Rahman...and his recent music!

"Time is what we want most, but... what we use worst"

Yeah.. so that quote is sure a lifted one. But seriously, its that point in my life when I can afford to say that the twenty four hours in a day is just not sufficient for me. Managing my home, work, music, people and of course me! My hands are full now, though I would want more. Yeah, more :) Because, its fun too, its racing and demanding but busy life has its own delights and sorrow! Ok, enough of the justification attempted for not having blogged for long! :D And this post, with all respect and admiration, is solely dedicated to the God of music, (err..ok Cine music) the Rahman.

This year has been labeled lull for Rahman, by many reviewers, critics and fans. Being a fair critic on Indian music, in addition to being a Rahman fan, I do not take that. The rude comments and remarks made against his few not-so-brilliant compositions compel me to assume that its all jealousy, in its purest but disguised form! I do not come to defend Rahman for his countable
and forgettable duds. Every musician tries to give good music, which sometimes mightn't be his best! :)

So, the year began with the much hyped Vinnaithaandi Varuvaya, aka VTV. I am not going to comment much on this album, because, in spite of being ARR's fan, something kept me from listening to the songs for quite few months. Reason... well Trisha, not really! But frankly, I don't know! :) I did finally hear to some of the tracks, but did not find any of them to be mind blowing, except for maybe, Omana Penne. Benny was good and so was Bilahari :) I believe, it was a treat to the other fans of ARR.

Raavan was an album much awaited and much bashed up too, for totally unknown reasons. I found Raavan, and not Raavanan, fabulous. The tone of the album was definitely fresh, with the much needed rural touch. My pick from the album is Ranjha ranjha! Beautiful beginning, a rustic rendition by Rekha and good job by Javed. I loved it, though the tamil version let me down. Kata kata was again, very impressive, not to forget Ila's part :) and Thok de gilli, Beera and Khili re were good, enjoyable and typical ARR songs. I did not quite understand, why this album was included in the dud-list. The two things this album missed were perhaps Sonu and Asha ji! :)

And the 'Endhiran' :D ha ha! Good music, techy feel, apt to the title. Thoroughly enjoyed 'Irumbile oru irudhayam' and 'Kilimanjaro'. Other songs were good, though never stayed in my play list for long. Kaadhal anukkal was supposedly an awesome number, which I did not feel. Hariharan was wasted, SPB and YogiB were passable. Chinmayee was good. And Shreya once again displayed her sincere efforts! :) The album will anyway rock for a few months at least, given the terror combo of ARR Shankar and Superstar.

"Jhootha hi sahi"... re-establishing the Rahman, more or less! ;) But yes, arguably an album with honest and simple but catchy music. Kudos to Vijay Yesudas to have pulled off the song "I ll be waiting" brilliantly. My favorite from the album. Though the "south Indian singers' way of conscious pronunciation of hindi words" was obvious in this, its ignorable! :) Maiyya Yashoda reminded me of the Lagaan and Kisna music. The vocalists' renditions were excellent and so was the flute. Cry cry cry,Pam para and Call me dil did not much appeal to me. Again, the good ones.
Karthik, I believe, needs to stop sounding monotonic. Sonu slightly disappointed me with a passable 'Do Nishaaniyaan'. Definitely a wonderful composition, but history has seen the duo come up with classics like, 'Do kadam aur sahi', 'Satrangi re' and 'Saathiya', so this one fell a little short of my expectations. Nevertheless, a beautiful album and simple ARR music. :)

I would love to see likes of Roja or Taal or Meenaxi or a Lagaan in the future. All said, Rahman will always rule my heart! :)