Rahman, I, and the Sound of Music
A few years back I was recording some instrumental pieces for a tele-serial. I was working out a few pieces with an exceptionally talented flautist. I was looking out for a particular tone of the flute which I was somehow not getting. The excessive sound of the breath was making me uncomfortable. I told the flautist twice or thrice that I did not want the sound of breath, but the sound persisted. I could see that if I told him one more time, he was bound to get irritated with my suggestion. But the musician in me could not bear the little deviation from my idea of the musical piece. Finally, softly, I told him that I was not getting the sound that I wanted and the sound of the breath refused to go away. As I had expected, he flared up.“What’s your problem?” he asked me. “Even Rahman likes the sound of the breath. He insists on it.”
“Then play for Rahman.” I quipped, even my temper rising a little. “What are you doing here?”
It was a reaction that I had to give but I was aware all the time about the degree of influence Rahman commanded when it came to the ‘sound’ of music. It was as if people, and more particularly musicians, were under a hypnotic spell of the music of this man from the land of filter coffee. Everybody was talking only about Rahman. Musicians swore by his sense of sound production. It was not just ‘Rahman – the musician’; it was ‘Rahman – the magician’ It was not as if there was no other side… there was… and they were equally ferocious in their criticism of Rahman.
“He’s getting predictable-” was a reaction that started with his third film. The people who dismissed Rahman were mostly seen to be from the earlier generation. But again these people could not tolerate the music of Anu Malik either. The magic of yesteryear songs was still prevalent among this generation. I had also seen and heard film musicians of the earlier era not being so impressed with Rahman. So where was I in this milieu and how do I see myself as contemporary of A. R. Rahman?
The story starts in 1992, with the release of the film Roja in Tamil. I was such an avid fan of Mani Rathnam after Nayakan that I had made the brave attempt of seeing Dalapathy in Tamil, a language that was way beyond my comprehension. My attempt did not go unrewarded and I was completely taken in by the manner of story-telling of Mani Rathnam. I had also become an avid fan of Illayaraja, whose many Tamil cassettes I bought and heard again and again. So when I heard that a Mani Rathnam film called Roja was being screened, I went immediately to Aurora, a theatre at King’s Circle. I was a little disappointed that Mani Rathnam’s usual music composer, Illayraja, had been replaced by a newcomer called Rahman. My doubts about A. R. Rahman were razed to the ground the moment I heard the first note of the background score play. This sound was BIG… and it was definitely different. Not just different, it was drastically different. Then the first song came – ‘Chinna Chinna Asai’. The effect of the song, together with Mani Rathnam’s visualisation, Santosh Sivan’s brilliant cinematography, and Rahman’s music was pure alchemy. And how could one forget the background score of the movie? I was so hypnotised by the movie’s background score that I went back to Aurora again the following week, just to hear the background score. I think it must have been the first (and perhaps the only) instance where a Marathi youth went twice for a Tamil film without subtitles to a theatre!
At that time Rahman was not known much in North India, but the music was a rage in South India. Roja was followed by Shankar’s Gentleman and then Mani Rathnam’s Thiruda Thiruda. K. Balachander’s Duet was another film that was released during this period. The way Rahman had explored Kadhari Gopalnath’s saxophone in the film was phenomenal. I used to go to Matunga and buy these cassettes, because Rahman’s sound excited me no end. The score of Thiruda Thiruda, I remember, was a culture shock for me and I grudgingly nodded to the beat of the music. It was shockingly western, but there was an Indian soul lurking behind those harmonies. I later came to know through some Tamilian friends that although Thiruda Thiruda didn’t do too well, the music was given stupendous reviews.
In 1994, Roja was released in Hindi and A. R. Rahman became a household name in India. The magic had spread to the entire nation. This was followed by the film Kadhalan directed by the whiz kid Shankar. Songs like ‘Muqabla’ and ‘Urvashi’ made everybody tap their feet while the song ‘Ennavale Adi Ennavale‘ won the National Award for the Carnatic vocalist, P. Unnikrishnan who made a debut in film singing with this song, and also hearts of those who loved melodious tunes more than foot-tapping ones. (The song is known to Hindi listeners as ‘Sun Ri Sakhi Meri Pyari Sakhi’.)
Now, doyens of Hindi film industry were running to Chennai to meet and work with Rahman. He signed Shikhar with Subhash Ghai and Droh-kaal with Govind Nihalani. But as fate would have it, Shikhar was shelved and Rahman lost all the tracks of Droh-kaal due to a computer crash. And so, Rahman’s first original Hindi film was Ram Gopal Varma’s Rangeela and that marked Rahman’s definite foray into Hindi music. Mani Rathnam’s Bombay saw Rahman singing playback for the first time in ‘Humma Humma’. The Hindi version had Remo singing the song. While ‘Kehna hi Kya’ became a big hit with Chitra and Rahman singing, even the title track of Bombay caught the imagination of his fans. Not since R. D. Burman had any composer been successful in popularising the instrumental title track of a movie. From then on, we all know the journey of A. R. Rahman to the dizzying heights of fame and popularity. From then to the music of Swades and finally Rang De Basanti Rahman has entertained, enthralled, excited, captivated, mystified, bamboozled, and very rarely but surely disappointed his fans. What excites me about Rahman as a musician is that his music is multi-layered, both in the physical and abstract senses. He appeals to emotion or intellect and sometimes – both. As a musician and as a public figure, he is mysterious and is more fun to unravel than simply sit back and enjoy.
Rahman & His Tunes
I started humming the tunes of Roja, the moment I stepped out of the theatre. The tunes had a great recall value and despite that, I discovered in some time that humming these tunes was not so enjoyable. I did not give it much thought then, but later when Bombay released, and the same phenomenon was repeated, I was curious. In both cases, I had loved the music. It had excited me. And yet humming it was not enjoyable. It was when I was going through an economics book and came across Alfred Marshall’s Law of Diminishing Marginal Utility when I broke the ‘Rahman’ code, and like Perry Mason, I kicked my leg for not getting the solution earlier. Strange? But the truth, no less! Alfred Marshall’s law of economics stating that as a person increases consumption of a product – while keeping consumption of other products constant – there is a decline in the marginal utility that person derives from consuming each additional unit of that product. So how does it fit into Rahman’s composition? It is a technique invented by Illayaraja. I often wondered how I could memorise Illayaraja’s tunes so quickly in spite of not understanding the language. And I must confess to having an extremely bad memory when it came to remembering tunes. Using Illayaraja’s technique of composition, Rahman’s standard composition was broken into short musical phrases which were repeated in different words. Take for example:
Dil hai Chhota sa,
(Repeat with a minor change) Chhoti si Aasha
(Repeat the same phrase) Masti bhari Man ki
Bholi si Aasha
Now what has happened here is that you have already heard the complete phrase twice. The same formula is repeated throughout the song. Now, what happens in effect is that we are hearing the song twice or thrice in one go! You can compare it to a Salil Chowdhari’s song for instance – ‘Tasveer teri dil mein’. You’ll notice that all the musical phrases in the sign line (dhruvapad) are different. Illayaraja, and later, Rahman used this new technique of composition. It gave a recall value to the tune but also ensured that its shelf life was shorter. Slowly but surely all music directors in the Hindi film industry also started using the same technique. It was a very foolproof technique and you could see that in songs of Anu Malik and Anand-Milind, whenever they were not lifting a composition in toto! But nobody could do it like Rahman and that is what differentiated him from the pack. It is not enough to just have short, repetitive phrases – they also needed to be consistently melodious and this is what Rahman did the best.
