When Vinnaithaandi Varuvaya's music released, I was so convinced that it was the best of A. R. Rahman's works. It is when Ekk Deewana Tha released that I understood that how much Thaamarai had a hand in making the album a major success. Goutham Menon might have made the right choice in roping in Javed Akhtar to pen the lyrics for those wonderful tunes but the end product just seems far too ordinary for the combination of the two greats. Almost all the tunes have been retained with just the one new track "Kya Hai Mohabbat". Without anymore rants let's dive into the review.
Kya Hai Mohabbat is a wonderful jazz number, a genre in which Rahman has carved a niche for himself. Though this cannot be placed alongside Vennila Vennila from Iruvar or even Tu Bole from JTYJN, it satisfies in many respects. Maybe it's the other songs in the album the lyrics seem to fit in perfectly in the musical phrases. Rahman has taken a beautiful tune to the next level with his crooning. All in all a wonderful track.
Sharminda Hoon is a very soulful song rendered by Rahman and Madhushree. Few singers have the voice that adds magic to a song and Madhushree is certainly one of them. The tune has a certain southern touch to it. A very typical Rahman tamil song would have all these elements. What brings the song down is the lyics which are lost in transliteration. One starts to wonder if it is a man who has Hindi/Urdu as his first language who wrote the lyrics. Mannipaaya is one of those songs in Tamil which had lyrics that made you think of the days when lyrics were actually given importance. A wonderful track is undone by some jaded words.
Phoolon Jaisi is a song where Rahman had put all his Carnatic prowess to use. The melody itself is very complicated and it grows on you as you listen to it, very typical of Rahman's songs. The nadhaswaram is one of those instruments that Rahman puts to use absolutely wonderfully. The background nadhaswaram in this song just sticks to your head. Clinton Cerejo has done a half decent job in rendering this lovely number. The lyrics again let the song down miserably.
Aaromale over the months has acquired a cult status in the south. The song has elements of Psychedelic Rock and classical Carnatic music fused to yield a hybrid. The guitars and violin create a scintillating musical experience for the listener. This is another song which grows on you. When I first heard Aaromale, I could actually feel being in a boat on the backwaters of Aleppey. The song in Ekk Deewana Tha is sadly a weak remake of a classic. No prizes for guessing the culprit. The song should not have been touched at all. It had a typical Malayali sensibility to it. The lyrics even though I could not understand were musical in Malayalam. In his want to recreate a classic, Javed Akhtar produces a very very bizarre lyric. Remember folks, this is the man who produced classics like Ek Ladki Ko from 1942 a love story and Kathai Aankhon Waali from Duplicate.
Hosanna is the usp of the album. Undoubtedly one of Rahman's masterpieces. This song again has gained cult status in the south. The melody and the orchestration of the song is a lesson to all budding music composers, in fact many prominent music composers can take a lesson or two from this song. The singer Leon D'Souza I think is a find. The guy does an amazing job in recreating this classic. Vijay Prakash had set the bar very high and Leon D'Souza does not disappoint. Javed Akhtar here does a decent job. Even with not so good lyrics this song will stand out in the charts for sure.
Dost Hai is the worst track of the album. This is not due to the lyrics. It is the over experimentation of A.R. Rahman that has made this song go all bad. Who would have thought that Kannukkul Kannai would undergo such torture at the hands of the master himself? The bad rapping and varied noises (not music) make this song a real torture for the listener. It is like a plastic surgery gone awry. The song is definitely not making it to my playlist atleast.
Sun Lo Zara is the dark horse in the album. The tune is catchy and the lyrics not bad at all. The Nadhaswaram piece of Anbil Avan has been cleverly converted to Shehnai. The Tavil and Mridangam give it away though. The choice of singers is not bad. Rashid Ali and Shreya Ghoshal render this song with utmost ease. Although Rashid Ali lacks the peppiness of Devan Ekambaram, he does not mess up the song.
