For Goutham Menon this is the first movie where he has dropped Harris Jeyaraj for A R Rahman but the songs are far from impressive. Of all the songs the title song sung by Karthik stands out. However take a listen to the French band, Air and the singer Nick Drake and the title song seems heavily influenced by the music of these artistes.
Check songs of Vinnai Thaandi Varuvaaya here.
Meanwhile Yuvan Shankar Raja scores some decent ones for the movie Goa. Check out "Idhu Varai" and "Valibaa Vaa Vaa", the former sung by Andrea and Ajeesh and the latter by Illayaraja, SPB and Chithra.
Check out the part when Chitra joins in.
Showing posts with label A R Rahman. Show all posts
Showing posts with label A R Rahman. Show all posts
Friday, January 15, 2010
Saturday, October 10, 2009
A delightful Hollywood Movie Soundtrack by A R Rahman
In another first for an Indian Music Director/Composer, A R Rahman composes all the songs and music for the Hollywood Movie, "Couples Retreat".
Like me, if you thought "Slumdog Millionnaire" wasn't worth it, take a listen to the songs of "Couples Retreat" at the following site.
http://www.couplesretreatsoundtrack.com/
A R Rahman even sings a Tamil song and I can imagine the feeling listening to it while watching the film in the U.S or in countries outside India. The song may not play in its entirety but even a small bit is worth it. Then there is Khailash Kher lending his vocal talents in another song, an afro number and other delightful tunes. Check it out.
Like me, if you thought "Slumdog Millionnaire" wasn't worth it, take a listen to the songs of "Couples Retreat" at the following site.
http://www.couplesretreatsoundtrack.com/
A R Rahman even sings a Tamil song and I can imagine the feeling listening to it while watching the film in the U.S or in countries outside India. The song may not play in its entirety but even a small bit is worth it. Then there is Khailash Kher lending his vocal talents in another song, an afro number and other delightful tunes. Check it out.
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Copying? Imitating? Influenced by?
Check out the similarities between these songs.
A R Rahmans Jai Ho (particularly the second Hindi vocals from Sukhwinder Singh that goes "Katti Katti sachi...(not sure of the exact words though))" from "Slumdog Millionaire" and the opening lines of Shankar Ehshaan Loy's "Socha Hai" sung by Farhaan Akthar for the movie "Rock On" and Status Quo's "Rocking All Over the World" made way back in 1977 sound very similar. Is that just a coincidence?
ARR's "Ghuzharish" has the same music as the tamil song "Kelamal" from the Vijay-Shreya starrer "Azhagiya Thamizh Magan" which was also composed by him. Now listen to Limahl's song "Never Ending Story" from the movie of the same name. "Never Ending Story" was made in the 80's. The music from that song has been directly lifted for the Indian songs. Any child could say that the music is just the same. Other tunes (bass and singing in the charanam) in the song remind me heavily of the band Kajagoogoo, and Limahl co-incidentally happens to be an ex-member of Kajagoogoo.
This also goes on to show how old tunes can be lifted from songs on one side of the world and packaged as new material and eventually converted into new hits. Many of these are nothing but disco songs that we used to be so sick of in those days.
The opening lines of A R Rahman's "En Veetu Thotathil Poovellam kettu paar" from the Tamil film "Gentleman" is a perfect copy of the tune of a very old Malayalam Bhajan that people have been singing for ages called "Ayyappa Hare Ayappa Paahimam...".
A R Rahman's Roja theme ( a romantic piano piece), in his first film and the closing theme from the movie "The Bounty" composed by Vangelis made in the early 80's sound very similar. I have tried searching for this theme and all you get are remixes and stuff. You will have to watch the movie closely for this theme. If you have listened to the Vangelis's number you'll instantly catch the theme in Roja as well.
And of course without Reggae there would have never been a song as "Chinna Chinna Aasai" too.
A R Rahmans Jai Ho (particularly the second Hindi vocals from Sukhwinder Singh that goes "Katti Katti sachi...(not sure of the exact words though))" from "Slumdog Millionaire" and the opening lines of Shankar Ehshaan Loy's "Socha Hai" sung by Farhaan Akthar for the movie "Rock On" and Status Quo's "Rocking All Over the World" made way back in 1977 sound very similar. Is that just a coincidence?
