Songs in my head

A.R. Rahman proves that he can do almost anything when it comes to music.

I couldn’t believe my ears when I heard a slightly different ARR in the soundtrack of Slumdog Millionaire. Well… it’s not really surprising… more like “dazzled”.

Like someone wrote in an online paper the other day, this is not his best work. But it’s one of his best shows of creativity, versatility and pure wickedness.

I thought Talvin Singh, Badmarsh and Shri, Nitin Sawhney were all good. They are. But ARR seems to be able to do what they do, as well as them or even better. And remember, those guys were all feted in the western music industry for amazing breakthroughs/magnum opus/next-best-things when ARR was making music for South Indian films.

My favourites include “O… Saya” (featuring UK-based Indian songstress Maya Arulpragasam a.k.a. MIA), “Riots”, “Mausam and Escape” (one of the best pieces I’ve listened to), and “Liquid Dance”. These tracks are a pastiche of hip hop, Indian classical and some really wonderful sound engineering – the attention to details are trademark ARR.

He’s also capable of doing “Ringa Ringa”, a old-fashioned hindi song which I couldn’t stand! “Jai Ho” sounds like a song out of a commercial Hindi flick, while “Millionaire” could quite possibly the theme music of the movie. There’s a song from Shah Rukh Khan’s Don, and another one by MIA (didn’t quite enjoy that).

Overall, a really creative piece of work, and I look forward to enjoying the movie.

And oh, AR Rahman has been nominated for 3 Oscars – one for original score, and two for original song (Jai Ho and O… Saya). For the best song, there’s a high chance of him winning it – there are only three songs (including his) in that category.

Taking Care of Us

The Budget for the 2009 workyear was announced by the Finance Minister earlier today. Basically, there's going to be a doubling of GST Credits for all of us, 18,000 new Government jobs over the next two years, and lots of help for companies, households and other folks.

Read everything here. And yes, we're taking about $5bn from our holy reserves.

Imbecile. Superhero.

Today in Gaza:
-1,300 people and children are dead
-4,000 buildings totally destroyed, another 20,000 damaged
-50,000 people are homeless
-400,000 don't have access to running water

(source)

But Hamas claims a "great victory over Israel", where 13 people died. What kind of imbeciles are these?

Meanwhile, there's a group of Arabs inside Israel who detest the whole thing but can't do anything about it because they are Israeli nationals (read).

This big mess is just part of an ongoing ordeal that ordinary folks have to endure repeatedly. Yesterday President Obama came into office, and people want him to save the world, and one of the messes he's expected to clear up is this.

Not only that, he has become the ultimate object of "Othering" - he's a superhero, pop sensation, underdog, Will Smith, all rolled into one. One thing's for sure - he's become a defining figure in world history without even having coming into office yet.

Do'a

I was speaking to a friend on the ongoing Palestinian crisis, and how the range of media statements released by various organisations urging for the conflict to end did not address the fundamental emotional angle that the event represented for Muslims everywhere.

It's a huge tragedy. As a father, I feel extremely sad and disturbed for all the parents who have lost their children in the Israeli assault. Of the more than 1,000 dead, about a third are children. That's about 300 children. May Allah give them a wonderful bounty, free from the sadness and suffering of this world, and His magnificent company and the Holy Prophet's (s.a.w.) company.

As usual, with the previous bloodshed in Rwanda and Darfur and other places which I don't know of, the rich world with access to power and money is helpless, or chooses to be so. The diplomatic machinery is doing its job in the form of the UN to come to a ceasefire agreement which both Israel and Hamas can agree to. I don't know how long that will take.

What is the practical thing we can do? Donate in the Humanitarian Effort donation boxes at at the various mosques, and do a lot of do'a (supplications to God) that the conflict stops, that Palestinian civilians are spared of this ordeal, and that the Israeli government is able to come to a better solution to this problem in discussion with the various stakeholders involved.

It's a deeply emotional moment for the Muslim world - but let's remind ourselves that the problems are caused by people and their need for territory, and not define it purely as a test for Muslims. It's more complex than that.

Why I'm Not Surprised

The other day I saw a long queue at the ticketing office at Raffles Place MRT at 5pm. I thought a train had broken down so people were there to claim their money back or something. And people usually don't queue up at the office because of automatic top-up machines.

Yesterday I saw another long queue at Novena MRT at 3pm - not peak hour.

