Been listening to shillong shillong from provoked for almost the entire day. wonderful composition. haven't seen the movie, so no clue how it suits the movie. but it just grows on me each time i listen to it. thank you Rahman sir for giving us such beautiful songs :)
For those who havent listened to that song, do listen to that :) it's such a brilliant song. :) [I am actually running out of adjectives here :P]
I got nothing much to write, so this one will be just a short one to let everyone know i am still alive :) . Was just organising the files in my system and found this pic i had. I took this screenshot almost a year back. Realy funny pic.
Definitely proves the credibility of BSNL. btw, my connection speed is actually 256kbps with a download speed of around 30kbps. Height of errors and approximation :P
Zindagi hai dua, Yeh tumhari meri baatein, malargale and we can make it better were the only songs i listened to for the past three days. wow! just awesome.
i have this habit of choosing a song and then listening to it continuously for a looooooooooooong time. remains in the repeat mode for a really long time. this week it was just these songs.
1. Zindagi hai dua - From the movie Dil Ne Jise Apna Kaha (yes! salman khan's). Not many know that this song was composed by ARR. beautiful song. Beautiful use of strings from 01:30 to 01:53. Beautifully rendered by madhushree, karthik, gayathri and raqueeb. really love this song :)
2. Malargale - one of the bestesssssssst songs ever! such a soulful composition. everytime i listen to this song i am just dumbstrck by the sheer brilliance of the great man. really amazing song. the way the beats start at 01:55 and the interludes are just awesome. And chitra as always flawless. Such a great composition, evergreen!
3. We can Make it better - Again another of my favourite songs. A song performed for a cause and that makes it even more special to me. Really great music as usual by ARR. And the many people who were a part of this song from shaan, Jaspinder Narula, Sukhwinder Singh to Hans Raj Hans and Apache were great.
4. Yeh tumhari meri baatein - Yes, The Rock On! song. One of my S-E-L favourites, Rock on! being my most fav album composed by S-E-L. a great song. I am usually not a fan of rock music, but rock on did really impress me and liked it at first hearing itself. Will be listening to this song for many many years. If not for Yuvraj, ada and JTYJN rock on would have been my fav album of 2008 :)
So i have successfully completed this post with nothing but vetti talks (useless talks) :) I am writing a series of short stories and those should be up some time soon. till then it would only be some rubbish talks like these :)
ta!
This post comes a month after my previous post. I know i should have written more, but then i can give you many reasons for my absence. Time obviosuly being one and the other is the fact that i couldnt think of anything to write. Last time i posted was the day when Rahman got nominated for the oscars. And now it is the victory of Rahman that has made me write this.I was watching the ceremony at my home, waiting for the award for original score to be announced. As soon as the name was announced i was literally jumping with joy :) .It was really inspiring to hear Rahman's acceptance speech the first time where he spoke about his mother and then spoke in tamil "Ella Pughazhum iraivanuke" meaning, all credits to the Almighty. No one would have expected him to talk in Tamil or even in Hindi, but then that's Rahman :)
If i called his first speech as inspiring, then i don't know what the second one was ! Surely , without any doubt one of the best acceptance speeches ever.
"All my life, I had a choice of hate and love.I chose love and here i am. "
Wow!!!!!
For someone who has scaled such heights his simplicity and humbleness is unbelievable. Can anyone be so modest even after achieving this much ? This is one of the reasons other than his Music(obviously), that i am so much in love with this man. Somethings that others may not understand, but of course true Rahmaniacs will do!
As a way of celebrating this great moment, i called up one of my friends and went to watch delhi - 6 soon after the ceremony ended. The movie was really good and the highlight was the BGM of the movie. Awesome! A great message towards the end. hope this movie does not suffer the same fate as that of swades, another great movie :)
enjoyed the day by listening to some of my favourite songs of Rahman ( as always! :) )from vellai pookal, lukka chuppi, kangalil enna eeramo to man chandre, uyire, bombay theme and many more :)
hope i do write more frequently in the future.
PS: i have seen that statement in a lottttt of blogs. guess that automatically comes to you once you start to blog :P
keep smiling and Rahmaning :)
JAI HO!!!!!
Today, January the 22nd, 2009 is a great day for the Indians. Especially if you are a Rahmaniac, I would bet anything you are jumping with joy right now. Yes, Rahman has been nominated for the prestigious Oscars today and created history by being the first Indian to be nominated. To add more joy, its triple bonanza. Yes, not one but three nominations. Isn’t that just great? Of course, it is. And the best part is, in the Best Original Song category, two out of the three nominations are for Rahman. That means, two Rahman songs will be competing against each other. Wow! Just awesome.
