For two hours, it was Coldplay’s date with their fans. The much anticipated event held at the MMRDA grounds in Bandra Kurla complex was packed from all sides, with even fans who could not enter for want of a ticket, spilling over onto the road and having a blast by themselves.

“Namaste friends, yeh hamari khushkismati hai ki itne khoobsurat desh mein aaye hain”, screamed lead vocalist and keyboardist Chris Martin as he and band members bassist Guy Berryman, drummer Will Champion, lead guitarist Jonny Buckland took to the stage.

Fans of Coldplay will never forget Saturday 19^th November when the Global Citizen India festival had the Brit band in full force.

Fans loved every sparkling minute of a band they have followed for the last 20 years. Coldplay's wide-eyed front man, Chris Martin delivered every song from Magic, Nobody told you it was easy, a yellow lit stage for their song Yellow, Paradise, packaged with high energy. Martin showed his love for Mumbai city when he changed the lyrics in The Scientist playing on a piano that was set up on a center ramp to the main stage. Confetti bursts, giant balloons, shooting flames, slicing lasers, and Olympic-sized anthems, it was all there. The band moved through its songs with cool efficiency, grinding on a guitar rocker like Yellow, making piano songs like Clocks into head banging pieces, even as Martin sang Fix You while lying on the stage floor. Chris Martin’s high energy, arm-waving and his delirious hopping onstage, continued far into the rest of the set, in fact, throughout the performance.

Martin sang full-voiced to the skies, racing around the stage with an Indian flag pinned to his trouser, at times coming close to the front of the stage’s peninsula, when two rows of cannons shot off confetti high into the air as he belted out Viva La Vida, A Headful of Dreams, swiftlymoving onto their latest hits Hymn for the Weekend and Adventure of a Lifetime.

Sitting alone at the piano for the ballad Everglow, Martin and his members also paid a fitting tribute to David Bowie, performing a cover of Heroes in an acoustic setting, that proved that the band were an impressive, tight unit on their own.

When the clock struck 10 pm the crowd began to disperse. But the house lights had not yet come on, which only meant that Coldplay would be back on stage and surely they did. They coolly walked into the audience and played an acoustic rendition of Amazing Grace. Moments later Martin invited A R Rehman on stage and created history performing with him the patriotic song Ma Tujhe Salaam. Martin also jammed with Rehman on a few strains of Channa mere ya very effortlessly, showcasing his professionalism.

But there were fans who had not only come to watch Coldplay, as three other foreign acts also made their appearance. Hip hop lovers were treated to some break beats from American hip hop Jay Z when he stormed the stage to the refrains of Chaiya Chaiya, moving on to his own party anthems like Drunk in Love, Addicted to Love, and Empire State of Mind that had the crowd stomping their feet to the heavy beats.

Earlier in the afternoon and under the scorching sun, American singer Demo Lovato added to the heat in a body hugging suit, performing four tracks Confident, Hart Attack, Stone Cold and Cool for the summer. Brit boy band The Vamps who are on their second visit here, began their set with a cover song that made them famous Cecilia, slowly moving to a few of their original material which they wrapped up in 20 minutes.

The day - long event which began around 1.30 in the afternoon began with singer Arijit Singh who rendered a captivating version of the song Ae dil hai mushkil. This was followed by other Bollywood stars like Sonakshi Sinha, Shraddha Kapoor, pop singer Ananya Birla. Music composers Shankar, Ehsaan, Loy, gave the crowd the best of their hits, from Mahadevan’s Breathless to Kal ho na ho and Jhoom Barabar, had the crowd asking for more. Bollywood continued to make its presence felt with the Big B taking the stage, giving a message for the event and then performing with the Shillong Chamber Choir to the song Teri yari. Rocker Farhan Aktar joined him on stage later ending with a beautiful set.

The very shy but talented Mozart of Madras A R Rehman, put the crowd in electric mood with his electrifying instrumental set, followed by a few Bollywood pieces like Tu Hi Re, Dil se and a Tamil version of Hamma.

Shah Rukh Khan while welcoming different performers on stage urged the crowd to take up the causes set by the Global Citizen to change the world for the betterment of everyone. Similarly there were speeches by other celebrities that included Sonam Kapoor who spoke on the girl child, Dia Mirza, Frieda Pinto, Monali Thakur and Vivek Oberoi. Vidya Balan connected Bollywood and change in a well thought of way when she stated, “If movies go on for three reasons, entertainment, entertainment and entertainment, our country must go forward with three things: water, sanitation and hygiene.”

In the largest gathering ever seen in Mumbai for a festival of this magnitude, The Global Citizen Festival India brought together around 60,000 young people who made their voices heard by leaders from private industry, government, non-governmental, community and religious organizations on the issues that matter: Sanitation, Education and Gender Equality.

Chief Minister of Maharashtra Devendra Fadnavis made a threefold pledge when he promised to make Maharashtra free of open defecation by 2018 by building 38 lakh toilets at a cost of Rs. 5,000 crore. In his second promise, he mentioned that his government had allocated 142 crore towards the fight against malnutrition and lastly he stated in no uncertain terms that he was ready to spend Rs. 15,000 crore for housing 10 lakh people by 2019.

While the head of state has promised a lot, Prime Minister Narendra Modi who could not be present due to a busy schedule, made his own promise to the nation very categorically. Through video conferencing, Mr. Modi sought the support of the youth in his Swacch Bharat campaign. While making a Mickey of the Rs. 100 note in the case fans needed a refund, Mr. Modi stressed what folk singer Bob Dylan said in one of his song lyrics. ”your road to changing, please get out of the new one, if you can’t lend your hand, for the times they are-a-changing”.

Though fansof Coldplay missed getting the Coldplay LED wristbands which went from color to color, the Global Citizen festival made sure the entertainment value and the message ran very high through the entire day.

Courtesy: Afternoon Desptach and Courier

Text and Photos by Verus Ferreira