Last but not the least, Zohrajabeen has all the elements of a classic. The tamil version never took off the way it should have. I think it has a lot of complicated music elements a lay person might not appreciate. For one, the song is void of rhythm. There are ebbs and flows in the course of the song. It is a beautiful number which has never been appreciated enough. I hope it makes it in the Hindi front atleast.
The few instrumental pieces in the album are basically the recreations of the original bgm of VTV, hence are good on the ears. Goutham Menon should have insisted on completely new lyrics for the songs. He went for the translation which always is not the safe option. Javed Akhtar is a stalwart and he has failed miserably with his lyrics. The album as such has some amazing music and some shoddy lyrical work bringing it down. 5 on 10 is my verdict.
Thursday, January 12, 2012
Thursday, September 24, 2009
You have to be a dea person to no like the tunes of A.R. Rahman. It is the case in his newest release too. Blue has some wonderful collection of songs. Chiggy wiggy has been an instant hit. It has an amazing vocal track by Kylie Minogue. Sonu Niiggam as he is known nowadays addes a desi flavour to the bubblegum pop song. The song which has caught my attention is Bhoola Tujhe. Amazing vocals and instrumentation. People, you have got to listen to this song to realise why they gave the man an academy award. Couples Retreat is his next. Eagerly awaiting it. Has a tamil song in it, it seems.
Friday, November 21, 2008
Where is secular India going?
India as far as we have known has been secular. It has been a home to various religions and atheist traditions. Even though it seemed polarized, the polarization has never been as strong as it is today. Indian society has never patronized any particular religion as a sectarian society would. This is actually a proven fact since Hinduism, the largest religion of India is an evolution of religious and theological beliefs of various peoples of India settled over various periods in the whole region's history. Hinduism is not the ideology of one person or a few people. In fact, we can never point at one person as the founder of this great faith. This is a well known fact and is also a very important facet of whole political system of this great country. Unity in diversity has been the foundation on which the Indian society has thrived on over the past centuries.
Seeing the way Indian politicians have been using or abusing the minority and majority for their own advantage and creating vote banks has been a sad reflection on how the thin line between tolerance and intolerance has been totally violated. There has never been a consensus between the ruling and opposition parties in India ever over any issue. Using the people to gain power and causing communal tension has become so matter of fact these days. We can not blame just the sectarian communalist parties and organizations for this. Even the so-called "secular" parties of India have been thriving on creating vote banks out of the minority. If this is going to continue, we can keep dreaming about the super-power we want to create here.
This blog is actually a result of various incidents that have been happening in India. Probably we blame the politicians a lot more than the projectors of politicians. As a people we can be easily influenced. This characteristic nature of the average Indian has been, I should say very well exploited. We have been made to think that a community is dangerous time and again by the newsreaders in some television station. Once people start identifying communities with terrorism the polarizing of society starts to take place. Other communities try to stay away from the branded community. This creates a rift between people. Now when one community is branded, the people actually do not try to salvage the lost credibility of the community. Contrary to that fact, the actually start to indulge in various heinous activities which actually damage the community beyond repair. Now that the media has created a monster called Hindu terror, people start to idolize people like Col. Purohit and Sadhvi Pragya just the way Muslims have for long now revered Osama bin Laden and al Zawahiri.
If this is the plight of the media, politicians are worse. People who comment when a blast happens in the name of Jihad, keep quiet when the same thing happens for the sake of a Hindu Rashtra. In fact they go to the extent of giving the terror accused legal support. This is just one side of the coin. The principal of a very distinguished university offered legal help to the accused in Delhi blasts too. But two wrongs never make a right. India not so long ago had a Sikh prime-minister and a Muslim president at the helm. Wherever did that go. India has for long been inherently secular unlike America where opponents criticize other's religious beliefs and the criticized does all his best to prove his religious beliefs to be of the majority.
India needs to guard against polarization or it might become the undoing of a society which is infused with diverse cultures and religions. For this, the politicians and the media need to stop te act of polarization at once. Graduality in this case can never be a solution.