I also noticed that Rahman in Tamil was a different person as compared to Rahman in Hindi. The language of music was the same, but I have always thought Rahman was more at home with Tamil than in Hindi which was obvious. I remember an incident narrated by Mahalaxmi Iyer. She was recording for a song in ‘Dil Se’. The words were ‘Paakhi Paakhi Pardesi’. Rahman kept pronouncing it as ‘Paaki’. Of course, merely wrong pronunciation does not reflect a sense of discomfort with the language. Now, Tamil has many syllables which end on very staccato notes. Hindi doesn’t. In Hindi, there is an unwritten halant on each ending consonant. Rahman’s composition is very staccato even in Hindi. The merit in this is that the composition sounds different and fresh because nobody composes it like that in the Hindi idiom. The down side is that lyric takes the back seat. Although the feeling and the mood in the song are conveyed, the subtler nuances of the language evaporate.
What makes Rahman, Rahman
I have always maintained, and I have no doubt that I am in the minority, that Rahman is more a technocrat than a composer. This opinion was formed mainly because I could trace the origins of his composing techniques to Illayaraja, with whom Rahman worked as a keyboardist. But my opinion cannot be permanent because, Rahman being an intelligent musician, keeps evolving and growing with each film. For example, in The Legend of Bhagat Singh, he had composed the song Mera Rang De Basanti Chola. The composition was so Southern that one could not identify it with the Sikh freedom fighter at all. But in Lagaan and then in Rang De Basanti, one hardly sees the southern touch. There is a conscious effort to keep the North Indian flavour.
But where Rahman can be considered a path-breaker is the manner in which he revolutionised the sound of music. And he changed the way his contemporaries looked at the concept of sound. He makes even ordinary compositions ‘sound’ extraordinary by using instruments and synthesised music to great effect. A criticism has been that Rahman uses synthesised music in excess. But Rahman has recognised correctly the places in which the aesthetics of synthesised music lie. Right from Kalyanji Anandji to Bhappi Lahiri music directors have used the synthesiser and other electronic music but Rahman has been successful in refining the synthesised sound. It would not be an exaggeration to say that Rahman demonstrated how the synthesised sound should be used. Prior to Rahman’s entry on the film scene, music directors harmonised the song with only the string section. Rahman introduced the synthetic pads and created a different effect for different songs with a different sound as harmony. Notice the sound of the pads in Roja, for instance; it created a warmth and also gave a big-screen feel to the sound. Among other things, Rahman’s music is really BIG. It justifies the Cinemascope screen. The use of available technology was always there. When microphones and sound recording on tape was latest technology it was also used widely. In fact, commercial music has to be credited with making the optimum use of technology in music. So, the accusation that Rahman uses excess of technology does not really hold water. He rides technology; he makes sure that technology doesn’t ride him.
The other accusation against Rahman was that he did not use enough acoustic instruments. Rahman himself once admitted that his music was getting too repetitive and dance oriented, probably because of the type of films he was doing. But Rahman redeemed himself by doing a lot of films which had a folk or an Indian flavour to it. In 1999, the Tamil film Sangamam was released. It was a low budget movie and Rahman used a lot of traditional instruments. The entire was score was based on folk and classical music. In Zubeidaa also, the soundtrack has more acoustic instruments.
Rahman has awarded the instrumentalists in his films a status that no music composer before him had done. Siva Mani, the noted drummer and percussionist said, “The recognition that I enjoy today is because of Rahman. There are so many talented people behind a film music score. I played for Illayaraja for very long, but my name never figured on the screen or the cassette cover. Rahman changed it all. He gives credit to every single member of his team for whatever part they play, big or small. That makes him really special. People came to know about me only because of him. I thank him for that.” Lot of musicians like – Naveen (flute), Clinton Cerejo (backup vocals), Sivamani (percussions) – became household names with their credits appearing on the sleeves of inlay cards. Not only on the screen (in terms of credits), but even on the sound track (in terms of sound) Rahman made his instrumentalists stand out. How can one forget the sound of the Shehnai in the title song of Swades? Or the sound of the raw flute in ‘Chinamma’ from the film Meenaxi – A Tale of Three Cities? So, however grudgingly, I had to forgive my flautist friend for his outburst. Rahman’s understanding of the timbre of an instrument and how to give old sounds new nuances is without parallel. Also, in case of the flute in Chinamma, he reintroduced an old sound which technology had made us forget. It was like meeting a long lost old acquaintance. A keyboardist friend of mine pointed out how Illayaraja and Rahman had used the higher octave flute for sad pieces, when in Hindi films sad pieces on flute necessarily meant the lower octave.
The rhythm that Rahman used was also unconventional to say the least. He could be modern without being western in his approach of treating rhythm which I feel is one of his extraordinary qualities. The song in Bombay – ‘Kucchi Kucchi Rakkamma’ is a good illustration of this quality. The rhythm is essentially ethnic and yet it is modern. There will always be surprises but rarely will they let you down. Sometimes for a song of a slow pace, he will use a rhythm that runs in double the speed. It has a strange but a dramatic effect on the outcome of the song. Two cases in point here are ‘Saawariya’ from Swades and ‘Tu Bin Bataaye’ from Rang De Basanti. In Chhainyya Chhainyya, he used the rhythm instruments to create the movement of running train without using the sound of the train. Rahman is gifted with the quality of saying things between the lines with the use of orchestration.
Rahman and his singers
I don’t think any other music composer can boast of introducing or working with so many singers as Rahman has. Just to list off hand – P. Unnikrishnan, Anuradha Sriram, Minmini, Chitra, S. P. Balasubramanium, Hariharan, Srinivas, Naresh Iyer, Kunal Gaanjawala, Mahalaxmi Iyer, Shankar Mahadevan, Shoma Bannerjee, Richa Sharma, Sonu Nigam, Sukhvindara, Alka Yagnik, Sadhana Sargam, Baba Sehgal, Adnan Sami, Daler Mehdi, Apache Indian, Michael Jackson, Remo, Shwetha Shetty, Sanjeevani Bhelande, Vaishali Samant, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Kailash Kher… It just goes on… And this is just a peek into the vast spectrum of usual and unusual names that Rahman has worked with.