ARR's "Ghuzharish" has the same music as the tamil song "Kelamal" from the Vijay-Shreya starrer "Azhagiya Thamizh Magan" which was also composed by him. Now listen to Limahl's song "Never Ending Story" from the movie of the same name. "Never Ending Story" was made in the 80's. The music from that song has been directly lifted for the Indian songs. Any child could say that the music is just the same. Other tunes (bass and singing in the charanam) in the song remind me heavily of the band Kajagoogoo, and Limahl co-incidentally happens to be an ex-member of Kajagoogoo.
This also goes on to show how old tunes can be lifted from songs on one side of the world and packaged as new material and eventually converted into new hits. Many of these are nothing but disco songs that we used to be so sick of in those days.
The opening lines of A R Rahman's "En Veetu Thotathil Poovellam kettu paar" from the Tamil film "Gentleman" is a perfect copy of the tune of a very old Malayalam Bhajan that people have been singing for ages called "Ayyappa Hare Ayappa Paahimam...".
A R Rahman's Roja theme ( a romantic piano piece), in his first film and the closing theme from the movie "The Bounty" composed by Vangelis made in the early 80's sound very similar. I have tried searching for this theme and all you get are remixes and stuff. You will have to watch the movie closely for this theme. If you have listened to the Vangelis's number you'll instantly catch the theme in Roja as well.
And of course without Reggae there would have never been a song as "Chinna Chinna Aasai" too.
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
A R Rahman and uniting India
"Can't you speak even one word of Hindi?". I was asked this unpleasant question twice by my fellow Hindi-speaking Indians during my stay in the U.S. I passed them off lightly though I did want to give these chaps this answer - "My employer doesn't want Hindi and so I didn't care either". In the U.S no matter how hard these guys try to fight their identity crisis with all the Hindi they can speak loudly no U.S employer actually cares for thier Hindi. Translation services do want Hindi speaking people but then H1 visas aren't granted for them. Unless you want to be employed in some Indian gorcery store or gas station run by some Hindi speaking folks there Hindi is of hardly any use in the U.S. I was surprised when I was told by a Tamil boy how a friend of his (another Tamilian) was chiding him for not knowing Hindi. And even though the Indian paper currency uses other languages I am not complaining why my Hindi speaking questioner doesn't know Tamil or Malayalam.
What many of these Hindi speaking folks in India and abroad don't know is that many in India whose mother tongue is not Hindi have actually learnt Hindi at least up until the X standard and that many can even converse, read and write Hindi quite well. In the south we love Hindi movies and songs. Down south Hindi has never been a problem to understand or to learn or to speak. In TamilNadu, only the imposition of Hindi has been opposed. Most of our singers from the South such as Yeshudas, S P Balasubramanyam, K S Chithra and of course Hariharan and now Shankar Mahadevan sing in Hindi with ease. Hariharan even made inroads into Ghazals and has carved a niche for himself in this genre before making it big in film songs. On the contrary the many Hindi stars who made it big in Tamil movies like Simran, Jyothika, Nagma can hardly speak a decent word of Tamil and that too after decades of being in the film industry in the South. Khusboo is the exception. What to say of those South Indian stars (some of them who still rock Hindi cinema) like Sridevi, Rekha, Hemamalini, Vyjayanthimaala, Waheeda Rahman and Padmini. Both Juhi Chawla and Kareena Kapoor have openly confessed that Sridevi was their sole influence.
South Indian directors also make Hindi movies. Manirathnam, Ram Gopal Varma and Priyadarshan have made big hits in Bollywood with originals.
And now there is one more person from the South, Chennai's very own A R Rahman who not only composes songs for Hindi movies but also sings them. Hindi film music has never been the same after "Roja". Besides introducing elements such as the real good drum beat (as in "Roja Janeman"), "Reggae" elements as in "Choti si Aasha" and a number of other techniques A R Rahman also proved to the Hindi masses that you could be a single composer and yet make good music instead of working as a "duo". That way in the south most composers work alone and not as combos.