Then I saw the poster which made sense of everything. The great ez-link one-for-one card exchange is now on, announced by LTA last month. These new cards can be used for tapping at the buses and trains as well as paying for ERP toll charges and car parking fees.

The thing is - people have until 30 Sep 09 - 9 months - to do this exchange. The notices clearly state that there is no urgency to exchange your cards. Some folks really can't wait.

AR Rahman gets a Golden Globe

In case you didn't know - he's the Indian dude.

Hey bro ARR, I knew you'd do it someday. I'm looking forward to buying the Slumdog Millionaire soundtrack, which doesn't seem to have been released in Singapore yet. I loved Ghajini though. Congrats for your win - keep up the wonderful work.

A Good Day

Yesterday not only marked the day of Ashura, but also our second wedding anniversary.

I find it amazing that two years have gone by since 6 Jan 2007. The memories of the wedding dinner and nikkah are still fresh and vivid in my mind. The two years have been an awesome journey so far - having a child introduced into the equation brought with it a new perspective to marriage.

The past year especially tested our mettle. Job issues, death of a family member, birth of another one and strains of "teamwork" were only some of the challenges. However, the quarrels, insecurities, frustrations after a while gave bloom to more understanding, greater appreciation of each other, deeper love and respect, and a companionship mounted on a different level altogether. As I had envisioned before marriage, this is a journey that encompasses most other journeys.

Personally too, I feel a sense of achievement during this 2nd-year anniversary - that I've been able to lead a family moderately well, with food on the table and shelter over the head. All praise to God, alhamdulillah.

To celebrate, we went on a little date to Vansh, a "surprisingly Indian" north-Indian restaurant near the indoor stadium. The kitchen serves halal meat, but because of the major money-earner (alcohol), it's not certified halal.

The food was heavenly. The ambience was fusion of metropolitan chic-modern and traditional Indian - damn cool. Service was 5-star, and so was the price. The servings were very generous (came with the price), and we couldn't finish the food. They were nice enough to pack the remainder for us.

6 January is a day to remember for another reason - it's my mother's birthday. We'll be bringing her for lunch this weekend insha Allah at her favourite Rice Table to celebrate.

Doss it Again

3 years ago, I wrote that Muruga Doss (or did) it.

Today, he Doss it again with Aamir in the Hindi version of Ghajini. Some modifications:

• Aamir probably didn’t buy that “Ghajini” in the original stood for persistence of Surya’s character in trying and trying again (as in the famous rule Ghajini Mohammed’s attempt to wage war). So Ghaijini became the name of the baddie. Have you ever come across any movie that had the guts to name itself after the antagonist? Rarely.

• The really quite shoddy ending of the Tamil one has given way to a much better one that gives a closure to everyone watching it. Kudos!

• A number of crew has been changed – cameraman is just as good as the last one, and AR Rahman’s music is also just as good as Harris’. They’ve all done their own takes of Ghajini.

Which brings us to Aamir’s interpretation of the lead character. It was so brilliant that the old version does not come to mind at all. It’s not to discredit Surya or anything – Surya gave life to the character in the first place. Just that Aamir has chosen to explore certain parts of the character in more detail. His simultaneous agony of being unable to save his loved one, and fury against the aggressor and helplessness because of his memory loss is really painful to see. You feel like patting him on his back to console him and also handing him a metal rod to finish his job.

I think everyone would agree that the 5-7 minute scene with Aamir’s character alone in his apartment with no dialogue was truly remarkable. The reminders that he places at all the various locations in the apartment and on his own body reveal a chilling single-minded obsession of a man who is unable to overcome the past, and determined to fight against his memory loss.

Asin just does her thing – everyone’s gonna love her in Bollywood. Jiah Khan looks the part as an amateurish medical student, while Riyaz Khan gets kicked and punched as in the original. The bad guy’s acting was bad. It was so bad the audience was laughing at his poor diction of the English words! “Mimory lost hai…”

ARR does a commendable job for the background score and the songs. I suspect he decided to go with some of Harris’ original scoring for the background bits, simply because it was the most appropriate. ARR gives some really good pieces for the whole confused/twisted mood, and stylish block-rocking beats for the joyful moods. Except for the outstanding “Guzarish”, the rest of the tracks are pretty pop-inspired and standard fare. The picturisation of “Aye Bachchoo” and “Bekha” are superb. Jiah Khan’s “Latoo” started out very promising but was cut after 1 minute to allow the story to unfold.

Overall, a very satisfying movie experience. No wonder then it passed the one-billion-rupee mark in a matter of days.