Shah Rukh flirts with Dubai in 4-hour spectacle

Attending a live Bollywood event is akin to strapping oneself in a wild roller coaster, with enough adrenaline surges to loop you into a right headspin.

The ‘Access All Areas’ live concert ride stuck to the tracks with a bevy of stars, least of all being the lead act himself – Shah Rukh Khan.

He cheered, he danced, he hopped like a monkey – his words not mine – and entertained the enthralled audience much like the characters he plays on the silver screen.

But somewhere along the way, this high velocity roller coaster also derailed from the tracks, leaving several emotionally charged patrons with nothing but that sliver of a memory of seeing their favourite star perform live in the bright lights.

High octane

In present times, Dubai has not witnessed such a power-packed line-up of Bollywood celebs performing at a single venue, especially ones who use an Indian film’s runtime as their yardstick to sing and dance across four hours.

It was certainly a coup for organisers Duvent to team up with Cine Yug and Shah Rukh’s very own Red Chillies Entertainment to bring the ‘King Khan’ himself, along with a rare live performance by the diva, Madhuri Dixit-Nene.

Added to the list of stars was another headliner, Deepika Padukone, along with Jacqueline Fernandez and singers Yo Yo Honey Singh, Neeti Mohan and Indian Idol contestant, Meiyang Chang, all of whom performed on December 1 at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium in a show that was dedicated to the city’s Expo 2020 win and the National Day.

With Cine Yug’s brand of pyrotechnics and special effects, the show packed plenty of sparks and spewing flames to buffer some of the boo boos that occurred off stage.

The four-hour high octane show pleasantly kicked off with a mere 10-minute delay, with Jacqueline being the first act to set the stage on fire with her gyrating moves.

Dressed in a glittering silver and red jumpsuit, the actress oozed her siren-like image that she has perfected on celluloid, kicking off the night with her song from ‘Murder 2’ titled, ‘Aa Zara’. The song continued into Jennifer Lopez’s ‘Waiting For Tonight’ that was niftily mashed up with Jacqueline’s very own ‘Party On My Mind’ from ‘Race 2’.

A few more hip twists later to Kareena Kapoor songs strangely (‘Halkat Jawani’ and ‘Fevicol Se’), she was off and the stage was set for the first headliner of the night, Deepika to make her way into the spotlights.

Much like her predecessor, Deepika painted a pretty picture clad in a glittering silver corset and a pink flowing skirt.

Before the show commenced, Chang, who moonlighted as the host for the evening, spoke to the actress in the Green Room who confessed on camera that she very rarely did live shows.

We could see why.

Albeit Deepika oozed glamour and finesse in her acts, which included two costume changes and all her popular songs, including ‘Titli’ from ‘Chennai Express’, ‘Batameez Dil’ and ‘Balam Pichkari’ from ‘Yeh Jawani Hai Deewani’, her winning smile failed to cover that tad bit of awkwardness that one could peg down as the jitters.

But such triviality seemed inconsequential at the time, with the night being young and in the next few acts to light up the stage would be the dancing diva herself, Madhuri.

However, before Madhuri’s grand entry, we had yet to watch Yo Yo Honey Singh perform.

Now to be said, Yo Yo is an action powerhouse when he performs live; and his Michael Jackson-fused act was impressive, in fact, one of the finest of the nights. But with the number of times this talented rapper has performed in Dubai this past year alone, several couldn’t help but mutter for him to move along so we could get on with the show.

And sure enough, a few minutes later, with the first strums of ‘O Re Piya’ from ‘Aaja Nachle’, the crowd went wild.

In the past, we’ve heard many utter the phrase: there are performers and then there is Madhuri Dixit; folks, seeing is believing.

In one of the best choreographed acts of the night, Madhuri was carried atop a sea of moving clouds as she descended onto the stage with all the grace and aplomb that defies her age of 46.

She continued the act with a mashup for her popular tracks spanning eras, too many to count frankly, but Madhuri did what she does best – she danced her heart out.

Earlier when Emirates 24|7 chatted with her, we had quizzed whether she could pick a single actress of this era who could match her dancing prowess.

And with all the humility, her response was a simple no. We could understand why.

As her 10-minute act ended, we braced ourselves for what was to surely follow – chaos.

King Khan steals the show

An hour into the show and a pregnant pause seemed to hover above the audience, before the chaos broke out at Shah Rukh’s arrival.

People pushed and shoved to the front of the stage, with the security simply holding their hands up in disbelief.

There were folks in the VIP section sprawled on the ground, making a human chain of sorts, while refusing to budge as Shah Rukh’s entry music hit the crescendo.