Today the nation is singing one tune because of A R Rahman. What a way to unite the country using music. Tamil, Malayalam and Telugu composers have even made singers from the north sing south Indian language songs. Though the diction is still far from perfect (Shreya Goshal being the exception here) the south is always open to experimentation without complaining. Imagine Adnan Sami singing Tamil but that's what Yuvan Shankar Raja has done in his latest offering.
....and we from the south are asked for our knowledge of Hindi???
What many of these Hindi speaking folks in India and abroad don't know is that many in India whose mother tongue is not Hindi have actually learnt Hindi at least up until the X standard and that many can even converse, read and write Hindi quite well. In the south we love Hindi movies and songs. Down south Hindi has never been a problem to understand or to learn or to speak. In TamilNadu, only the imposition of Hindi has been opposed. Most of our singers from the South such as Yeshudas, S P Balasubramanyam, K S Chithra and of course Hariharan and now Shankar Mahadevan sing in Hindi with ease. Hariharan even made inroads into Ghazals and has carved a niche for himself in this genre before making it big in film songs. On the contrary the many Hindi stars who made it big in Tamil movies like Simran, Jyothika, Nagma can hardly speak a decent word of Tamil and that too after decades of being in the film industry in the South. Khusboo is the exception. What to say of those South Indian stars (some of them who still rock Hindi cinema) like Sridevi, Rekha, Hemamalini, Vyjayanthimaala, Waheeda Rahman and Padmini. Both Juhi Chawla and Kareena Kapoor have openly confessed that Sridevi was their sole influence.
South Indian directors also make Hindi movies. Manirathnam, Ram Gopal Varma and Priyadarshan have made big hits in Bollywood with originals.
And now there is one more person from the South, Chennai's very own A R Rahman who not only composes songs for Hindi movies but also sings them. Hindi film music has never been the same after "Roja". Besides introducing elements such as the real good drum beat (as in "Roja Janeman"), "Reggae" elements as in "Choti si Aasha" and a number of other techniques A R Rahman also proved to the Hindi masses that you could be a single composer and yet make good music instead of working as a "duo". That way in the south most composers work alone and not as combos.
Today the nation is singing one tune because of A R Rahman. What a way to unite the country using music. Tamil, Malayalam and Telugu composers have even made singers from the north sing south Indian language songs. Though the diction is still far from perfect (Shreya Goshal being the exception here) the south is always open to experimentation without complaining. Imagine Adnan Sami singing Tamil but that's what Yuvan Shankar Raja has done in his latest offering.
....and we from the south are asked for our knowledge of Hindi???
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Some others who share my opinion on "Slumdog Millionaire"
Popular writer Salman Rushdie has criticised "Slumdog Millionaire" saying it piles up impossibility upon impossibility. Here are others who share the same view as myself on "Slumdog Millionaire". Follow the links.
http://in.news.yahoo.com/48/20090224/1241/top-it-shouldn-t-have-won.html
http://www.indiatime.com/2009/01/13/gandhi-and-slumdog/
http://www.indiatime.com/2009/01/12/a-r-rahman-stands-tall/
http://in.news.yahoo.com/48/20090224/1241/top-it-shouldn-t-have-won.html
http://www.indiatime.com/2009/01/13/gandhi-and-slumdog/
http://www.indiatime.com/2009/01/12/a-r-rahman-stands-tall/
Monday, February 23, 2009
A R Rahman wins Oscars
For all what he has been composing and entertaining us A R Rahman deserves the two Oscars he has won if not for "Slumdog Millionaire" because I don't consider it to be A R Rahman's best. Lyricist Prasoon Joshi also said the same today while speaking about ARR's Oscar triumph.
Congratulations to A R Rahman for bringing the honour to India.
Feel happy for Kate Winslet and Sean Penn too.
Congratulations to A R Rahman for bringing the honour to India.
Feel happy for Kate Winslet and Sean Penn too.