To those people who can’t stop commenting stuff like “Rahman has lost his touch”, “Rahman’s days are over (pity them, for their music sense) , God has given the reply! It is a fact that some Indian’s can’t accept the growth of another Indian to such a level, something that they could never fathom. Sad but true. Look at all the variety he has churned out in the previous year. Absolutely marvelous! To think someone could even think that he has lost it, after listening to those wonders, is laughable. But still there will be people who will go about as usual commenting the same thing over and over again. But who really cares about them?
To all those who don’t know, there is a difference between the way others listen to Rahman’s music and the way we Rahmaniacs do. We just don’t look for the tune, but also for the music, the way it is arranged, the way the singers are used, the instruments that are used, and a lot more. There is a lot to learn from each song of Rahman. He takes us into a different world with each of his compositions. And it is a fact that even the mediocre compositions of Rahman turn out to be in league with or even way ahead of some of the best compositions of others. And there are people commenting about his works when they wouldn’t have the faintest idea about some of his best compositions. Hilarious!
It is a universal fact that Rahman’s music takes time to grow on you. It’s true, you may like some of his works at the first listening, but then as you listen more and more you like it even better. As Rahman mentioned in one of his interviews, it hurts to see people download the songs from some site and review the music after just one hearing, that too in “cheap laptop speakers” (using his own words), when they spend nearly 6 months to an year mixing it and recording it in the highest quality possible. As I mentioned before the way we Rahmaniacs listen to his songs is completely different. We listen for even the most intricate sound in each of his tracks, and hence find something quite different and refreshing in each of his songs, something that others are unable to enjoy.
Now coming back to the Oscars, does this change our perspective of Rahman? Does it matter to us if he does or doesn’t win? Of course, if he wins, as he surely will, it is a matter of honor and pride for us as Indians, but other than that? Does it make us see Rahman any different from what we see him now? No way! As for which song will get the best original song award, as Rahman said, there is no award that can really judge any music. So bottom-line, Irrespective of the Oscar, Rahman is and will always be the same in our views.
So here it is to the Academy award winning composer A R Rahman, and to all Rahmaniacs in this world.
Jai Ho! Jai Hind!
The movie slumdog millionaire has evoked varied reactions from everyone ever since it was screened at the telluride movie festival, more so after the plethora of awards that it has started to amass recently. Personally, I liked the movie very much. Though I would have to confess, the only reason I watched the movie was for the background score by ARR (stunning score, btw). The story is basically simple; a boy from the slums goes on a TV show to reunite with his lost love and goes on to win the show. But he is suspected of cheating, and during the course of interrogation the story unfolds.
Logically this film has numerous flaws. To point out a few, the fact that two kids from slum could such accented English is something that is not possible. So is the fact that the book “three musketeers” was included in the syllabus of a local school in Mumbai. But no complains anyways since it was unavoidable. It is an English movie and hence they had to talk in English if they couldn’t help it. Running the entire film with subtitles wouldn’t have been advisable. And I am still wondering why ARR decided to use “aaj ki raat” song when the video was that of “fanaa” from the movie yuva (aayutha ezhuthu) , which was a really great song.
Set in an Indian background, the slums of Mumbai to be specific, the direction by Danny Boyle and cinematography by Anthony Dod Mantle are excellent.The score by A R Rahman, is needless to say, a clear winner.But as always, there has been a lot of criticism lately, including the one by BIG B in his blog that the film portrays India as underdeveloped 3rd world nation. Maybe it does, but what it portrays is REALITY. As ARR himself said in an interview when asked about this, what we have to do is take notice of this problem and try to solve it, rather than shy away from it. It is true that to the west India has always been an underdeveloped country with slums and more people below the poverty line. But instead of slamming the movie, what we can do is make some initiatives that will change their opinion. True, it is easier said than done, but still it is not impossible. But again much depends on those who have the power, the politicians of the country. And when we realize that, it sort of becomes remotely possible (not impossible, because nothing is impossible).
As I said, slamming the movie would be irrelevant and unfair, but one has to agree that nothing of this sort would have happened if the same movie had been directed by an Indian.IMO, If it had been shot by an Indian, then critics would have viewed that as the director’s way of telling the people of India to wake up and take some initiative to improve the lives of the people of the slums. The fact that a foreigner, (specifically a Brit) has done this has a complete opposite effect. Definitely a Brit can’t have made this effort aiming at improving India. The West generally portrays India as a 3rd world country only because of the reason that, it can then prove its greatness and growth to the world. Will any British director be ready to shoot a movie that portrays the actual thing that happened during its rule in India?
All that we can do now is work for the improvement of our country. Sure we have developed a lot in the past. There are a lot of skyscrapers than there used to be previously, there are a lot more cars and we are still improving economically. But this doesn’t hide the fact that there are still slums and children with no proper education or even the basic necessities. But with corrupt politicians and equally corrupt political system, looks like it would be a long time for something to happen. With those with the power and money to actually do something content to be in their own world of lavishness and happiness, change is far from happening.
With these thoughts, here is one more entry into the blogging world. Hope it treats me well :P
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