Hey Gops, can your please provide me the link of that?!
--- In arrahmanfans@yahoogroups.com, Gopal Srinivasan <catchg...@...> wrote: > > > A muddled piece the point of which is lost in whether it was about the lyrics or about film > music. It further loses credibility when Pinto misdirects the attack - the lyrics are not > entirely ARR"s fault, especially when he barely understands the language and when they are in > dubbed films. Worse, he ascribes blame to the wrong person - Gulzar for the lyrics of Rang De > Basanti. And when he restricts evidence of his criticism to Hindi songs alone, he completely > betrays his poor understanding of ARR's music and career. Urvashi and Muqabla nonwithstanding, > Vairamuthu won four national awards writing lyrics for ARR-tuned songs. Finally, pity he didn't > spot the flashes of brilliance even in a Thakshak. > > > Mind-blowing music, mindless lyrics > Man's World February 2009 > > > He's a brilliant music maker. But he is also a music maker in huge demand and this has huge > repercussions on his music. What if Rahman did a film a year? Would we get only Lagaans and Dil > Ses and Slumdogs? Would we see fewer Thakshaks? > > By Jerry Pinto > > To say life is full of surprises is a cliche, but being in the midst of numerous other > assignments, when the sudden call from Danny came through, it was truly unexpected, and to know > that Danny had been closely listening to my work caught me by another big surprise... > Slumdog... the soundtrack is a result of the mutual admiration we have for each other and was a > blast to work on. It was also great fun working with M.I.A. She brings great flavor and energy > to the soundtrack. Hope you have the same experience listening to it as we did whilst creating > it... as Salim in the last reel of the film states... "god is great'... > > Welcome to India Danny Boyle style > > -From A.R.Rahman's official website > > Many yers ago, who knows how many years ago, the first sounds began to trickle up from the > south. Suddenly, truck drivers were listening to Tamil tunes, and the world was beginning to > realize that there was something missing in the music that they were listening to. > > The world? Come on. If you live in Mumbai, the world is Bollywood. When A.R.Rahman finally came > out of the shadows, it was with Roja, a dubbed version. This film punched so many buttons in so > many places, you couldn't tell what was happening. You didn't want to like it, it was > disgusting jingoism, but it was also beautifully shot, it actually went and looked at Kashmir, > and there was that soundtrack. > > That soundtrack. > > Play it again, Rahman, for old times' sake. > > * Roja jaaneman tu hi mera dil > * Rukmini, Rukmini > * Bharat humko jaan se pyaara hai > * Dil Hai Chota Sa > > Godfathers, was this a man or a machine? In its own way each of those numbers has inscribed > itself on our memory. Like every young genius, it was bursting from him. Nick his skin, it > seemed and a crowd-pleaser would erupt in a geyser of percussion and something that felt like > it belonged to the body of an android, generated somewhere else. A planet where there were > simulacra of our kind whose sounds were created in a room full of machines and pixellated, > rewritten in some modern script, and then returned to us. > > As I wrote in this magazine many years ago, "Not since R.D.Burman, assisted by a bunch of Goan > Catholic musicians who had cut their teeth on hot jazz in Bombay's prohibition nightclubs, had > we heard anything so new, so strange, so definitively ahistorically seeped in our music from > the sa re ga to the jangling theme of Prannoy Roy's debut news programme The World This Week. > > All good? All good. But perhaps not all that good. > > Look at the Hindi film lyric, the great classics that went before Rahman. There were three > things on which they were pinned. There was the melody, there was the lyrics and there were the > somtimes all-encompassing, sometimes insubstantial memories of where they had occured in a > film. Many of those who recognize the song, who use it in antakshari competitions, who hum > along with it when it plays on a radio show featuring the music of the 1970s, do not remember > that, say, "Koi jab hamaray hriday tod de' is in Manoj Kumar's Purab Aur Paschim. Anna Morcom, > the British scholar, whom you may see in Hum Tum Pe Marte Hain, talks about how the Hindi film > song starts in a parent film but soon makes its way out into the world where it starts another > cycle in its life. Rahman began to systematically destory the underpinnings of one of these: > the lyric. > > Urvashi urvashi, take it easy Urvashi > Ungli jaise dubli ke, nahi chahiye fantasy. > > I know. You have your own version of what the second line is. Everyone does, I am taking my cue > from aksharmala.com: Urvashi urvashi, take it easy Urvashi/Hai yeh ek Hindi gaana, nahin koi > angrezi... > > It gets better > > Chitrahaar mein bijli ud gayi? Take it easy policy > Padne par bhi fail ho gaye? Take it easy policy > > That's almost comprehensible. But here it comes: > > Baap ne bola, amma ka dushman? Take it easy policy > Paap kare aur