The double-bill kid kept the home crowd waiting for close to a year before he could unleash some of the Oscar magic. Quite frankly, Jai Ho is surely a parody to identify the master's musical prowess. There have been much much classier and maestro-personified compositions even in 2008, but then it requires that missing link of Kamal Haasan's movies...THE ENGLISH FACTOR that sealed a couple of pages in Indian Cinema History to the credit of ARR. Yeah, understand, bragging abt ARR and Oscars will need a bigger platform, lets get back to what I intended here....
terse, the album is neat and has the Grand stamp that one recognizes as *an ARR musical*, nevertheless, not delving into details of the individual sound tracks means I am doing injustice to my feelings. So here is justice to my feelings and injustice to your time...!
Omana Penne: Benny Dayal at his usual best and i believe he becomes more pepped up when the composition is of the Master. He has done hara-kiri with his voice and all of that sounds very good though digitized at places...the malayalam interlude in the song though not fitting into the groove the first time you listen to it, finally nails the song to its glory. Maybe all of this is an expectation from the script penned by Gautham Vasudevan Menon (GVM, hence forth here), but still trying to drive-away the sheen would be far-cry when it comes to The Boss. Instrumentation is gala in this song and I believe this is one of the personal favourites of mine. 4/5 for this song according to me.
Anbil Avan: Have been reading about this song from @chinmayi and was expecting Chinmayi to sound differently here as well as has been her pattern in ARR's songs. But to my pleasant surprise, she sounded 100 % herself and it does sound cool...with an aura of western tint and contemporary appeal! The orchestration in this song sounds like a marriage song and Devan's voice jels very well with Chinmayi's and makes for a good duet. The best part for me in this song is the place where the Christian choir music slowly transforms itself into the Murhurtham music of Hindu marriages. Again, though this seems to be the theme of the song, setting such high standards for musical genius is hard to ignore wrt credit! I for all of my gumption reward this song as well to the Mastery of ARR rather than to GVM who has pitched for this in the first place!! Super is just an understatement for this song and I wouldn't hesitate a 5/5 for this song. Excellent!
Vinnai Thandi Varuvaaya: Maybe I am ill-equipped from a musical perspective to appreciate this title song which typical bodes to be a constant background score rather than an individual track, however I haven't been able to appreciate this track one bit, Sorry! 2/5 is benefit of doubt for the musicality that is un-perceivable to the simpleton that I am in music!!
Hosana: Wow! That should have summed up my thought about this song. Probably the most popular song of the year as yet and should be a chart-buster (as if the other tracks aren't going to be...:)...) Though the first lines in the song remind you of a *Vaaname Yellai* song of the yesteryear, it quickly fades out when you hear it again. The orchestration here again comes to the fore and I can assure you a trip to Pandora if you listen to this song (start-to-finish) with your eyes closed and with a good set of headphones. I did that and can see how Pandora looks alluring though I havent had a dash with AVATAR yet!! The Blaazee's bit is his usual and has contributed on the positives for the track. Can I say, 4.5/5 for this song. Yes, it is! And of-course, enroute, Thamarai's excellent lyrics have been eclipsed!
Nee Nanban Illai: A very Robaroo-Rehna Tu kind of a composition (I thought!) so typical of Rahman and so fresh I should say. Nacchunnu irukku...vera enna solla?! Some of the orchestration reminded me of similar stuff in *Good-Bye Nanba* of Ayutha Ezhuthu, anyways that was only for the first time and you get lost into the maya of the contemporary. Stuffy song I should quote. Def. 4/5
Oru Naal: With the little musical knowledge I have, I believe this song fits the bill for the word *QUIRKY MUSIC* as used / uttered by the master himself in the Audio Launch function. I thought this was a nice experiment. The male and female tracks crooning to different genres of music, but still keeping up the same overall integrity in the song, I thought was excellent finesse! As usual ARR picks a winner of a song to sing in any album, and this sure is one!... Quirky is the factor that makes me feel a 3/5 for this song, though I believe it to be outstanding!
Aromale: The Boss has graduated from debut-ing singers and is now debut-ing Music Directors as singers!! I heard ARR say that GVM had shot this song in a very subtle way on-screen and hence ARR thought it would even out if the music score is exotically extreme! It certainly is even by Alphonse's passionate rendition. Add on the chorus by the leading singers and you have a true winner of a song in hand. This exotic mix is the oomph factor i should say in AR Rahman's music. I wouldn't hesitate a 5/5 purely for the passion and energy the song carries in addition to being closely knit to the storyline (seemingly so!!!)
As an aside, I am RT-ing a tweet that I posted recently on my twitter account. - Here it goes,
@prakasr - my wife complains - ARR undermines the lyrics in any song with superlative music. Proof... Thamarai's usually glowing lyrics, are hard to notice in the soulful music of VTV. I tend to agree.Boss, talent does draw such flak.:)
this should explain how things are slated when it comes to brushing with such himalayan talent and its more of a trade-off for people to get to work with the maestro!! I think GVM has been damn lucky and smart enough to cash-in on the Academy Award winner tagline for the sound track credits. But I thought GVM should have ordered for some variety in the stock he invoiced from the Academy Award Winner. Almost all songs, get the same feel and I only pity GVM for going overboard with the love feel. I personally would have expected some variety in the album, but that puerly my take, maybe the movie demanded this, lets wait and watch the stuff unfold on the screen. I am reminded of how bold GVM has used the tag line - * love story... Yet another time *...
Keep hooked on you guys! Yet another medal onto the captain's uniform!!!
P.S.: I wouldn't feel embarrassed for this thingy being branded as a Rahman Glorifier and my praises being unwarranted. If that's what you call, so be it...I would simply smile and say, Sir Ji / Mademoiselle - please get hold of Jodhaa Akbar's sound track and listen to all of the tracks if time permits and if you are really struck for time and have to rush, just listen to *Khwaja mere Khwaja*. There ends the argument in my favour...:)....:)...!