Even in a single film, we were used to see only three to four names in the singers’ credits. A standard Rahman film boasts of at least half a dozen singers. Rahman’s own justification for this is, “I do it for variety. Otherwise things would get monotonous. There was a time when the album of a film would have only two voices. Today different singers sing for the same character. The times have changed. The attention span of the average listener has decreased and his geographical purview has broadened. The listeners no longer think in terms of perfect or imperfect. They want different voices, standards be damned.”
As a music composer, I don’t necessarily subscribe to this view. You don’t always give people what they ask for. (Like you don’t give a chocolate to a child just because the child wants it!) And although it may be the right commercial move it could have a damaging effect on the song more often than not.
Rahman was actually criticised for using singers without judging their ability to articulate language specific nuances. He was pulled up for using Udit Narayan for Tamil songs and Rahman conceded by saying that he would not use Hindi singers for Tamil songs. But he justifies using new and sometimes untrained voices for playback by saying that it is not necessary that all actors must have perfect voices like S. P. Balasubramanium or Chitra, or Hariharan.
I once asked a singer friend of mine, why all singers had this incredible urge of singing for Rahman. She said that it is what he does to your voice. You wouldn’t believe that it was your own voice when it comes out as a finished product. He brings out the best tonal quality in you. It was somewhat like what Gautam Rajadhyaksha does with his camera!
He has used voices in very unconventional manner to great effect and there are lot of times when voices play roles of instruments rather than conveying poetry of the song. Some examples of having used voices in a very different manner are Shankar Mahadevan in Urvashi (Kadhalan) or Kay Sera Sera (Pukar), Vasundhara Das in O Ri Chhori (Lagaan), Baba Sehgal and Shwetha Shetty in Rukmini Rukmini (Roja).
I am, sometimes, confused with choice of singers that Rahman casts for playback. I have, somehow, never been convinced with Asha Bhosale for Urmila Matondkar in Rangeela; or for that matter Lata Mangeshkar for Priety Zinta in Dil Se. In the Tamil version of the film also, he used S. Janaki who sounds as old as Lata Mangeshkar for the twenty something Priety! When a character synchronises his/ her lips on screen with the song, ‘people want it’ sounds like a feeble justification for a loose casting. After all, just because people want, Mani Rathnam couldn’t have cast Jaya Prada in the young bride’s role!
Rahman & his Background Scores
Personally, I feel that Rahman’s real forte is his background scores. Right from Roja to Rang De Basanti, some of the marvellous background scores have come from under his mantle. His precise understanding of the mood of the scene and his irreverent and yet highly appropriate use of instruments is a delight to watch and hear. In Rang De Basanti, during the chase of Chandrashekhar Azad, one expects the sound of strings or brass section but what we get to hear is the wild strumming of the guitars! Totally unexpected and yet it fits the scene like a glove. This irreverence of his reminds me of the chase sequence in Sholay, where R. D. Burman got Pt. Samata Prasad to play a rela on the tabla. The concept here was the same, only times have changed.
And in the end… Rahman & I
It is impossible to stay in music industry and ignore Rahman. One just cannot. Producers keep saying – ‘Rahman jaisa sound chahiye!’ Journalists keep comparing your music with his. I remember being upset because a journalist had written a review about a Marathi song of mine saying that it sounded like a Rahman composition. If in those days you used a reverberated aalaap you were accused of copying Rahman! On another occasion a journalist friend of mine had said: “If Rahman can create such a refined sound, why can’t you?” I had replied, “I will, if you pay me a crore for a movie.” My reaction was not at all against Rahman. It was a serious observation. At that time were doing entire Marathi albums at 1/20th the cost of one Rahman song. But Rahman changed things even for people like us. He made us aware of the concept of having a new sound. And he made producers aware that money spent on the product delivered good results!
Sometimes, I wonder what Rahman is without all the paraphernalia. I don’t believe that as a composer of tunes Rahman is extraordinary. Where I find him extraordinary is in his understanding and expression of the idiom of sound. Technology being available to you also matters a lot. And Rahman also hasn’t had it coming for free. There has been toil and hard work for him. Rahman started working as a musician at the age of 12 when his father expired. He signed Roja when he was 26. So he smiles when people call him an overnight success.
Also, it is a great experience to evaluate Rahman as a music director. He gives a lot of food for thought in one song.
I think where Rahman lacks is in his understanding of language. But one must give him the benefit of doubt for Hindi as in Tamil his lyricist, Vairamuthu won National Awards repeatedly for songs set to tune by Rahman, namely for ‘Roja‘, ‘Pavithra‘, ‘Kadhalan‘ and ‘Minsara Kanavu‘. Rahman himself insists on good poetry for his songs, “Lyrics lend immortality to a melody. The eternal, evergreen hit songs are always the ones with profound lyrics; lyrics that remain true and meaningful even after years.”
After Rahman’s third film, his critics said he won’t be around for long. Fourteen years later, he is still here and is growing as a cult figure. The success of Rang De Basanti only strengthens his case. He is the face of Indian commercial music abroad. He is not without his flaws, but then nobody is. Rahman is said to be a very spiritual person. A quote that is attributed to him has found a permanent place in my head: “I am a strong believer in destiny. I also believe that destiny can be changed by prayers.” Rahman will be around till he keeps reinventing himself and at least for now, he’s doing just that.
© Kaushal S. Inamdar, 2006.
104 Comments
Thanks a lot for this post. Enjoyed reading every single bit of it 🙂
This is a fantastic post. For many reasons
Thanks for this post. As the other commentators have mentioned it was fantstic for many reasons.
I was wondering if your elaborate on this:
“For example, in The Legend of Bhagat Singh, he had composed the song Mera Rang De Basanti Chola. The composition was so Southern that one could not identify it with the Sikh freedom fighter at all.”
As a lay person and a non-pubjabi this song sounded as punjabi as the next so would really appreciate your comments.
Ashwini
Dear Ashwini,
I must really thank you for the observation. It made me hear back the entire album of THE LEGEND OF BHAGAT SINGH. I must concede that you’re right. It does ‘sound’ Punjabi. While writing the article, I had vague memories of the music of the film. In the above mentioned song, more than the composition, I found Sonu Nigam’s rendition was the culprit. It was a little effiminate and soft for the spirit of the song. Secondly, the song had a precedent in Manoj Kumar’s Shaheed which was still ringing in my ears. Comparatively, this version sounded toned down and lacked the punch. It was actually the other two songs “Sarfaroshi ki Tamanna” and the first two lines and the refrain of the song “Des Mere, Des Mere, Meri Jaan Hai Tu” that I had found southern in composition. A little excess of ‘gayaki’, I felt, marred ‘Sarfaroshi Ki Tamanna’. ‘Des Mere’ was instrumentally treated like most of Rehman’s Tamil songs and had overtones of ‘Bharat Humko Jaan Se Pyaara Hai’ (Remember that it was also originally a Tamil song).
