Nominees Category: Best Music
A.R.Rahman, Rang De Basanti After composing for hordes of period films, AR Rahman returned to the present ay with his ultra cool and hip score for Rang De Basanti. The soundtrack struck a chord with the audience big time. Rang De Basanti is the unison of great lyrics, excellent music, fabulous orchestration and very fine singing as was experienced in Rang De Basanti, Roobaroo, Paathshala, Khoon Chala. It was high time Rahman delivered a hit. Other nominees: Vishal (Omkara), Vishal-Shekhar (Taxi No. 9211), Pritam (Gangster), SEL (Don) Category: Best Lyrics Roobaroo, Prasoon Joshi Having your way with words is an invaluable gift and the creative mind of Prasoon Joshi takes the cake when it comes to expressing deep-rooted thoughts buoyantly. When the singer croons 'Abhi Abhi Hua Yakeen Ke Aag Hai Mujhme Kahin, Hui Subha Main Jal Gaya.. Suraj Ko Mein Nigal Gaya", how cool is that! Other nominees: Gulzar (Omkara), Javed Akhtar (KANK), Mir Ali Hussain (Dor), Sameer (Ankahee) Category: Best Male Playback Singer Naresh Iyer, Roobaroo Being ruled out as the best singer from a competition did not prevent AR Rahman from assigning Naresh Iyer to record the solo Roobaroo which also turned out to be one of the most loved tracks of Rang De Basanti, a song that makes you smile. Reason for the song being infectious is Naresh's vibrant rendition that sounds like a seasoned playback singer, despite it being his first rendition Other nominees: Atif (Ek Pal), Shafqat Amanat Ali (KANK), Sonu Nigam (KANK), Sukhvinder Singh (Omkara) Category: Best Female Playback Singer Madhushree, Tu Bin Madhushree has been recording less frequently than she deserves , nevertheless she does garner songs that do justice to her talent. For the romantic Tu Bin bataayein, she treats the tender notes of the composition as a fragile flower and keeps singing understated, letting the beautiful composition grow on you. Other nominees: Alisha Chinoy (Don), Rekha Bharadwaj (Omkara), Shreya Ghoshal (Lage Raho Munnabhai), Sunidhi Chauhan (Omkara) Category: Best Orchestration A.R.Rahman, Rang De Basanti Arguably, AR Rahman is one of the best in the department of orchestration. The bare minimum arrangement in Luka Chhuppi, Tu Bin Bataye and Khoon Chala are the highlights of the score. Particularly impressive piece of work is Luka Chuppi with the guitars (Rashid Ali and kabuli), bass (keith Peters) and tabla (Prasad) fusion that ends in a crescendo along with the vocal rapid sargam insertions. The zingy Roobaroo is Rahman's orchestration at its finest. Other nominees: Salim Suleiman (Dor), Hitesh Sonik and Clinton cerejo (Omkara), Ram Sampath (Sona), Vishal-Shekhar (Taxi No. 9211) Category: Best Recording S. Sivakumar, H. Sridhar, Aditya Modi, KJ Singh for Rang De Basanti AR Rahman's recording engineers threw light on how a good sound recording also helps the score. Tu Bin Bataye, Luka Chuppi and Roobaroo have a more spacious sound and the tabla and guitar riffs are impressively recorded. The vocals' natural texture is audible in the songs of Rang De Basanti. Other nominees: Steve Fitzmaurice and Salman Khan (Omkara); Ram Sampath and Ashish Manchanda (Sona), Ashish Saxena (Taxi No. 9211)
