With two new movies, Yuvvraaj and Ghajini, A.R Rahman's music is again all
over the place. And like every time, the music is going to be appreciated
and detested with great intensity. It has been some time now, since some
people have started groaning against A.R and his works. I didn't care about
all those uproars at the beginning. But as you listen to more and more of
those old classics from Rahman, you would slowly start to contemplate some
kind of a 'fall' in his present day's works. I 'am not good at technically
specifying 'what went wrong', but I sure can assure you that something is
not the same. It's with great hope and delight that we are waiting for each
new work from ARR. But faithfully, things are not paying like they used to
be.
Speaking of Yuvvraaj, the main track 'Tu meri dost hain' appeared promising
and signaled something greater in the original album. But unfortunately,
that wasn't the case. 'Mastam Mastam' and "Zindagi' are the only two tracks
that can be categorized as 'likeable'. "Zandagi' was almost near becoming a
real good one, but failed because of its evident similarity with other works
("Lukka Chuppi"- RDB, anyone?). Then there was the fast number, 'shano
shano' which simply..err… pisses you off! Usually you can't easily hate a
'Rahman work', however bad it may be, but "shano shano" is an exception.
"Manmohini morey" is another good composition, but I seriously doubt how
many will really like that song.
A very interesting point about the album "Ghajini" is that the best track is
the instrumental version of "Kaise Muhje". But now if you listen to the
original version of 'kaise mujhe' it's a letdown (for someone who loved the
instrumental). Can't understand why that is happening. I wouldn't go as
much to call the main track "Guzarish' a bad one, but come on its A.R Rahman
and you rightly deserves a lot better.
"Guzarish" is however, the kind of song that would get better with each
listening (something which doesn't applies to the 'Yuvvraaj" tracks). Other
songs in the album are just 'okay' kind, by the Rahman standards.
In Tamil, "Sakarkati" another recent work from ARR has this fast number
"taxi taxi", which will just make you go like, 'come on Rahman didn't do
that…' Maybe that song is not bad as such, but that's something anyone out
there could easily create. Neither Rahman's magic nor his great experience
is needed for such a sunken piece of music. It's really what you call a down
fall. "ADA, the way of life" is the only album in recent times, that could
be called as a 'complete' work from Rahman.
At some point or another, all these songs would get really exciting and will
have that Rahman seal in them, it could be a humming or a fading instrument
in the background or anything, but unfortunately nothing is getting
complete. Like with all those great guys, Rahman's greatest competitor is he
himself. His works can never be rated on comparison with the works of
another music director. That's because even the worst work from Rahman is
better than the best of many others. Still, when you feel a particular album
from him is disappointing, it's because you didn't get the kind of
delectation that you considers granted with every Rahman songs.
Maybe this so called 'fall' is just the invention of some unimaginative and
conventional kind of perspectives, which can't afford to understand the
depth of change. Maybe it's Rahman going in search of music with greater
depth.
Whatever, I simply don't enjoy the kind of intimacy that I used to have,
with AR's music these days, and that is really a bad thing!
http://tinylittlethoughts.wordpress.com/2008/11/23/on-ar-rahman/
--
regards,
Vithur