I thank you for keeping your finger on one of the dubious points in my post. Keep reading and keep posting your comments.
kaushalji……
ur core analysis….has dissected REHMAN…and his being …’REHMAN’left-n-right deliberately…..its worth it a thesis…on technocratic rehman….
i do agree…he is influencial….but…i still believe…not all get carried away..by his music…..definately not me…i like rehmanism….4 the experimation…in each go…good or bad…is im-material…..what counts..is achieved outcome….
i perfectly agree with his fact for….language…phonotics..n pronounciation….u have..analysed it then-n-there…..but i genuinly doubt 4 it…in case of ‘MARATHI-BHASHA’…expperimentattionn in technoocrratic way….i might be more clear with instances…..like both ur compositions…….’RATRA BHHIJALI….’and ‘VILAYA JAG HE…’the later , definately takes ur hold mesmerisingly……soonal
kaushalji……
ur core analysis….has dissected REHMAN…and his being …’REHMAN’ left-n-right deliberately…..its worth it a thesis…on technocratic rehman….
i do agree…he is influencial….but…i still believe…not all get carried away..by his music…..definately not me…i like rehmanism….4 the experimentation…in an each go…good or bad…is im-material…..what counts..is …the achieved outcome….
i perfectly agree with his fact for….language…phonotics..n pronounciation….u have..analysed it then-n-there perfectly ………but i genuinly doubt 4 it…in case of ‘MARATHI-BHASHA’…experimentation in technocratic way….i might be more clear with instances…..like both ur compositions…….’RATRA BHIJALI….’and ‘VILAYA JAG HE…’the later , definately takes ur hold mesmerisingly……sonal
A really really good post. I still complain about the fact that he uses singers who don’t a bit of tamil for tamil songs. The song looses it meaning completely. Can you comment about this?
I found the post to be a great read.I have posted a copy of your article online at naachgaana.com for others to read. If you have any objections, I will remove it from there.
Wow, i should say this has been one of the much more apolitical and unbiased write-ups there has been about ARR i should say, gladly so.
And one observation you had was about the short, repetitive musical-phrases in ARR’s compositions.
I’d like to point out one thing about this observation. In my opinion, he uses lot of “recitation” like musical phrases – chinna chinna aasai, kadhal rojave (roja), ottagathai kattiko (gentleman), uyire uyire & hamma hamma (bombay), chayya chayya etc – when i mean recitation like – you can pretty much read it out like prose – and this is one thing that makes the tune stick to one’s mind easily i guess..
However, one other thing i’d like to point out is, for every such repeatable music-phrase he introduces, he does produce many songs that take so much more longer to endear because of their structure… e.g. sonnalum ketpadhillai (kadhal virus), jiya jale (dil se), ghanan ghanan (lagaan), pal pal hai (swades) to cite few…
sorry, have been too verbose on your site..
Frinds, I am overwhelmed by your response!
Hey Prabhu! Thanks a million for your referrals!
No objection dear kable! I am quite thankful. Please keep this blog on your watchlist. Thanks for the patronage!
Arvind, you’re bang on! And that is what I meant by Rahman keeps reinventing himself. You can see how the latter songs are from comparatively newer films. He’s definitely moving away from the set pattern.
Dear Visalakshi,
I have, myself worked with a lot of Tamil singers on my Marathi songs, prominently Shankar Mahadevan, Mahalaxmi Iyer and Hamsika. The difference is that they have been exposed to a Marathi environment as all of them are settled in Mumbai. I have had great experience working with non-marathi singers as well. It is just that the music composer has to be slightly aware. I plan to write a post on composition and language shortly. So keep reading!
WOW!
What an awesome post – I love A. R. Rahman, and you have dissected him so objectively and brilliantly. I have to agree, his background score for most movies rock (I was not too impressed with RDB though). One movie whose background’s score echo with me to this day is Swades – It couldnt have been any better.
Great stuff here – loved reading this.
Suyog
whoa! wat a post.. i enjoyed scrolling thru it.. i must say u made me think more abt musical technicalities.. for a layman like me, A.R.Rahman is pure genius.. i m not abashed to declare tat i m a Rahman-fanatic.. so i wasnt exactly happy wen u hinted tat he is a better technocrat than a composer.. may be i wud say tat too if i were a composer (or had been trained in music like u..)… but tat is a big ‘if’… jus listening to him brings in me tat awe.. i also feel u mite hav missed out on his other tamil works which were too gud.. ‘Minsara Kanavu’, Mani Ratnam’s “Kannathil Muthamittal” (he won the national award for these, mind u…) even, the background score was superb… anyway, thanx for tat post.. u had me there…
Thorougly enjoyable post, very well written.
excellent stuff. you can listen to Indian music before rahman on a regular cassette player, but for rahman, you need a CD player and an advanced music system. He has really raised the technical quality of Indian music.
But I think you are underestimating his talent as a composer. I still remember how surprised & delighted I was when I first heard “Chandralekha” from Thiruda Thiruda.
Excellent post! You really have a keen sense of music. I have been a fan of Rahman’s music for a long time, but never realy understood why they worked. You have really set me thinking. Thanks a lot for the superb analysis!
Cheers,
Aditya
Excellent post! You really have a keen sense of music. I have been a fan of Rahman’s music for a long time, but never realy understood why they worked. You have really set me thinking. Thanks a lot for the superb analysis!
Cheers,
Aditya
enjoyed the post very much. i agreed with most of your observations on rahman’s music and its shelf life. I think post-Dil Se, his music has definitely changed (although i am not trained in music and cannot explain its nuances like you, i do have a keen ear for good music). I think he uses less of the gimmickry that he resorted to in the past. On the flip side, i think it has also made his music less popular, atleast in Tamil, where audiences these days seem to prefer the ‘ring-tone’ happy and beat-driven music of yuvan shankar raja or harris jayaraj. the irony is that rahman’s biggest strength – of technical wizadry and sound engineering – is turning out to be a liability. new music directors have done an one-up on him.
varun
WoW…Fantastic post..I am very impressed with ur observation bt Rehman’s usage of short short phrases..this thot never crossed my mind.. I agree tht Rehman’s Sound is PURE MAGIC..Rehman is one composer who i belive gives every artiste lot of space to improvise without losing the soul of the composition..
