Rockstar

Dare I say that I am attempting to do something impulsive by letting a few words out only after a couple of listens to Rockstar?

Why do I say ‘dare’? Because this album apparently has 4 years of thoughts and brainstorming that went behind it. Because this is AR Rahman’s first hindi album in almost a year. Because the theme of the movie is so original and for a traditional classic (western) rock music addict like me, this theme presents so many possibilities to imagine..Because the team Rockstar worked with AR Rahman with so much respect giving him the space he needed to work on an album like this where in Indian movie business circles, that is really not the first criterion to consider. Because a blend of a bit of Sufi music and Indian rock scene presents an opportunity that I can imagine only AR Rahman in the current generation of MDs could even dare to attempt.

So there..That’s enough burden on me to try not to pass on an immature or a thoughtless comment on an album after a couple of listens right? Unfortunately, the emotions a few numbers in the album bring are so much that I decided that for a change I would blurt out right away. I am sure the so called professional music critics would do their job soon.

BTW, T-Series and whoever else involved with the official CD release have mismanaged the scenario so much that the CDs likely won’t hit the stores till the middle of next week.

Aur Ho – This belongs to a melancholic rock number category. Instead of comparing to a western rock equivalent number, I would just just point out that this has oodles of sufi blues in it. Mohit Chauhan gets a number where he gets to extend his vocal chords quite differently & at quite a high range too.

Hawa Hawa – What can I say about this? Flamenco flavor all the way. Move over Senorita from ZNMD.

Jo Bhi Main – This is another song that belongs to the ‘rock’ category. Yet, a sort of thoughtful rock number which involves invoking the crowd to join you in the thinking process. Brilliant is all I can say – The lead guitar, the whole humming, chanting and finally Mohit Chauhan. And I also feel that this is a song where AR decided to pay some subtle tribute to Deep Purple. Genius work.

Katiya Karun – Totally addictive and insanely fun filled groove. It is hard to remake an already popular folk song and make it something of your own. Rahman has done something similar so many times in the past and this one passes the muster with flying colors.

Kun Faya Kun – This is a genre that AR Rahman owns. And one more opportunity for him to prove that he owns it like no one else. Divine, Blissful, etc. etc. – Even if you are a non-believer, I bet there are moments in the song that will make your mind transcend somewhere else.

Naadaan Parindey – Initially I wasn’t sure how this would play out. But after 2 listens, I am still not sure. Quite a complex piece..as I couldn’t box it into one category. It is a very “painful” song as in a song that evokes some kind of a pain. Rahman’s vocals add that many layers to the song..specially for the painful part. It is a rock song in many ways. I like this and I am afraid this may end up growing over me more than the other numbers.

Phir Se Ud Chala - Ok. This song is all about Mohit Chauhan and the guitarist. Of course, Rahman just had to bring the right people together for a tune like this. And he is a master of that. It works. It works big time. Another song which I connected with after the first listen itself.

Sadda Haq – I won’t say anything more than the fact that this song will rule the charts and this song will define the movie, this album and everything associated with it. Awesome guitar work by Orianthi. And brilliant. That’t it. An anthem of sorts.

Sheher mein – I bet Rahman found this song the most challenging one to make..You got to understand the context (I am guessing based on the lyrics) to appreciate the humor…and how difficult it would have been for the music director to make fun of himself & his own work..Again Mohit does well. Karthik does his bit to perfection as well.

Tango for Taj – Have to see the visuals to connect with this as this one is instrumental. Of course Rahman creates a wonderful Tango piece.

The Dichotomy of Fame – I will just stop with saying that this could be the theme music of the story. Will end up being in my all time favorite Rahman instrumentals for sure.

Tum Ho – One of the 3 songs I may need more listens to connect with it completely. Of course, this sounds like a romantic ballad that Rahman has created many a time before. But may work well with the visuals. No need to mention that Mohit aces this one.

Tum Ko - Kavitha on an AR album after ages. Quite the right song for her. It works. It works in invoking some inexplicable emotions.

Meeting Place – Nothing much to be said as it is supposedly based on some Rumi’s verses.

Alright. That’s it..I am not going to get over this album so quickly. Unfortunately I have to wait till next week to even order my CD. Till then, I will rely on streaming audio.

Overall listening to the album is like taking me to a feast after starving me for a week where there is a smorgasbord of dishes prepared by a master chef.

Do buy original CDs or Download through authorized stores on the web.

