Alchemist with the Oscars

Strangely Mani Ratnam-centric, but a good read nonetheless:

Seventeen years after he began writing music and songs for films, the jingle maker-turned-musician has finally got recognition as India's first truly global film music composer with his score for Danny Boyle's sleeper hit Slumdog Millionaire. More...

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.

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.

Muzik Treet

Just before I went to Ananda Bhavan Tuesday night (yes, before the Ghee Overkill of 2008), I went on a music CD spree.

This last month, the best in Chennai had released their CDs – AR Rahman and Sakkarakatti, Harris Jayaraj and Sathyam, GV Prakash and Kuselan and Vidyasagar and Kuruvi.

These guys are a diverse bunch, each having a trademark style.

I heard Sakkarakati at a friend’s wedding, and I was shocked to hear two translated numbers (every now and then, ARR decides to just remake his old Hindi songs into Tamil). No harm in that – but it takes away the originality of the movie from him.

But he made the two songs enjoyable – by using the right singers. “Chinnamma” was one of my favourites from the classic but commercial flop “Meenakshi”, and a fabulous lady singer by the name of Chinmayi brought out the flavour of the song. “I miss you da” and “Taxi taxi” are really cool as well. This album is vintage ARR.

I was expecting Mr Jayaraj to throw up his classic tunes AGAIN. But amazingly, out of 5 songs, 3 sounded very new! I’m speechless. I’m also speechless that for this 25^th movie of his (Sathyam), Jayaraj made the extremely doofy Premji sing an entire bloody song! How’s that. My favourite is “En Anbe”, even though it smacks of a copy of another song. It’s something different and interesting.

GV Prakash has some good tunes in Kuselan. But the over-the-top praising of Rajni and the use of too many instruments mar this album. Seriously, the “ankat bola” to Rajni is excessive. No thanks to P. As in P. Vasu.

The best surprise is Kuruvi. Vidyasagar shows some real nifty creative work in “Happy New Year” feat. Yogi B, and “Palanathu”. This album far superior to Kuselan. It has the standard duets and peppy songs, and they're all enjoyable.