With the view to the stage now blocked for all those in the VIP front rows, and the large screen monitors now only showing a close up of the King’s face as he entered with a hood to the strums of ‘Don’, all the audience members we spoke to missed the actor’s actual entry on stage.

 One second he was somewhere and the next second I was informing a person next to me to stop looking up at the skies, Shah Rukh is now on stage dancing.

What we managed to see from the screens was Khan being drowned out by the dancers around him most of the time, with a few basketballs flying into the audience during his ‘Ladki Badi Anjaani Hai’ act from ‘Kuch Kuch Hota Hai’.

Naturally, he grooved to his popular tracks from ‘RaOne’, one being ‘Chammak Challo’ and the other, ‘Criminal’, which was reminiscent of Amitabh Bachchan’s now iconic led-outfit act from ‘Yaaraana’.

Show stoppers

As the first act ended, minor fights broke out around us as security was seen hauling off a few enthusiastic fans, while men and women were standing up on chairs, yelling at those in the front to stop blocking their views of the stage.

Amidst this chaos, Neeti Mohan chose that moment to step on stage to croon some peppy Bollywood numbers. And while she was sincerely entertaining, so was the chaos that swirled around the VIP corner where the media was seated.

In fact, Neeti got her due when she made her second appearance of the night and sang a soulful rendition of the Sufi number, ‘Mast Kalander’, as did Chang, who dipped into his own bag of Bollywood tracks to show off his skills. But the restless crowd wanted Shah Rukh Khan.

At the stroke of midnight, the wish was granted as Shah Rukh made his second appearance of the night, wishing the residents a Happy National Day before calling ‘random’ members from the audience for a play along act.

We say random because it appeared a tad convenient that the makeshift costumes were a perfect fit, as was the choreography and even some of the props had the names of said audience members embedded in the design.

However, when we spoke to a few of those lucky audience members, banker Kirti, couldn’t stop gushing that she was the “luckiest girl in the world to be romanced by Shah Rukh Khan and dance with him”, while Hazel, a young mother, simply burst into tears on stage and off stage when talking to us lowly media folks.

In fact, Hazel even proudly informed the world watching her on stage with Shah Rukh that she orchestrated her son’s birth to coincide with the King Khan’s birthday, taking even the actor aback amidst his tirade of inconsequential “toilet humour” as he called it.

The laughs of the night continued with Shah Rukh picking on the Marketing Manager from Groupon, a young Nabeel, who was roped in to swap his trousers for an Indian wrap and groove to the beats of the hugely popular, ‘Lungi Dance’.

As the night progressed, the three ladies made token appearances on stage, with Deepika probably the least with three acts, two of which with her co-stars and barely interacted with the audience.

For that matter, even Jacqueline smiled, danced and disappeared on cue.

If it wasn’t for Madhuri’s and Shah Rukh’s endless energy and banter that led to the final face off between the two superstars in an ‘Ek Do Teen’ versus ‘One Two Three Four’ battle, the show was in danger of falling a little flat.

Fans upset

As the show concluded at 1.40am and the weary audience gathered the rest of their reserved energy to make the trek to their cars, never in the history of covering live events has this reporter found so many takers seek her out to jot down their views on the show.

With a capacity of 20,000 people in the stadium, several opined that less than 7,000 had probably attended the Bollywood event; while others complained the positioning of the stage setup in angle to seating was so skewed that those seated in the extreme left and right of the stage couldn’t even see most of the performances.

Middle-aged VIP ticket holder Ayesha Khan said: “Zero to the organisers; this is a fish market. I am sitting in the second row of the concert and I was still forced to see most of it on the giant screen because of the angle of my seat and the ridiculous stage setting. And when the screens stopped working in between, even that little I could see stopped.”

The distressed woman asked the question that was on many minds last evening: where was the security?

At one point even the stars were in shock, as a crazed fan managed to thwart security as he leaped up on stage in the grand finale to hug Shah Rukh.

A minor tussle later, the fan was escorted off the premises.

Tareq Ashfaque, who attended his first Bollywood show, said: “I am in shock. Does this happen all the time? People crowd around the front rows and those who have spent thousands of the dirhams to sit up front are unable to even see what is happening on stage?

“All I managed to see clearly was the posterior of the man standing on the chair in front of me. And after three arguments, even I didn’t see the point of it all.”

Those sitting in the Dh99 seats were just as frustrated.

Rakesh Prasad, who came there with his wife and two children, said: “The screens were too small for us to see clearly. And when it went off air at intervals, we couldn’t even see parts of the show.

“The acoustics were just as bad. It was complete waste of money.”

But the night wasn’t a damp squib for all of the audience members.

The beaming smiles and the stories that Kirti and Hazel took home with them has certainly ensured that Shah Rukh has made fans for life.

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