Hi all,
I too agree with Ajith.
And here is my votes for Guru tracks.
My favourites
Ek Lo Ek Muft - The first interlude is too good.
Barso Re - The beginning flute and Naanaare are good.
Tere Bina - Our Boss sings very well. Chinmayee's voice is good.
Mayya - Except the flute piece, the song is good.
Jaage Hain - Only our Boss is talented to compose slow tempo songs in a
beautiful way.
Ay Hairathe - Hariharan has done a good job.
In the full album, the percussion, flute and strings are good, except the
Ashoka flute piece. It is easily noticeable giving way to some guys tell "ARR
copied"
The song which I consider "not good from ARR" is Baazi Lagaa. It sounds like
some other MDs song. I feel that it may be a second mistake by our Boss, like
Markandeya song in NEW amidst other good songs in that movie.
It doesn't sound like ARR-Mani song. Let us wait and see, how Mani Sir has used
this song.
Overall GURU is very worth buying.
Regards,
V SRINIVASA KRISHNAN
Ajit <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: Heard the
music of Guru and I am both spellbound in parts and
disappointed in other parts. Quite a contrast of feelings to go
through within one soundtrack. As a passionate Rahman fan myself and
knowing what an impact Rahman's music has had in the past with Mani's
direction, I have been anticipating this day of release of Guru's
music when it was first announced.
Please understand that Rahman is almost like my own "Guru". As a
keyboard player myself, I look up to him not only as a musician, but
as a human being, a man of humility, grace, passion, compassion, and
spirituality. Please take what I am about to say as something that is
painful to admit even to myself.
First of all, with Guru, 3 tracks are spellbinding, magical, classics,
whatever you call it - Tere Bina, Ay Hairathe, and Jaage Hain. Two
tracks to me are strictly ok to good - Barso Re and Mayya, and two
tracks - well, I can't believe these two songs are on a Mani-Rahman
soundtrack - Baazi Laga and Ek Muft (although Ek Muft will probably
grow on me, esp once I see how it is picturized.
A very good friend of mine who is a member of this group and who
wishes to remain anonymous shared some observations with me, which I
was too afraid to admit to myself at first. Please understand first
that I am not one of those who wants another Dil Se or Taal. I am for
one glad that Rahman likes to move in new directions and set trends.
But, of late, he has been on another trend too, which does not rub
well on me. Rahman is going against the grain of his natural style.
He likes to experiment in new directions and I love that about Rahman,
but the magical spontaneity and natural ease of composing has been
missing. It's almost as if Rahman is changing his entire mentality
of composing on purpose for some reason, even though the effort is
always there and brilliance is there in flashes. In fact, his
compositions seem a lot more "effortful" of late and that slick and
brilliant spontaneity is not as evident and even absent a lot more.
One person made a comment on another board saying that today, Rahman
seems to be "trying too hard".
One observation is that in recent Rahman soundtracks, there is overall
a relative lack of arrangement depth and elaborative musicianship that
characterized his earlier works. The bells and whistles are not quite
there, and frankly, his arrangements in many of his recent soundtracks
have sounded "muddy". Those crisp simple arrangements with ethnic
beats and simple melodies with lush strings and softer mid tones are
lacking more, replaced by technoish rhythms with a muddled sounding
accompaniment section. I have also noticed less use of true acoustic
instruments and a de-emphasis on expansive musical interludes,
replaced by only chords or one line improvizations (exception -
Swades). I believe that Rahman has not "lost anything", and the proof
is in many stand out songs in recent soundtracks like the ones just
mentioned in Guru, RDB, MP, and his consistent brilliance in Swades
and Bose (two exceptions to my point). His BGMs are also amazing.
Take Guru for example. I can understand that songs like Baazi Laga nd
Ek Muft are situational numbers and they probably suit the director's
scenes well. But, they sound so ordinary, as if any other MD's
compositions. Sorry if that sounds harsh, but I really feel that way!
Baazi Laga is frankly skippable! And listen to Barso Re, it's catchy,
but it just sounds so plain jane. Even with situational numbers,
Rahman can do so much better. Why is he going against his natural
grain of brilliance and elaborative musicianship and lush arrangements
in some songs, but not in others? This gives a soundtrack a stark
inconsistency that is confusing and also limits its potential. Once
again, in previous soundtracks, each and every song would feature his
brilliance, and thus, his soundtracks became commercial blockbusters.
When was the last time a Rahman soundtrack was a true pan India
stand alone blockbuster? Been a while, hasn't it? RDB, for instance,
was a hit musically, but only because the movie was a huge hit. Yes,
the songs were good, even great at times, but not mindblowing. And I
don't fault Rahman entirely either for recent lack of commercial
success relative to his own success in the past. In recent years,
piracy has put a huge dent in commercial potential of musical products
too.
Please don't misunderstand me. My comments are only relative to
Rahman's own previous standards and successes. He is no ordinary MD as
we know. His genius is unbound and I expect a lot from him in each
and every track. When I listen to a song like Ey Hairathe, tears come
to my eyes because there is the true Rahman.......the true and
beautiful and powerful Rahman and magic and brilliance that I love and
adore and I so badly miss in a consistent way.
I surrender to the possiblity that it's my expectations that are at
fault too. But, I sincerely believe in my heart that Rahman for some
reason is going against the tide of his natural brilliance and
spontaneity and trying to abandon some aspects of his core, which I so
miss.
Thoughts are welcome, but please don't accuse me of being anti Rahman
or not a true fan, or any other untrue thing. I am a Rahman fan
forever and I am expressing my deepest most honest thoughts to you. I
ask you to please respect that, disagree or agree.
Thank you for reading.
---------------------------------
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