Rahman Da Man!

Predictably, Rahman makes it in to the top 100 personalities list of TIME magazine.

Slumdog Millionaire's OST  was not a patch on Roja or Kannathil Muthamittal or Alaipayudhey or Kandukondein Kandukondein or a Dil Se. But I believe all that good work got recognition thro SDM. The only genuinely awe inspiring piece of music in SDM was the O Saya BGM/song, but as the great man himself said, SDM would not have happened if his previous body of work was not as popular.

Here's Padma Lakshmi's piece on ARR, the Mozart from Madras .

(and for God's sake, I'm not going to say _ _ _   _ _! here)

Dilli 6

Dilli 6 released almost unnoticed, with all the hullabaloo over குப்பத்து நாய் லட்சாதிபதி KupputhuNaai. The Masakalli song has managed to corner the spotlight, partly due to its un-understandable words, there are quite a few other songs which were quite good. The movie is directed by Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra comes after Rang De Basanti and so, naturally, there are two fold expectations - whether ROM will go above and beyond his previous effort and the other expectation is to see if Rahman, will give out a completely new genre of music like he did with RDB.

Dilli - 6 music is definitely different - you wouldn't associate the songs with Rahman if you listened to it with no prior information about the songs. But, increasingly I can see that even though songs coming from Rahman retain certain trademarks of the Mozart from Madras, I can see those assistants contributing something new to his albums, which is one way Rahman's music is always in sync with the times. In this album, my pick of songs: Masakalli, Dil Mera (Dil Gira), Hey Kaala Bandar, Rehna Tu and Arziyaan (Maula mere maula).

Masakalli has that un-explainable thing to it - perhaps the weirdo lyrics? - which makes you like the song. The song has this refreshing feel to it and the voice of the singer is quite interesting too.

Dil Mera (Dil Gira Dafatan) has some super starting vocals which sounds more like a soft rock number and then gently drifts into a superb Guitar piece. The transition is class - typical Rahman. And the songs builds up tempo with layers of music attaching to the song. Rahman's genius will definitely touch in this number.

Rehna Tu - Nowadays his signature, this song has lead vocals by Rahman himself. Sounds a lot like a soft jazz number. As I have always wondered, it is quite a mystery to me how a 42 year old guy can sound so young. The song has a quite a eclectic mix of string instruments - it has an acoustic, electric guitar playing for the most part and there's a hint of some arabic strumming (what isntrument?) and in the end, there is some fantastic carnatic ragam played out (as I'm ராகம் challenged, I can't tell you what it is) which is played on the keyboard to resemble some wind instrument (a cross between some kinda flute and something else). Class!

Arziyaan (Maula mere Maula) - I'm not that comfortable understanding hindi. Though not as bad as "ek gaun mein ek kissaaan....", I depend on a Hindi Pandit who gets quite irritated when referred to as a pandit :). So, to me, Maula comes across as a muslim word and thus, somehow this song reminds me of Khwaja in Jodha Akbar. But I think this is like the qawwali style over the sufi style in the other.

Hey kaala bandhar - My limited hindi tells me its something like Hey black Monkey - that gives you an idea about the song - it has a hip-hop/Rap feel to it. And has those usual DJ type music. The magoodi-like sound actually gets you hooked.

So here you go:

Masakali - Delhi 6

Dil Gira Dafatan - Delhi 6

Hey Kaala Bandar - Delhi 6

Rehna Tu - Delhi 6

Aarti Tumre Bhavan Mein - Delhi 6



H

Rahman, It Is!!

Rahman, It Is!!

While people like Kamal Haasan and Aamir Khan are still licking every feet to land an international honor, Rahman has really proved that art transcends barriers, linguistic included - the man is a legend, an unsung one at that. Today confidently, we can proclaim that the most prodigious talent from Tamizh Naadu is A.R. Rahman, Period!!!

And now, the billion people can applaud the genius - The Mozart from Madras!!!

Situation song: ;-)

One for you, me and everybody

A superb effort from ARR



I'm wedded to google - that's why google video instead of youtube!



Rahman's take on the effort:


Google videos didn't have this video on it - so courtesy youtube!


I really loved this song and the video and ARR's reason for making it different - instead of showing India or some other third world country, the production team has shown America, where with great wealth lies great hatred and intolerance. The lyrics (by Blaaze) does strike a chord and for me, one line sums it all up:

"Are you looking for a reason,
to be kind......."

Recently, in the place I'm interning for this summer, there was a "help the community" kind of event for which there was a 50-50 raffles draw, meaning all people pool in a certain amount, X out of which half goes to one lucky winner and the other half goes to charity. I was taken aback with such an arrangement, which was basically trying to turn charity into some form of lucky draw.

This song is definitely needed in these dark times!