Honestly…this is one of the best writeups about REhman..kp it up..
hamsi
This is a fine piece of analysis. One of the best on him I have ever read (partly because it echoes so many of my thoughts :)). A quick point.
You wrote:
Now, what happens in effect is that we are hearing the song twice or thrice in one go! […]Illayaraja, and later, Rahman used this new technique of composition. It gave a recall value to the tune but also ensured that its shelf life was shorter.
This is an important but easy observation and I wonder why few people seem to get it. Thanks for mentioning it. But it was hardly a new technique. It was used and mastered by L-P much before Rahman. In fact, their partner in crime Anand Bakshi used the similar technique in lyrics.
This is a fine piece of analysis. One of the best on him I have ever read (partly because it echoes so many of my thoughts :)). A quick point.
You wrote:
Now, what happens in effect is that we are hearing the song twice or thrice in one go! […]Illayaraja, and later, Rahman used this new technique of composition. It gave a recall value to the tune but also ensured that its shelf life was shorter.
This is an important but easy observation and I wonder why few people seem to get it. Thanks for mentioning it. But it was hardly a new technique. It was used and mastered by L-P much before Rahman. In fact, their partner in crime Anand Bakshi used the similar technique in lyrics.
Dear Vinay, you are right about the fact that the technique was not new. Why LP? Even Shankar Jaikishen, S. D. Burman used it. There is nothing, actually speaking, such as a new technique or even a new tune for that matter. Mark Twain once remarked that only Adam, whenever he said a thing, knew that it was original! But Illayaraja and Rahman both used more staccato phrases. You’ll see the difference at the end of the musical phrase where Illayaraja and Rahman’s composition has a short pause after the last syllable is sung.
Wonderful post. Love to hear about Ilayaraja from you.
>>In the Tamil version of the film also, he used S. Janaki who sounds as old as Lata Mangeshkar for the twenty something Priety!
You are underestimating Janaki. Recently I saw one tv program where she sang like 4 year old, young girl and old lady.
gr8…………….
much more than xpected……
Hi kaushal
I guess these following songs of Rhman should be given due consideration.
1.Piya haji ali ( fizaa ) amazing use of rhythm.
2. Chup ke se ( Sathiya ) Sadhana sargam at her best
3.rut aa gayi re ( earth).. has anytime puriya ( whichever) used in fast song like this?
4. rang de ( asha … !!)i agree ahs is old but can u suggest one singer who could have done justice to this song.
But i agree for that flute piece in Chinnama. I have heard that peice at least 50 time again when i heard it first. I always thought soem 50 s song will start.
Hi kaushal
I guess these following songs of Rhman should be given due consideration.
1.Piya haji ali ( fizaa ) amazing use of rhythm.
2. Chup ke se ( Sathiya ) Sadhana sargam at her best
3.rut aa gayi re ( earth).. has anytime puriya ( whichever) used in fast song like this?
4. rang de ( asha … !!)i agree ahs is old but can u suggest one singer who could have done justice to this song.
But i agree for that flute piece in Chinnama. I have heard that peice at least 50 time again when i heard it first. I always thought soem 50 s song will start.
Folks,
I am amazed at the response this article is getting. I know that there are bound to be some questions, some objections, some disagreements, and I really welcome them. Some are very subjective opinions of mine and I do not expect anybody to agree with them in toto. For now, I am happy for the response they are evoking
For the comment by Anonymous, I too agree that chupke se is one of Sadhana Sargam’s best renditions
Hi Kaushal,
I deeply admire AR Rehman’s music although I am quite a fan of Ilaiyaraja. This article was phenomenal and I liked it very much. Great job. As someone suggested earlier, i would definitely like to see such an analysis of Ilaiyaraja’s music too.
v good. nice observation.keep it up n all d best 4 ur future projects.
Nishikant Sadaphule
kaushal,
fantastic article . I thought I’d ask you about a couple of thins that have intrigued me for long – unrelated to this article though:
I believe Marathi music is underexposed to the rest of the country. And expat marathis(*by which I mean software techie marathis down south) dont seem to take much pride in marathi popular or otherwise music. I find most of them hiding behind or hankerign after bollywood music. What do you think is the reason? I mean, you wouldnt find too many Telugu, Tamil or Malayalam, heck, even Kannadiga people not aware of their language music or not plugging ‘their; music passionately. I strangely find most of my marathi acquaintances of lack of interest in Marathi music.
Now, is it just me or bollywood is really playing big brother to Marathi film industry?
Any inside comments on this?
2. I’d also love a similar analysis on Raja(you know who that is, surely). I think that “low on shelf life” comment is rather patronising and not corroborated by facts – c’mon, Ilayaraja’s music lacks shelf life? What exactly do you mean there?
3. I agree that IR, and ARR, do repeat phrases in songs that gives more recall value – but now way can that mean you’d bracket them with Bappidas and L-P’s – ah! those hindi songs – Song #1 is a extended recitation of the movie title, Song #2 is a slight variation of title tune with interludes consisting of nothing but solo instrumentals of Song #1’s main tune, SOng #3 a combination of 1 & 2. Especially, L-P? No way they come anywhere close to Ilaiyaraja or AR Rehman. That is not to mention the third member of the Trinity – M.S.Viswanathan. Now, there is one person whose music you want to check out – for, he is the doyen of unexpected phrase turns and lovely twists in-phrase.
Well, as a layman observer of music, I must say that this article gives me immense joy – it tells me things that about Rahman that I feel – without me having to go through the pain of dissecting and analysing. I have always felt that Rahman has evolved as a composer- I moved from my initial views of him as a ‘sound engineer'(read technocrat) to complete conversion by around the time of Swades. Even now, while I cant relate much to Kadhalan, Jeans, En Swaasa Katre etc, OTOH, Swades, RDB, and even Mangal Pandey have swept me off my feet.
BTW, what is a ‘Southern Composition’? It would be interesting to read a composer’s take on that – as far as I know,a typical bollywood fan(which I can guess you arent) dismisses anything with a string section and resemblance to WCM as ‘Southern’ music. I think you mean it in a different way. Can you please elaborate on that? – that would be interesting to know.
Also, apart from Salil Choudhary, I havent heard about many composers of hte past who did their own orchestration(and which is corroborated by the lack of distinct orchestration style in old songs of SDB, Naushad etc) – how much importance would you place to orchestration skills of a composer in evaluating him/her?
I agree completely with the language bit. His songs in Hindi usually are not as good as those in Tamil. Particularly the ones that were dubbed.
I have been a great admirer of Rahman and have almost every single recording of his from Roja to his latest Sillunu Oru Kaadhal. Like you, being a Marathi, I do not understand a word of his compositions but the sound does wonders for me too. I could easily identify so much of what you have written and should thank you for bringing back all those memories. This is a brilliant article and look forward to more such articles from you.
