Make some noise for a desi boy.... and an NRI girl!

KK and Hard Kaur pull off a smash hit concert at Sydney

her paternal family’s home, moving to England, and being ostracized by the white girls as well as Indian girls in school), Hard Kaur now sings of the “Paisa phenk, tamasha dekh” class of society, but there’s something about her that tells you she’s made of sterner stuff.

I live my life just how I please Satisfy one person I know, that’s me Work hard for the things I achieve in life the filled-with-pathos Tadap tadap ke is dil, which captured more than effectively the suffering of lovers Aishwarya Rai and Salman Khan in the hit Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam. Very soon though, he was imbuing his songs with that unique style of his, mixing western beats with eastern sensibilities. Along with the likes of Shaan and Kunal Ganjawala, KK had created that new sound that has now come to dominate Hindi film music. The ‘new kids on the block’ are like a breath of fresh air - so different from the genre which held the fray for decades before. They have made Mukesh, Kishore and Rafi, the greats of a well and truly bygone era. energy that connected brilliantly with the largely youthful audience, getting them off their seats and dancing in the aisles and leaving them gasping for more. This certainly was the new and vibrant India that everybody seems to be talking about!

Of course, because both have their particular brand of music, they did not sing together, making it a two-in-one concert really. Yet they showed off beautifully the two different genres, both of which are equally popular in the contemporary scene. Go to any party these days, and you cannot miss Desi Boyz or Chaar baj gaye… even if you wanted to!

Hard Kaur is known not only as India’s first female rapper but even more significantly as someone who has revolutionized the hip hop scene in the country. At the Sydney concert, she flaunted her stuff with all the attitude that has made her the success she is today. Clad in a silver beaded jumpsuit that caught the shine of the stage lights beautifully, she presented her dance numbers as the audience took to the aisles.

Being a hard core Punjabi kudi at heart, every day is a party where Hard Kaur is concerned, and no celebration is complete without a dance. Her casual fun-filled lyrics, marked with much Punjabi chutzpah, appealed to the Gen Ys in the audience who have probably said more than once themselves, Mere daddy hain naraaz lekin paari abhi baaki hai!

And when was the last time you referred to a glass as a “glassy”? Only last Saturday night, remember, when you sang:

Ek glassy, do glassy, teen glassy char, You’re drunk as hell, ‘n u don’t feel well, but u still go bak 2 da bar

Having seen her fair share of challenges in life (such as a father who was murdered in the anti-Sikh riots in 1984, being kicked out of

And never rap fake when I’m on the mike

And yet, one wishes we could have heard her speak just a bit more that night? Ok, not just to hear that English-accent-mixedwith-Punjabi-Hindi Khichidi of hers, which can be quite endearing, but also to learn a bit more of what she’s all about, what her art is all about, and how she went from being Taran Kaur Dhillon to Hard Kaur. Perhaps next time.

Still, with all her contagious enthusiasm, Hard Kaur was certainly entertaining, even for those in the audience like me who came more for KK than for her!

KK, short for Krishnakumar Kunnath, is part of the new breed of singers that has changed the entertainment industry in India. He splashed on to the mainstream music scene in the late 1990s after doing the hard yards singing hundreds of jingles. He made his mark with his very first number,

But KK himself will tell you he is influenced most by Kishore Kumar (notice those initials). And it was clear to see this at his most recent concert, as he channelled Kishore Kumar on stage, bounding up and down just like his mentor, and indulging in all his antics. Yet the memory that the crowds took away that night, will undoubtedly be KK’s music. The successful east-west mix came out beautifully in some of his best-known hits O humdum suniyo re, Yaaron dosti, Kyon aajkal neend kum khyaab zyaada hain, Sajde kiye hain lakhon, Everything’s gonna be golmaal, among others. Other classic KK hits such as Ajab si ajab si and Zindagi do pal ki were supremely hummable. And yet other numbers, out and out love songs, left the audience bathed in bliss: the soulful Bas ek pal, the anguished Dil kyon yeh mera, the mesmerising Jaane yeh kya hua, the melodious O meri jaan. The crowd was on cloud nine when he left the stage briefly and mingled with his fans.

But it was one special number for which the audience requested repeated encores: Tadap tadap ke is dil. Rendered with no accompaniment save a solitary keyboard player, KK translated the pain of love with such pathos that the audience was left with no choice but to ask for more. It was as if they were lut gaye, lut gaye hum KK ki mohabbat mein! The singer responded that he was flattered, but since this was his first Sydney concert, he wanted to present as many of his hits as possible.

And it was a cleverly picked number indeed that ended KK’s stint on stage – the great beat and sheer energy of Make some noise for desi boyz left the hall pulsating, as the audience made plenty of noise for the desi boy of the moment.

Kudos to Manav Saini and Lashkara Wedding Planners for the efforts in bringing this show together. Manav, already well known as one of the Swami Army ‘colonels’, did an excellent job with his team in kick-starting the concert scene for 2012 with the masti of KK and Hard Kaur!