Sunday, February 22, 2009
The disaster called Delhi 6
What a waste of A R Rahman's beautiful songs and music and the beautiful Sonam Kapoor. Viewers beware! This is no romantic flick. In fact the romance is hardly there. Instead the director is trying to send out a social message through this film.
Among the couple of beautiful things in the movie are the lovely picturization of the songs particularly "Dil Mera" done in Times Square. "Masakkali" was good too.
Abishek is not as bad as I thought he would be and the tall and beautiful Sonam still has a long way to go but both were not put to good use in this film.
Has the Amitabh-Abishek combo on screen ever clicked? Yet I wonder why they are constantly paired. The collective sound of "My God" from the ladies sitting further closer towards the screen when the duo-appeared was enough to describe the feeling. And it happens a second time in the sci-fi moments of the film.
In the end it turns out to be one long, boring and nothing-really-happening film.
Among the couple of beautiful things in the movie are the lovely picturization of the songs particularly "Dil Mera" done in Times Square. "Masakkali" was good too.
Abishek is not as bad as I thought he would be and the tall and beautiful Sonam still has a long way to go but both were not put to good use in this film.
Has the Amitabh-Abishek combo on screen ever clicked? Yet I wonder why they are constantly paired. The collective sound of "My God" from the ladies sitting further closer towards the screen when the duo-appeared was enough to describe the feeling. And it happens a second time in the sci-fi moments of the film.
In the end it turns out to be one long, boring and nothing-really-happening film.
Labels:
A R Rahman,
Abishek Bachan,
Delhi 6,
Masakkali,
Sonam Kapoor
Saturday, December 20, 2008
Two overly hyped movies
The first one, Slumdog Millionaire and the other Amir Khan's Ghajini.
Answer this question? Do Indian kids living in poverty dangle one another by their feet, from the rooftops of moving trains to snatch and steal food from passengers below through the windows and entrances of the trains? And when the dangling kids are grabbing the food others are fighting them off. We all know these kind of things never happen. Yet that is what one of the clips from the movie show. Preposterous! What was the director thinking of India? What research did he do to throw in such a scene?
A R Rahman has already been nominated for Slumdog Millionaire and I am beginning to get a feeling that he may eventually win for compositions that hardly mean anything. If A R wins a Golden Globe or an Oscar it is a good thing for India and for all of his fans but I only wished he wins for something that is worth winning for. His songs in Ghajini are not impressive either. In one of the songs Asin is doing a "koothu" kind of a dance in an elegant gown. Two of the songs, Guzarish and another a duet sung by Benny Dayal are impressive but they remind me heavily of other English songs. If I recollect them I will report. Songs in the original Ghajini are hard to beat and I don't know why Amir or Murugadoss roped in A R to do the score.
I had already written about the violence in the original film (check this post http://subashsworld.blogspot.com/2005/11/after-almost-decade-i-visit.html ) and from what I have been reading Ghajini isn't short of violence either.
Answer this question? Do Indian kids living in poverty dangle one another by their feet, from the rooftops of moving trains to snatch and steal food from passengers below through the windows and entrances of the trains? And when the dangling kids are grabbing the food others are fighting them off. We all know these kind of things never happen. Yet that is what one of the clips from the movie show. Preposterous! What was the director thinking of India? What research did he do to throw in such a scene?
A R Rahman has already been nominated for Slumdog Millionaire and I am beginning to get a feeling that he may eventually win for compositions that hardly mean anything. If A R wins a Golden Globe or an Oscar it is a good thing for India and for all of his fans but I only wished he wins for something that is worth winning for. His songs in Ghajini are not impressive either. In one of the songs Asin is doing a "koothu" kind of a dance in an elegant gown. Two of the songs, Guzarish and another a duet sung by Benny Dayal are impressive but they remind me heavily of other English songs. If I recollect them I will report. Songs in the original Ghajini are hard to beat and I don't know why Amir or Murugadoss roped in A R to do the score.
I had already written about the violence in the original film (check this post http://subashsworld.blogspot.com/2005/11/after-almost-decade-i-visit.html ) and from what I have been reading Ghajini isn't short of violence either.
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