Amma Thalle

Even while my confusing playlist which constantly finds it difficult to play 1 out of the 13 songs out of the 2 albums released with AR Rahman’s name in them in the last 3 weeks, I decided to pause for a moment and blog about this song called Amma Thalle from Komaram Puli. Knowing SJ Suryah’s penchant for tickling the sensual bones and nerves of his audience, I can only imagine how this will be picturized. Because of the general nature of our movie going audience who tend to pan songs as failures or hail songs as hits, based mostly on visuals and words (point being the actual music/melody/complexity rarely come into consideration), I will not be surprised if this song becomes a failure or hit (amongst certain kinds of fans) in no time after the movie releases.

For now, I have the luxury of writing about this song without any such prejudice or bias as the movie is not released yet.

Not so hardcore AR fans would have found a striking similarity between how Swetha starts off “sootiga” and how Harini starts off “Theekuruvi” (from KKS). But even for them, the similarity ends right there as they soon realize the similarity is only on the way a whole multiple word sequence is strung together that is difficult to comprehend at the first listen..and how the singer sings it so fast. Even for a Telugu learner like me, I can easily compare Theekuruvi with Amma Thalle and come to the conclusion that Amma Thalle is several notches below Theekuruvi in terms of ‘literal value’, thus giving enough opportunities to Suryah to let his front bench audience pleasing mode come into action.

This is one song that was pleasing at the first listen to me but on the next few hearings, I thought Rahman was sort of struck to his Telugu music days of 80s when music director Koti was at his peak…but as I continued to listen to this song more and more (at least once a day since July 12), I now come to the conclusion this is a song filled with instances of creative genius and yet put together in a commercially pleasing manner just like the director would have wanted. yes, the hangover of 80s if present may have been purely coincidental but how much has it been color to sound 21st century-ish for Pawan Kalyan fans. Notwithstanding the commercial aspects of the song such as a groovy rhythm and all that, the song has several master strokes only Rahman could have come up with so effortlessly.

* The brass like sounds that pop up along with the intro * The transition from the heavily exotic female intro to a hardcore Pawan Kalyan friendly male intro at 00:40 * Classical medley along with the same brass kind of sounds starting at 01:05 * Wherever the bass lines appear * Again the male voice blending at 01:50 * 02:40 onwards — No words to explain the abruptness and unexpected turn the song takes..and of course it ends with a crazy rendering of”Jabili Bomma”

Just because I dedicated a post on this song doesn’t mean I consider this song a classic or the best Rahman has done in recent times or anything. It only reflects that I had time to vent out what I thought about this song…now.

Here is the song for those who haven’t listened to it yet.

Music of the Tamil Machinist (Endhiran)

Let me start off with a disclaimer that this by no means is a review of a music album – for I find the term ‘review’ often misleading & distasteful. This is simply a collection of my thoughts.

The very idea of a Shankar-Rahman combination, in spite of it being almost 16-17 years old is still fascinating to the Tamil movie & music industry. There is something in their working dynamics – There is something in the way Shankar concieves his song sequences & the way in which he communicates them to Rahman. There has to be. There is also probably some unique cues he is able to provide Rahman with every time they work on an idea because there is almost a pattern by which Shankar imagines his song sequences irrespective of the story narrative or platform, yet the pattern is not easily decipherable. Which is why, with odds so much in favor of an album that involves these two being a commercial hit, the fact that they still manage to conjure up the listeners (and viewers) with something new & novel is worth a thesis for pure and hardcore lovers of Tamil film music.

To me, this being a Rajnikanth film is not a factor as far what I expect from the music, because so much of what the album “Endhiran” is going to cater to me is dependent on the Shankar-Rahman combination. Of course the addition of ‘the Super Star’ would only mean that the pattern could become a little more decipherable.

Thus began my journey of the machinist’s music..Here is my travelogue in a condensed form.

1) Puthiya Manidha – Predictable SPB groove but with a totally unpredictable intro. I think the Intro, SPB’s diction, Vairamuthu’s punchy lines & an addictive groove meant for Rajni fans are enough to carry this song to the commercially successful side.

2) Kadhal Anukkal – This sort of belongs to the Hosanna genre..but with a more 90s melody feel. Vijay Prakash, the new favorite from Rahman’s camp is absolutely brilliant and Shankar couldn’t go wrong with this one in terms of picturizing – out of the world ‘feel good romantic number’ with ample opportunities for Vairamuthu to show off his scientific knowledge (although I felt there were some cheesy words which were offset by some of his more brilliant phrases throughout the song)..

