Did the author study the cwg anthem so much that he compares it with a parachuteless skydive? Does it sound like Ramta jogi?
--- In arrahmanfans@yahoogroups.com, Gopal Srinivasan <catchg...@...> wrote: > > Ustad Autoxerox's Aria > Perhaps it's apt that Rahman sold the scam-tainted CWG a lemon > SADANAND > MENON<http://www.outlookindia.com/peoplefnl.aspx?pid=4224&author=Sadanand+Menon> > PRINT <http://www.outlookindia.com/printarticle.aspx?266982> > SHARE<http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=250&username=xa-4bc6d6f20cb62856><http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=250&winname=addthis&pub=xa-4bc6d6f20cb62856&source=tbx-250&lng=en-US&s=facebook&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.outlookindia.com%2Farticle.aspx%3F266982&title=www.outlookindia.com%20%7C%20Ustad%20Autoxerox%E2%80%99s%20Aria&ate=AT-xa-4bc6d6f20cb62856/-/pz-1/4c85c58d6d2cee1a/1&CXNID=2000001.5215456080540439074NXC&tt=0><http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=250&winname=addthis&pub=xa-4bc6d6f20cb62856&source=tbx-250&lng=en-US&s=myspace&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.outlookindia.com%2Farticle.aspx%3F266982&title=www.outlookindia.com%20%7C%20Ustad%20Autoxerox%E2%80%99s%20Aria&ate=AT-xa-4bc6d6f20cb62856/-/pz-1/4c85c58d6d2cee1a/2&CXNID=2000001.5215456080540439074NXC&tt=0><http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=250&winname=addthis&pub=xa-4bc6d6f20cb62856&source=tbx-250&lng=en-US&s=google&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.outlookindia.com%2Farticle.aspx%3F266982&title=www.outlookindia.com%20%7C%20Ustad%20Autoxerox%E2%80%99s%20Aria&ate=AT-xa-4bc6d6f20cb62856/-/pz-1/4c85c58d6d2cee1a/3&CXNID=2000001.5215456080540439074NXC&tt=0> > COMMENTS <http://www.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?266982#comments> > > Anthems are devised to make your spirit soar. When they crashland, they can > also leave you sore. For some time now, A.R. Rahman has been on song. This > time the song is on him. His anthem *`Jiyo, Utho, Badho, Jeeto*' takes all > of four minutes and 16 seconds to expose you to the perils of skydiving > without a parachute. But then, this is the anthem for the 2010 Commonwealth > Games and, like many other things connected with this year's CWG, it happens > to be just another kind of cruel sport. > > The idea of an anthem for sporting events is, it could be argued, to > foreground a consistent theme as a focal point of the event and to unify the > audiences with the adhesive of a familiar, infectious rhythm. In the present > context of a CWG mired in debilitating controversy and hint of sleaze, a > rousing anthem could have been the talisman to unlock some positive energy. > > But the present offering of India's own Mozart, which was launched with much > fanfare on August 23, has left even the Group of Ministers unhappy. That > must be the ultimate ignominy for a composerthat aesthetic cynicism of such > crass proportions can even affect the GoM, although one suspects it was not > so much the notations on the music sheet but those on the bill that did the > damage. > > Even as Oscar hero Rahman was concatenating, at super-speed, his CWG jingle > that jangles with some of the most pedestrian verses in recent times, he > also fed in the punchy figure of some Rs 1.37 crore per minute of the song. > Total: Rs 5.50 crore. In 2006, for the inaugural functions of the Frankfurt > Book Fair, at which India was the `Guest of Honour Country', a proposal by > music composer Ilaiyaraja to present a Carnatic raga using a 120-piece > Western philharmonic orchestra was summarily rejected because of the price > tag of Rs 95 lakh. But times have changed. > > The funny thing about Rahman's *Swagatham* number this time is that, after > its recitative first part, with lines as stiff and strangulating as `*Junoon > se, kanoon se, maidaan maar lo*', the second performative segment breaks > into a beat that sounds like a rip-off of his own composition `*Ramta Jogi*' > in the film *Taal*. Obviously, Rahman is now famous enough to plagiarise > himself and even charge us for it. But the obvious question that needs to be > asked is: why did he even try? Why did he not simply offer back the > same `*Ramta > Jogi*' as the anthem for the CWG? The song has all the right foot-tapping > ingredients, including oblique references to playful charlatans that would > have blended well with the CWG. > > Of course, Rahman's anthem cannot be disconnected with the overall plan for > inaugural and closing ceremonies of the CWG. The fancy committee for the > inaugural events has for a few months now been grappling with the logistics > of how to present India in this highly televised event. It is a committee in > search of a spectacle. The spectacle of a fake, make-believe India populated > with Bollywood dancers and swirling silks, crooning divas and simpering > starlets. The last time around, they were thinking of making a > sound-and-light show using the sacred `Om'. > > It is an India that has no specific location on this planet and is far > removed from not just the lives, but even the fantasies, of its own people. > This is an India that is the pet project of its numerous, prospering robber > barons, who are enabled, time and again, to whisk away some more resources, > all in the name of an abstract nation. > > That the vulgar Rs 380 crore budget for the opening ceremonies could not set > aside a few crores for a group of poets in different languages to write an > appropriate song for the opening anthem tells its own story of gross > disinterest even in the context of the indefensible. Instead, we have some > utterly filmy gibberish like: > > *Uthi re ab iraadon mein tapan, > Chali re gori, chali ban tthan.* > > The lines, as much as the composition, are stolen from some other context. > So, we believe, is the CWG. > > > http://www.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?266982 >
