Oscar-winning Indian musician AR Rahman enthralled the audience at the much-anticipated ‘Cricket Celebrates Mujib 100’ concert at Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium in the capital Tuesday night.
The programme ended at 12:56 am and the audience left the venue with resonance of the songs.
Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) in association with Bashundhara Group organised the gala event, marking the birth centenary of Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.
However, unexpected rain marred the progression of the event as per the schedule.
The rain looked threatening at one stage, indicating that the organisers might have to call off the show at the halfway stage. It also took a toll on the guests on the stadium premises with Golden and Platinum tickets as they were seen running to save them from the shower.
However, the rain stopped to everyone’s delight and the show resumed around 8:30 pm after a break of over two hours from 6:20 pm.
AR Rahman, who earlier performed in a concert organised by the BCB before the 2014 T20 World Cup in Dhaka, sang his famous numbers apart from rendering two songs that he composed on the occasion of Bangabandhu’s birth centenary.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina graced the event as the chief guest.
Bashundhara Group Chairman Ahmed Akbar Sobhan, his wife Afroza Begum, Bashundhara Group Managing Director Sayem Sobhan Anvir and his wife Sabrina Sobhan along with other respected guests and BCB President Nazmul Hassan enjoyed the concert.
Bashundhara Group was the main sponsor of the mega event while Walton Group and Orion Group also provided sponsorship in different capacities. State-level security was provided for the respected guests.
The programme was split into two parts with the local singers doing their part before Maghrib prayers while the second part started after the prayers break.
The first segment of the celebrations started with the national anthem performed by male and female singers before leading Bangladeshi band Miles took over the stage to enthrall the audience.
Miles, which completed four decades in band music, started the show with their famous number ‘Chand Tara’ followed by ‘Neela’, ‘Priotoma Megh’ along with some of their famous songs that include ‘Dhiki Dhiki Agun Jole’, ‘Firiye Dau Amar e Prem’.
The audience got excited with Momotaz Begom as her entry created a stir among them and she started singing a new song she composed and followed it with some of her famous numbers that include ‘Morar Kokile’.
Just after Momotaz left the stage, rain started pouring down from nowhere and it forced AR Rahman to start the show much later than the schedule.
BCB streamed live the concert on their official Facebook page and YouTube channel while the show was telecast live by News24, a private TV channel owned by East West Media Group Ltd, a venture of Bashundhara Group.
The stage of the concert was built on a large part of the stadium with 10,000 seating arrangements in front of it while tickets were priced between Tk 1,000 and 10,000 for the mega-concert.
Club House tickets were priced at Tk 1,000 (bronze) while the on-ground tickets at Tk 5,000 (gold) and Tk 10,000 (platinum) respectively.
The BCB was scheduled to host the concert in March 2020 with AR Rahman while they were also supposed to arrange two T20Is between Asia XI and World XI but the plan had to be shelved due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
BDST: 1028 HRS, MAR 30, 2022
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