3) Irumbilae – Actually this was one of the 2 songs I was looking forward to listen to because of Madhan Karky. Took me a while to get used to this song..although many Rahman fans have called this song average for his standards, I am hooked to it after some 20 odd listenings. Karky does what he is expected to do – deliver a mix of science and maths in simple Tamil. My favorite was “Googlekal” (கூகுல்கள்)

4) Boom Boom – Karky has some work here while Yogi B takes care of the rest. Finally the only kind of Indian rap that Rahman hasn’t tried in his music so far finds a place.

5) Chitti Dance – Pravin Mani deserves special mention for his funky programming…while this was a number for which I think AR would have had a million ideas..and would have found it extremely difficult to present the right one to Shankar. Playful.

6) Arima Arima – Maya Machindra, Vaa ji Vaaji, Mudhalvanae & to an extent Ottagatha Kattikko are  Shankar songs that belong to a family. Arima Arima belongs in that family as this was a pattern I could break into. The music is grand and pumping. Sure to please many Rajni fans. And Shankar would have made sure his sets are as grand as the orchestration.

7) Kilimanjaro – To me this stood out in the album in terms of being odd. Oddly brilliant…I should say. Javed Ali and Chinmayi have done what they have never done before – singing a playful romantic song meant for frontbenchers and backbenchers equally. And Rahman – what can I say? How many improvisations can he come up with? Where does he get these subtle ideas that make all the difference in the end? Hats off. I envision this song to be the Peruvian one..

Overall – the combination works wonders yet again – Pattern notwithstanding, the album is full of surprise elements, catchy hooks and absolutely brilliant sound engineering layered with Rahman’s genius. The Machinist (Endhiran) delivers music with pin point accuracy much like a Robot.

Raavan(an)

When the first promos were out, most of us, including yours truly, felt elated. Not just the music but the movie which is being speculated to be loosely inspired by Ramayan coming from the Madras Talkies backyard, with Manirathnam at the helm, had everything to look forward to. Since Roja, Manirathnam, quite unintentionally, but deservedly has had to carry the burden of India’s most Intelligent filmmaker. I am not calling him India’s best filmmaker but most intelligent, because his movies can be dissected and analyzed at many levels & for many different qualities, which can’t be said of some of India’s more prominent and better craftsmen, like Adoor or Ray or Benegal or..They cater to a niche audience and they are truly the masters of their craft. But their movies can be analyzed at only one or two levels and for a fewer categories.

For this movie, Rahman and Mani worked together for the 9th time – but in terms of their movie count, this trilingual is the 10th & 11th respectively (Tamil & Telugu versions are counted as 1 as they are normally dubbed)..

Because Raavan (Hindi) was released first, I listened to the Hindi album first and most of the songs were being played in my car, home theater, iTunes, iPhone and all possible audio outlets for over 2-3 dozen times before I could get to listen to the Tamil version online. But still, I have tried not to compare them and listened to them sort of in isolation. Yet, my knowledge of what I know of how the movie was made and my confident guesses on how Mani would have gone about the film, made me conclude that the most practical thing for Rahman to do would have been to compose these songs with the hindi audience in mind first. Once Mani okayed the hindi versions, he could then adapt the same to Tami/Telugu. Of course, there was no scientific method to my conclusion – it was based on the common knowledge that an average Tamil/Telugu music listener is a little more adventurous when it comes to experimentation as opposed to an average Hindi music listener. This is not to say, an experimentation won’t work or hasn’t worked in Hindi but the probability is more in Tamil/Telugu. And also, Rahman’s great understanding of the nuances of Hindustani classical and Carnatic classical makes him instinctively create tunes based on ragas that are sort of common in both cultures. The beauty of Indian classical music is that even a same raga gets interpreted very differently between Hindustani and Carnatic music  - The way it gets rendered right from ‘brihas’ to ‘ghamakas’ to ‘aalaps’, how the voice gets thrown up & down and how it gets modulated, etc. Unless someone has a clear & firm grasp of these subtleties and also not feel puritanical about the usage of these ragas, they will never be able to create a tune or a melody that is instantly appealing to both cultures.