Kaushal,
Great post and good “annecdotal” disection of Rehman’s work.
Keep it coming 🙂
Rahman… What a musician!!! Wow…
I think…musicians like him do not take birth in large numbers and not only that, the musicianship he posseses is not the accumulation of one life. This is his musical earning/Saving from previous lives as well.
He has showed us the Rah Man!!!!
I am a musician myself and am deeply influenced by his music and creativity. May God bless him…
Praveen Chaddha (San Francisco)
Hi.Fantastic post. I’m a tamilian myself- and the only qualm I have against Rahman is the way the language and the lyrics take the backseat in most of his compositions.Like you said, the reason most songs stay with us is because the lyrics fit the mood of the moment.
Also, what almost everybody seems to agree on is that the FIRST EVER TIME you listen to an A.R.Rahman song, you wont like it right away.It takes a few spins to start liking it. I have found this to be very true and have always wondered why. I haven’t found the same with Ilayaraja, who I believe is a true maestro or any of the others.Perhaps you could explain why.
Another thing I’ve realized is that , while his songs SOUND good, they have a significantly bland aftertaste.Like you said, it is almost impossible to hum one of his songs. Its almost as if the instruments overwhelm the song and all you really hear is a bunch o pots and pans clattering.
Some of his slower songs though are a real treat.
I don’t know if you’ve ever listened to Kannukku Mai Azhagu from the movie Pudhiya Mugham, or Vellai Pookkal from the movie Kannathil Muthamittal. I wish he’d do more of those and keep the banging, the over anglicized lyrics and the non-native singers out of it.
A very exhaustive and complete post ! Like somebody else pointed out, it was very unbiased and I liked it ! Also, not hailing from south india, you’ve taken pains to understand his work in tamil. So your comments add much more value than it would have had coming from somebody that has not had a chance to follow him closely due to linguistic issues.
I have always wondered about how Rahman’s music was perceived outside of south india. I know he’s been a big hit with his hindi movies etc. But somebody with an understanding of what it takes to create music, would give us a better perspective of his value. And I think I got just that from you. So Thanks !
As for my opinion of his lyrics and pronunciation in hindi, I agree that it may not be perfect. But hailing from madras, where hindi is not spoken in the streets, there exists a natural hindrance to being fluent in spoken hindi. He has also admitted in the past that he’s not extremely fluent in hindi. With all these constraints, it is my opinion that he has been better than a lot of people give him credit for. As for his economy with variation in tunes, making it easy to remember, I agree. At the same time, there are a lot of tunes, which have been simple on the surface but much more complex when you actually try to sing it, with subtle variations that don’t catch your attention till you sit down with it and play it over and over again. For example “New york nagaram” in “Jillendru oru kaadhal” and “thee thee” from thiruda thiruda.
I completely agree with your views on his use of singers – that he gives them credit for therir hard work and allows them to think about a future in the field. And your complaints about how some voices do not suit the characters at all. I have had the same impression. Sometimes he gives the impression, that he has been completely oblivious to some of the requirements.
I don’t know if you have listened to his latest album in Tamil. It’s called “Jillendru oru kaadhal”. The song New york nagaram I thought was a complete package. Please tell me what you think of it when you get a chance to do so. I have posted a review on the album. Please feel free to take a look.
I enjoyed this post !
Lovely post. It was really nice reading it.
I don’t know much about music but your in-depth analysis was not too hard-to-follow.
Thanks!
This is a fantastic review on ARR. Many things that you had mentioned below typically goes unnoticed.
I for one has a strong feeling that ARR can bring out the best in the play back singer’s tonal capabilities and he can even use the vintage singers to sing for ARR. For eg., I wish we get to hear P Suseela’s fantastic tonal capabilities and grasp on the intonation of the language in ARR’s music.
The other thing that you mentioned on Sivamani is very interesting. in late 80s and early 90s, pretty much in Adyar(Chennai) we were a gang that went to the shows conducted by ARR(Regal liquid blue days), Sivamani, Guitar Prasanna, Vikku Vinayakaram, Loy Mendoza and we were wondering why these guys havent made big in the industry and guess what – ARR was the channel through which these fantastic musicians were known to the aam junta in the 90s.
I would rather say that his singature number is ‘Maa tujhe salaam’ – Our next generation may probably think that Vande Maataram is played only in that way and may forget the older version.
Cheers 🙂
Ismail
This is a fantastic review on ARR. Many things that you had mentioned below typically goes unnoticed.
I for one has a strong feeling that ARR can bring out the best in the play back singer’s tonal capabilities and he can even use the vintage singers to sing for ARR. For eg., I wish we get to hear P Suseela’s fantastic tonal capabilities and grasp on the intonation of the language in ARR’s music.
The other thing that you mentioned on Sivamani is very interesting. in late 80s and early 90s, pretty much in Adyar(Chennai) we were a gang that went to the shows conducted by ARR(Regal liquid blue days), Sivamani, Guitar Prasanna, Vikku Vinayakaram, Loy Mendoza and we were wondering why these guys havent made big in the industry and guess what – ARR was the channel through which these fantastic musicians were known to the aam junta in the 90s.
I would rather say that his singature number is ‘Maa tujhe salaam’ – Our next generation may probably think that Vande Maataram is played only in that way and may forget the older version.
Cheers 🙂
Ismail
Another lay person – nothing to add by way of my own observations. But your critique of Rahman was very well written, objective, at the same time able to strike the subjective chord in the readers. The enjoyment of reading this post comes from being familiar with Rahman’s work and being able to relate to specific pieces when you discussed them. All the readers of this post, I am sure are likely to be Rahman fans or tamilians. Great job. 🙂
ok… now… after reading your write up on REHMAN…i sincerely believe that i should have taken ‘Music in terms of communicating ideas’ as my dissertation topic…and wished you could be my guide.N’ways…i just loved your explanation on nuances of Rehman’s sound of music with illustrations….a lay man like me actually understood what Rehman’s music is all about.keep writing so that i am enlightened. Excellent piece!!!
ok… now… after reading your write up on REHMAN…i sincerely believe that i should have taken ‘Music in terms of communicating ideas’ as my dissertation topic…and wished you could be my guide.N’ways…i just loved your explanation on nuances of Rehman’s sound of music with illustrations….a lay man like me actually understood what Rehman’s music is all about.keep writing so that i am enlightened. Excellent piece!!!
Hey Kaushal,
Grrreat Post. I am a very hardcore Rahman fan and have been highly influenced by him (amongst others) in my musical endeavours. I think your observations were great. The only point that I would like to make or differ on was that Rahman is also a good composer. But then again, thats just IMHO.
