BRAMPTON: “Salman! Salman! Salman!” chanted the ecstatic crowd at Silvercity Cinemas in Brampton (Toronto suburb) as Salman Khan, the tremendously physically oriented Bollywood mega-actor, strode on to the outdoor stage to greet the throngs of people at the launch of his production ‘Dr Cabbie’.
Leading up to that final crescendo moment was a musical extravaganza to mark the official kick-off of Dr. Cabbie, a movie about the hardships of foreign educated doctors who immigrate to Canada to pursue their career and instead wind up driving cabs due to the heavy bureaucracy and the long road to re-qualify themselves here in Canada.
The afternoon of über Desi fun in the sun kicked into action with Canadian-born and bred comedian Lilly Singh (aka superwoman, who is a Yutube sensation) taking the stage to deafening applause and cracking a few jokes to set the tone. She then introduced Toronto-born singer Raghav, who rocked the scene with his popular song ‘Fire’, that was a super-hit on the mainstream Canadian airwaves, and then went on to do a number with Hindi and English lyrics.
Following that superb rendition, Lilly Singh introduced Manj Musik and Nindy Kaur who really ‘bhangra’d’ the scene and turned it into a total Desi happening!
Manj really pumped up the audience by often jumping off stage and mingling with the crowd to make them sing along. Par excellence showmanship!
Then the cast of the movie drove on to the scene in the cab that is portrayed throughout the movie to screams of approval from the crowd. Out jumped lead actor Vinay Virmani, Kunal Nayyar (Raj from the famous hit TV series ‘Big Bang Theory’) and Isabel Kaif (Bollywood superstar Katrina Kaif’s sister or Little Kat as Salman referred to her).
They introduced their movie and goofed around on stage until co-producer Ajay Virmani came to say a few words and then the big moment, as he prompted the crowd to shout at the top of their lungs for the one and only top gun – Salman Khan!
Yells and hoots of approval greeted Salman, who has more Rs 100-crore movies (his recent movie ‘Kick’ garnered more than Rs. 200 crore at the box office) under his belt than any other Bollywood star. He gave thumbs-up to the acting abilities of the cast and said it was a real pleasure to have met and worked with them and introduced the CD of the movie’s songs which were handed out to a few lucky ones in the crowd by Vinay Virmani.
Samson ( Salman’s nickname) then treated everybody to a couple of songs sung by him in his own voice. It was an afternoon to remember as practically nobody had ever heard him sing live in person.
Finally he jumped off stage to go greet a fan in a wheelchair and wheel him around, in response to a fan of superwoman who had requested her to see what she could do to grant him his request. Thanks to superwoman and Salman, the fan got his wish and met Salman.
Salman also went around to greet the crowd and finally strode off backstage.
As a young spectator burst out enthusiastically, “The best afternoon I have ever spent, usually good times like these happen in the evening or night and we are not allowed to go- so nice of Salmanji to hold it during the day for all his young fans!”
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