Seeing the way Indian politicians have been using or abusing the minority and majority for their own advantage and creating vote banks has been a sad reflection on how the thin line between tolerance and intolerance has been totally violated. There has never been a consensus between the ruling and opposition parties in India ever over any issue. Using the people to gain power and causing communal tension has become so matter of fact these days. We can not blame just the sectarian communalist parties and organizations for this. Even the so-called "secular" parties of India have been thriving on creating vote banks out of the minority. If this is going to continue, we can keep dreaming about the super-power we want to create here.
This blog is actually a result of various incidents that have been happening in India. Probably we blame the politicians a lot more than the projectors of politicians. As a people we can be easily influenced. This characteristic nature of the average Indian has been, I should say very well exploited. We have been made to think that a community is dangerous time and again by the newsreaders in some television station. Once people start identifying communities with terrorism the polarizing of society starts to take place. Other communities try to stay away from the branded community. This creates a rift between people. Now when one community is branded, the people actually do not try to salvage the lost credibility of the community. Contrary to that fact, the actually start to indulge in various heinous activities which actually damage the community beyond repair. Now that the media has created a monster called Hindu terror, people start to idolize people like Col. Purohit and Sadhvi Pragya just the way Muslims have for long now revered Osama bin Laden and al Zawahiri.
If this is the plight of the media, politicians are worse. People who comment when a blast happens in the name of Jihad, keep quiet when the same thing happens for the sake of a Hindu Rashtra. In fact they go to the extent of giving the terror accused legal support. This is just one side of the coin. The principal of a very distinguished university offered legal help to the accused in Delhi blasts too. But two wrongs never make a right. India not so long ago had a Sikh prime-minister and a Muslim president at the helm. Wherever did that go. India has for long been inherently secular unlike America where opponents criticize other's religious beliefs and the criticized does all his best to prove his religious beliefs to be of the majority.
India needs to guard against polarization or it might become the undoing of a society which is infused with diverse cultures and religions. For this, the politicians and the media need to stop te act of polarization at once. Graduality in this case can never be a solution.
Friday, November 7, 2008
I searched for God among the Christians and on the Cross and therein I found Him not.
I went into the ancient temples of idolatry; no trace of Him was there.
I entered the mountain cave of Hira and then went as far as Qandhar but God I found not.
With set purpose I fared to the summit of Mount Caucasus and found there only 'anqa's habitation.
Then I directed my search to the Kaaba, the resort of old and young; God was not there even.
Turning to philosophy I inquired about him from ibn Sina but found Him not within his range.
I fared then to the scene of the Prophet's experience of a great divine manifestation only a "two bow-lengths' distance from him" but God was not there even in that exalted court.
Finally, I looked into my own heart and there I saw Him; He was nowhere else.
Rumi.
makes a hell a lot of sense.. doesn it??
I went into the ancient temples of idolatry; no trace of Him was there.
I entered the mountain cave of Hira and then went as far as Qandhar but God I found not.
With set purpose I fared to the summit of Mount Caucasus and found there only 'anqa's habitation.
Then I directed my search to the Kaaba, the resort of old and young; God was not there even.
Turning to philosophy I inquired about him from ibn Sina but found Him not within his range.
I fared then to the scene of the Prophet's experience of a great divine manifestation only a "two bow-lengths' distance from him" but God was not there even in that exalted court.
Finally, I looked into my own heart and there I saw Him; He was nowhere else.
Rumi.
makes a hell a lot of sense.. doesn it??
i dont think of harris jeyaraj much.. but this song of his has gotten stuck in my head.. mundhinam paarthene from vaaranam aayiram.. a very catchy tune ad vibrant voices rendering it has made it into a really soul soothing number... it is being pictured on surya and simran.. simran looks extremely pretty in the movie... i just dont care about surya... he is a decent actor and thats about it.. coming back to te song.. it has some good lyric too.. the lyric is refreshingly different from all the crap that is being written these days.. on the whole the song is going to be an all time classic.. it can never become a runaway hit because of its very polished style...
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