I am a music composer myself and have a band called AudioDetour. You can check us out at http://www.audiodetour.com
I would really appreciate it if you can listen to all the songs and give me your feedback.
Sai.
http://www.audiodetour.com
Hello Sai, It’s great to be appreciated by a fellow musician. Thanks for your comments and please keep reading my blog for more. I am sorry if I gave the impression that Rahman is not a good composer. Of course, he is. I am only saying that he’s a better music producer than he’s a composer. Also I admit that it is more a matter of personal taste and that my opinion is purely subjective.
all in all very good post …..i just want to comment the analysis u put about lyrics of Rahman’s song…..somewhere I read Rahman’s interview that he himself believes “music” as an universal language.
all in all very good post …..i just want to comment the analysis u put about lyrics of Rahman’s song…..somewhere I read Rahman’s interview that he himself believes “music” as an universal language.
Lovely post! I really enjoyed reading it. Thank you!
Good post kaushal ! Fine observation with special kaushal touch !
One point to add : Abt north Indian flavour …, even he has managed to put in Ravindra sangeet in movie on Netaji Bos in a song sung by SOnu and he has done it beutifully .
Another observation : Abt his lyrical sense . Yes , he ignores lyrics sometimes but he has got sense of tones in words and a good lyricist can tap this and write good lyrics for his song which will be recognizable for it’s lyrics too. example : Javed ji has written so beutifully for swades that u LISTEn to words first at many places , compare with Rang de where lyrics takes a back seat .
beautiful post. and great analysis.
Hi Kaushal,
“Ekhadya Devache mahima stotra vachatana jya prakarcha adhyatmik anand hoto tasa anand ha lekh vachtana jhala.”
Rehman always sounded extraordinarily musical to ears. Thanks to you, now I know why.
– Rupak Kharvandikar
Hey Kaushal!!
Simply amazing!! Rahman will be proud if he reads this article himself!! Very comprehensive..You are a magician at articulating your thoughts!!
I have been a big fan of Rahman myself but never thought from some of the perspectives mentioned by you..
I have been specifically impressed by his work in Roja, Rangeela (thot it was way ahead of its time!!), Dil Se(Ae Ajnabi rocks!!), Rang De Basanti (Rabaroo being my fave song!!) & list goes on..
Also as mentioned in your article, he has beautifully evolved & adapted as a musician for Hindi tastes (Chale Chalo in Lagaan being a good example I thot)..I also like his style of inserting musical clippings in to a song..For e.g. piece of Classical Sufi music interspaced between Mukhda & First Antara. Second example is Malayalam lyrics interspaced in the song Jiya Jale of Dil Se..The contrast in the music makes it even more devine..
Viral
hi kaushal,
i really liked your observations.
rehman is definitely one of the best musicians of our industry. your views about his orchestrations are perfect and to the point.
even i have always found his choices of singers bit strange but i always liked those songs.
asha bhosle reinvented herself in rangeela.
she needed another chance after RD’s death and subsequent sad happenings.
and asha’s new persona in all these years and the way she has sung some amazing songs.. the credit goes to rehman.
lata mangeshkar has sung 7 songs for him and the best scores are ek tu hi bharosa( pukaar) , so gaye hain and pyarasa gaon (zubeida).
these veteran singers represent the golden era of our music and having them as a part of one’s album makes the album special for composer.
–
sushant
tagged- pls check my post heights & do something similar
Finally read it all!
Even though I’d said I will post a big comment, after reading it all… your last para says it all when you talk about Rahman & I. Thats what even I think today, that he is not extraordinary.
Few years back when I had no interest in classical music, I thought that he was extradordinary. But later, with some analysis, I observed that most of the songs were being recycled from his own factory (either the song itself or the background score).
example would be the tune of the song ‘Ghanan ghanan’ from lagaan which is ditto to the song ‘bol sajni’ from doli sajake rakhna. The bgm score of ‘Dhaba theme’ from swades reflects in the title track of Rang de basanti.
most songs in RDB used Techno and Electronic music (even Yuva, boys had the same)… it is popular amongst the youth no doubt… because Electronic music and bass is very addictive (from my experience, when I listen to Victor wooten or Belafleck)… but I liked the way he finally made Lata mangeshkar sing for her own age in the Luka Chuppi song as a mother! again… his scores for the Bose-The Forgotten Hero, the songs Zikr, the instrumental Durga have some charm in it…
Regarding S.Janaki being as old as Lata… and someone pointing it out to be underestimating Janaki… agree with that one to some extent… though both are old enough… Janaki sounds more melodious to me anyday… but when we accuse actors of being old and acting like main heroes (younger than their age)… why can’t these singers sing ???
and a very good comparision about Gautam rajadhyaksha’s camera and what Rahman can do to one’s tonal quality 🙂 thats again technology!
I’ve forwarded the URL to many friends who are into music… enjoy the attention … hehe
-appu
Kaushal, wonderful article, even if i sound ‘cliched’. I am one of those guys who think long posts are a bore, but you had me going on and on.
I am a “NyaanaShoonyam” in Music, as they would say in Tamil, which means, a guy with not much knowledge in music. I do love to listen to good music adorned with good lyrics.
I am in the process of compiling a list of my all time favorite numbers in Hindi, Old Hindi, Tamil and English. Would love to know your favorite numbers (All Time?) and why you consider them to be your favorites.
A friend of mine, was telling me about O P Nayyar and how he used to love using sounds of a horse walking / running in his songs. Trivia like these really excite me, and there were quite a few in your article, would love to hear more such trivia.
Personally, I listen to quite a few ARR numbers, but my heart is with Ilayarja, and I think he is king of melody, and as you mentioned about after taste, I think Ilayaraja leaves an amazing after taste for eons after you listen to his numbers. As mentioned earlier, I would like to hear your views (dissection) of Ilayaraja.
My thoughts are pretty random, and are in any order, I am sorry about that. Loved to read your post, and waiting for many more of your posts. Thanks.
Hi…I thought it was a wonderful analysis of Rahman’s music…you have hit it bang on when you said that Rahman’s forte lies in his conceptualisation of SOUND…I have always felt that with Rahman the sound of film music entered a different era…maybe a new era… Maybe now people are more aware of different genres of music, so we can identify hitherto unheard (in films at least) genres like Reggae (Roja), Hiphop, Rap, Sri Lankan Baila (Tenali, Kannathil Muthamittal), etc., and Classical musicians like Pt Kadri Gopalnath (Duet), Ustad Sultan Khan (Alai Payuthe), Pt Vishwamohan Bhatt (Iruvar) and others have played for him. Who can forget Nadaka’s exquisite guitar in Thakshak…just for one song Rahman had Nadaka brought down to Chennai from Auroville…Rahman clearly knows what he wants…But for me Iruvar remains a perennial favourite…it is a period film… he made the songs blend in so wonderfully without sounding ‘OLD’… there are times when I feel that some of his songs are ‘tacky’, but you cant hit a century everytime you go to bat or grab five wickets in every inning…there is lots to say…
Kaushal,
What a wonderful post …nice in-depth analysis .. I did skip a few lines in a hurry to reach your verdict on ARR 🙂
“Reinventing” : I’m not sure , but his original songs in Hindi do sound better with lyricists like Javed Akhtar and Gulzar .