Ganga naha aaye? Take it easy policy > Urvashi Urvashi, take it easy Urvashi > > Sorry, what was that? > > As journalist and film reviewer Chetna Mahadik writes on her blog: Take for example, Roobaroo > from the film Rang De Basanti (2006). Such fabulous music - my heart dived and rose with > Rahman's strokes. But singing it is hell. What cues to use to remember its nonsense lyrics? > Take para 2 for example: Jo gumshuda-sa khwaab tha > Voh mil gaya voh khil gaya > Voh loha tha pigal gaya > Kichcha kichhaa machal gaya > Sitaar mein badal gaya > > Now, I consider myself a reasonably intelligent person, but I still can't understand how > Gulzar, the lyricist connected the gumshuda khwab (dream) in question to bloody bigla loha > (melted iron) or turned it into a sitar (a kind of guitar) or what exactly is getting 'khiccha > khiccha' out here, and pray why. I suspect, he tacked lots of lovely sounding Urdu songs - and > I bet even shit sounds lovely in Urdu - together in complete faith that no one would notice. > Well, guess what. Shower singers do. > > Shower singers have a problem with Rahman? > > It doesn't stop there. For a long while, we took Hindi film songs for granted. We assumed that > it was there, that it would always be there and we could always take a dupki in our ghar ki > Gana. In the 1980s, the water dried up. We developed a madness about disco. Think about the > songs of that time. > > "Main ek disco, tu ek disco, duniya hai ek disco" from Khuddar (1982) > Jha-jha-jha-jha jhopdi mein, cha-cha-cha-cha chaarpai from Mawaali (1983) > Hum to tamboo mein bamboo lagaaye baithe from Mard (1985) > Kabhi takiya idhar rakha, kabhi udhar rakha from Raat Andhere Mein (1987) > > Is it any surprise that we began to turn to ghazals to reflect the more serious problems we > had, the problems of love and pain and misunderstanding and disaffection? Is it any surprise > that Hindi films themselves began to stink? > > Rahman is a brilliant music-maker. There is no doubt about that. But he is also a music maker > in huge demand. This has huge repercussions on his music. Here is Rahman in the Wall Street > Journal, telling the truth 'The demand in India is to have a hit, which becomes a promotion for > the movie and makes people come to the theatre, " Mr Rahman said. "You have five songs and > different promotions based on those. But when I do western films, the need for originality is > greater. Then I become very conscious about the writing. However, the good thing about Indian > cinema is because there are so many ragas in it, you can take a raga and make it a little bit > funkier and people can relate to it. Half of the stuff I get away with is like that." But does > he get away with it? > > Can you do that to yourself? Can you write a whole lot of junk, forgettable songs for > forgettable films? For the directors, who don't know the difference? For directors groggy with > lack of sleep from waiting for the nocturnal Rahman to make his magic? Can it work like that? > What do you think if Rahman did only one film a year? Like Aamir Khan? Would we get only > Lagaans and Dil Ses and Slumdogs? Would we have fewer Thakshaks? But does he care? Will he? He > is no doubt the only internationally recognized Bollywood music director. Before Slumdog > Millionaire with its Golden Globes and Oscar nominations there were Bombay Dreams and the > musical version of the Lord of the Rings. Not long ago Andrew Lloyd webber told Sify.com, "In > Rahman, I met someone who I believe could carry the torch of musical theatre into a new > dimension. He's the composer who stands out for me, because I think his songs are so original > and yet they have a very universal quality." > > Webber said, "Personally for me, it is one of my greatest achievements that I brought Rahman > into musical theatre. It is sure to ignite an era of competition into the genre, for which I > will be always remembered." > > If that is Webber's bid for immortality, he had better start thinking of another. Bombay Dreams > was a hit, it ran for a long while thanks in large part to the thousands of Indians who visit > London every year and enjoy seeing the results of the reverse cultural invasion. But its music > was derivative, Rahman chewing his own tail. The best songs were the ones we had heard before. > The new ones? Do you remember any? > > There is no doubt that Rahman works harder when he is in the west. (Who doesn't?) Slumdog > Millionaire, for which he won India's first Golden Globe, wasn't his first outing in the West. > He was the man who provided the music for Shekar Kapur's Elizabeth: The Golden Age. But the > film went unnoticed and took the music with it. That's the fate of the film music maker. The > fate of his music is connected with the fate of the film. Very few tunes can survive the flop > of a film. For instance, how often do you hear that rather nice 'Musu Musu haasi" from Dino > Morea's debut Pyar Mein Kabhi Kabhi? The film tanked and one of Shaan's best songs went with > it. > > Can Rahman transcend the films that created him? The next big question. Watch this space. I'll > be quoting myself again soon, I think. >
