Tributes were also paid to Indian Ocean’s Aseem Chakravorty and Noon Meem Rashed.
The entire team of the film, headed by producers Aamir Khan and Kiran Rao, co-producer Ronnie Screwvala, writer-director Anusha Rizvi, the principal cast and technicians of the film and the music team were also present, including Swanand Kirkire, who has co-written Des mera and Ram Sampat, who has remixed a version of Mehangai daayan on the album. T-Series honchos Bhushan Kumar, Mukesh Desai and Vinod Bhanushali were also spotted.
And the event also boasted of one of the greatest turnover seen at such a show in recent times. Shantanu Moitra, Prasoon Joshi, Rani Mukerji, Sharman Joshi, Rajkumar Hirani, Karan Johar, Ashutosh Gowariker, Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra and crooner Sona Mahapatra were also among the guests.
