PUNE, Jan 25: Did the Richter scale record a mild earthquake in the city on Sunday night? If so, the source could quite definitely be traced to the SSPMS grounds, the venue for Coca Cola's Tour Daler Mehndi da.Despite the show starting an hour late, all it took were a couple of opening notes for Daler Mehndi, the man popularly known as the Bhangra badshah, to convert the grounds into one big discotheque, pulsating with 50,000 watts of live music.Though he began with a relatively lesser-known number Main darya di maachli Sonya, Daler lapsed into a medley of different songs after a couple of lines (a feature that was to become characteristic of the show), making the crowd spring up from their seats and fill up the aisles where they proceeded to match the singer's lively footwork, step for step. As the dust raised by thumping feet competed with the gusts of induced smoke on stage, the air was filled with the popular artist's much-loved numbers.Daler belted out numerous songs one after the other in quick succession, taking time off only to change into a different coloured coat after every song.Medleys were quite obviously the order of the night. You had Mehndi beginning with Bolo Tara ra ra ra and interspersing it with Khaike paan Benaraswala, Piya re piya re, Jai jai shiv shankar, O meri munni and even Aati kya Khandala before returning to the original number. While this may have disappointed some hard-core Mehndi fans, the ease with which the singer mingled the various songs, accompanied by his typical dance steps, ensured that he had the audience eating out of his hands with every single number, be it the foot-tapping Ho gayee teri balle balle, Naa na na na re or the current hit Turuk turuk tur- tha album that recently bagged the Screen Videocon prize for the most popular pop album.A fitting finale was rendered by a mesmerising gurbani that seemed to come straight from the singer's heart, making even the crowd halt their frenzied foot thumping, to listen in rapt attention. A highly talented live band that included three brothers of the pop star, a crowd singing along with every number accompanied by almost non-stop dancing and Mehndi in his element, made for a potent combination that ensured the success of the three-hour show. Adding to it was MTV veejay Maria's effervescent presence as host that did much to make up for co-host Joe Bhatt's repetitive and often senseless drivel.Mehndi later visited the Osho Commune on Monday. He said he has been reading Osho's books and has listened to all 20 discourses of Osho's Ek Omkar Satnam, from the holy book Japuji. He also said that he has been meditating on these discourses. Two years ago releasing audio tapes of Osho's discourses on Gurbani, he had exclaimed ``I am Osho's fan''.