Take for example ‘Kata Kata’: After listening to this multiple times (before Raavanan’s release), I was getting more and more curious about how this would sound in Tamil. I even was selfishly hoping that there would be an entirely different song for the same situation. When I listened to ‘Keda Kari’, I should say, my apprehensive curiosity was shattered to pieces for a good reason. Whether the way Vairamuthu played around with a sort of rustic Tamil that in most of our minds exists only in his poems, yet find it all the more authentic & attuning or the way a simple Shehnai has been replaced with a Nadaswaram like sounding instrument all while maintaining the same playfulness that Gulzar penned down for the hindi version. It is amazing how Ila Arun’s part where she goes ‘O Ra..’, which has the UP belt folksy flavor is not missed at all in the Tamil version, where the choice of singers (AR Raihana and Tanvi Shah) pretty much take care of bringing the much needed rustic playfulness. I also loved the creative usage of ‘Yeh Mappila’ for the chorus ending to replace Gulzar’s playful ‘Ek aur gaya’.. Of course, it goes without saying that we can surely expect Manirathnam to pull something off visually magical and show the marriage ceremonies and rituals for these 2 cultures differently for the different versions. Can’t wait to watch this song on the screens..

If ‘Kata Kata’ was the riskiest song in my mind to have treaded dangerously close to being sounding alien to the south – then ‘Killi Re’ was going to be the least of my worries.  AR Rahman has done this many times. Melody – soothing – absolutely serene..Probably he can do songs of this nature in his sleep. Simple brilliance all over..and based on the fusion raga chosen, I expected this song to sound good in Tamil. Shreya has taken the song to another level, while Reena did a great song in Hindi. Amazing singing!

‘Kaattu Sirukki’ – The Kuchi Kuchi Rakamma of 2010. Instead of Hariharan and Swarnalatha, it is Shankar M and Anuradha Sriram this time. I should say the latter pair had a more difficult and may be more authentic rustic lyrics to deal with. Both of them pull this off with aplomb. Talking about the Hindi equivalent ‘Ranjha Ranjha’, this may be another song that Rekha Bhardwaj was delighted she got to sing.  Man! What a fortunate singer she is to get to showcase her singing through Rahman’s songs in 2 big movies and that too, through two of the more popular numbers, in spite of her husband being a reputable & an original music director of his own repute.

Beera/Veera – This probably is the song that is going to be played in the charts for the longest time. Absolutely racy and the African chant brings the jungle factor out of the protagonist very well. Can you tell me if there is any other musician who can bring this fusion out so well? Even some of my most respected world musicians such as DF and DCD, who survive on making music out of great research on ethnic sounds around the world, may find it challenging to do something like this where they have to mix African jungle sounds with Indian folk. Not much to write about as far as lyrics go in both the versions, but the song is already my son’s favorite.

Sukhwinder Singh brings out an anthem like feeling to ‘Thok De Killi’ and it is another great song for the lyricists to paint Beera/Veera’s character on a larger canvas in the context of the battle he is waging. Benny Dayal may not have brought the same anthem like feel to ‘Kodu Potta’. What Benny Dayal has done works fabulously well and what I am beginning to get more and impressed with him is the fact that he is able to get his mind around the words & accent of the language he is singing in a methodical way. It is hard to imagine that he is the same singer who sang “Maduraikku Pogathadi” from ATM, the same one who sang “O mana pennae” from VTV…the same guy who sang ‘Adiyae’ from VA..and the same one who sang ‘Kaise Mujhe’ from Ghajini.

Finally the song that I hope fetches some awards for Karthik. Karthik sang both ‘Behne De’ and ‘Usirae Pogudhey’. This is a classic Rahman song bringing out the pain of a lover in an unassuming way. The choice of sounds including an eerie Xylaphone prelude and a great string section orchestral interlude make this song absolutely heart wrenching. Gulzar starts off the song using water as his backdrop while Vairamuthu uses fire. But as the song progresses, Gulzar decides to stick with similar metaphors and poetry while Vairamuthu decides to indulge in more trite romance. I am sure both had reasons to do what they did as they are equally capable of doing the exact opposite if the need be.

Overall, an album that needs time to understand (in my case about 2 dozen times and not 20 ears)..I am sure my understanding at this point is only 30%. Hopefully as I watch Mani’s and Santhosh Sivan’s visuals, it will go up to at least 60%. As an avid movie & music buff, there is no better combination that I am curious about than the combination of Manirathnam, ARR and Gulzar/Vairamuthu – Curious about their motivation, reasoning and the whole process of making music.

Jai Swarnim Gujarat

This was one of those low profile projects AR Rahman had worked on in the recent past. Given that he is working on an anthem/album for the Semmozhi conference, this comes as a surprise as he has done something similar for Gujarat, all hush-hush. This is for Gujarat day and Narendra Modi’s team commissioned Rahman to do this. (Yes. the same Modi!!..Wipe that grin off now!)

Singer: Keerti Sagathia