'Saif looks great on stage with his guitar’

He came, he saw and he performed for the last 45 minutes of the show.

That’s Saif Ali Khan, the rocker. Fireworks went up as the lead guitarist of Parikrama introduced him as “Someone you’d want to take off your clothes for even before we announce his name”.

Thankfully, that didn’t happen. But the moment Saif entered, the crowds started clamouring to get a better view of the action on stage. Dressed in a red T-shirt and blue jeans, Saif didn’t exactly create hysteria, or even the ‘mayhem’ the event promoters anticipated. But he did have the women going berserk. “We’ve spoken enough. Now let’s play some music,” Saif shouted into the microphone. And he played Pink Floyd, AC/DC and a few Parikrama compositions.

Cut to 4pm, when Saif reached the venue, his stylised moustache grown for the forthcoming Tashan was visible.

That surprisingly was missing when he performed on stage, possibly following instructions from Aditya Chopra to keep his new look under wraps.

The much talked-about tattoo wasn’t showing either, though it was captured on camera much later. After exchanging pleasantries with the Parikrama band members for no more than five minutes, Saif returned to his shell, leaving eager photographers waiting patiently for the photoshoot. Saif, they were told, was practising backstage.

In the evening, the media (only news channels) was alloted all of seven minutes with the star before they were hastily shooed away by the event managers.

That, in fact, was the real mayhem! The rest of the media was promised a separate time that never arrived. And Saif was missing too. No one had a clue where he had disappeared.

Cricketers Robin Uthappa and Sree Santh came instead, urging the crowd to give the performers a true Bangalore welcome.

Saif performed and then said, “They are asking us to stop playing. Can’t we play one more song?”

Someone in the crowd said, “Why didn’t he come earlier then?” But the audience did get one more song, after which Saif disappeared quicker than anyone we’ve seen exit a stage!