I’ll be happy if the lyric gets a little more attention in his songs .
Almost everyone’s going ga-ga over his conceptualization/expression of sound ,but I feel he could do with one or two instruments/sounds less in each song .
Though I did not think ‘meraa ra.ng de’ from TLOBS had a ‘southern touch’ , I felt the lyric,tune,singing did not pack enough punch .
Check out the no-frills version from the Bobby Deol film :
http://www.musicindiaonline.com/music/
hindi_bollywood/s/movie_name.2109/
This sounds so much better than the ARR tuned one .
Cheers !
Amarendra
hai rahman,
i feel very proud to say that i madly fond of one of the greatest indian composers, a.r.rahman. what kind of beautiful songs you have given to us! for example
the song, “narumugaiye” from the film, “iruvar”. it’s my aim in life that i have to sing in your music. the latest song, “jillendru oru kadal” in the type of “moulein rouge” make us enjoyable. finally i thank this site for giving me such an opportunity to express my feelings. my adress is “madhuasmedicine@yahoo.com”.
by Madhumitha Iyer(D.C.E.)
Kaushal..
A great article man.. and a great analysis too.. i totally agree that rahman blends technology in to music in an amazing way… u can’t stop listening to the unique way, how he makes those instruments sound, an ordinary flute seems to be very much different from a ‘rahman flute’ that i hear…
how can any one forget the shehnai in swades…. amazing!
i suggest you to listen to the tamil song … New York Nagaram.. from his latest movie… listening to it … it makes u feel that u are in new york…
Cheers!
Enjoyed reading your post… what could i say about the way I felt? Great wouldnt come up to describing half of what i feel. I have always liked ARR’s songs and that makes it even interesting to read your post. Thanks for such a wonderful article
Really good read…I donno why everyone says he produces good sounds..
I feel rather than humming his tunes u can actually sing them..
Fantastic post sir. I enojoyed while reading your post. Keep the nice post.
Best wishes from an Ilaiyaraja fan
While ‘Kehna hi Kya’ became a big hit with Chitra and Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan singing, even the title track of Bombay caught the imagination of his fans.
Maybe he changed it for the Hindi version, but in the Tamil version it is ARR himself doing the alaaps. I’m pretty sure its the same in the Hindi version.
ARR finally brought Indian film music up to sync with Western pop. Before that, any attempts at being hip and trendy (Bappi Lahiri’s disco tunes after disco died in the West) sound embarrasing now. But listen to Chandralekha from Thiruda Thiruda, a 13-year-old film, and it still sounds fresh!
He also has the uncanny ability to evoke images with his music. Like you mentioned, in Chaiyya Chaiyya he evokes the train without using actual train sounds. In Yeh Jo Des Hai Tera, he evokes images of blue skys (soaring strings) and brown earth (the bass note at the beginning) and workers working in the field (that “hai” sound). NY Nagaram from Sillunnu Oru Kadhal evokes the hustle and bustle of people and cars and subways.
ARR used Udit Narayan well in Kadhalikkum Pennin from Kadhalan, but his other Tamil songs sound terrible. Too bad Vidyasagar revived the use of Udit in the South about 5-6 years ago.
I think ARR has used Udit’s voice best of all the music directors. He has a voice that can sound nasal and annoying when used improperly, but in Lagaan and Dil Se, for example, he sounds wonderful.
Hi Kaushal,
It was indeed a pleasure to read you Article.
I agree to the point that he is way ahead in the field of sound engineering than as a composer. It would be sheer magic if Illayaraja collaborates with rahman for a combi of soul and Technology..
Talking about importance of lyrics, I think he has conciously improved on that. His more recent compositions have lower raw appeal (that some say leave a bad after taste). They have moved towards more coherent ones which donot sound instantly amazing like say a Roja or Thiruda Thiruda.
I would like to know what you think of Fandukondein Kandukondein. I think it is the most classical Rahman album. Am sure you must have cought the movie as it had a good run in Bombay.
I got no words to describe.. A Stunning article about the great,the greatest A.R RAHMAN..
I love A.R Rahman…
I enjoyed reading your take on Rahman and music, but I must say that I completely disagree with your use of Alfred Marshall’s Law of Diminishing Marginal Utility to justify rahman tunes.
I do maintain that rahman tunes are harder to memorize and recite than the likes of Illayaraja, but it has nothing to do with diminishing marginal utility. Sound, as a product, is very different in nature than conventional products over which this Marshall’s conjecture is generalized.
There is something much more fundamental to it that is related to human perception of sound and melodies. In short, it has to do with Rahman tunes being much too different from what our sound interpretation mechanism is used to. That, in a way, is a complement to rahman, because it implies extreme creativeness – to such an extent that the public would not have imagined such (style of) tunes before hearing them, and even after hearing them, they are harder to recreate in our minds.
That may be one of the reasons why rahman numbers grow on us after a period of time. If its marginal utility would decrease, his sound would have a shorter shelf life; but I find that his numbers, while harder to recreate in my mind, when heard, are always getting better – i.e. its utility is increasing.
Hello kaushal.
It was great to see a true musician dissecting Rahman’s work.I am a die hard fan of Rahman and to see the intricacies of his music explained so well gives me great pleasure.
I strongly agree with you that Background scores is Rahman’s speciality and seldom do people give him the credit for that.I watched Dil Se around 8 times in theatre just to hear the BGMs.
Thanks again for the amazing post.
Hi Kaushal,
Cameback hoping you would’ve reviewed “Guru” songs.
🙂
hi kaushal,
i have always considered you as a great musician and a great writer……no doubt about it.i like the way you have dissected rahman.you have commented on very minute things in a very subtle manner……which is what kaushal is all about!!!
i feel rahman is a breath of fresh air amongst musicians like anu malik,himesh reshmia,etc.his music is haunting according to me and people take time to get it in their system…….like,the music of rang de basanti.at first,i felt,it was ok but as i kept listening to it,i started enjoying it all the more.
i am waiting eagerly for your new releases!!! i still remember your song…..paus padun gelyavar,it is amazing! keep up the good work and you will keep getting loyal fans like me.
hi Kaushal,
Nice blog.Enjoyed last evening’s classical performance. Thanks.
hi kaushal,
tere lafzon ka kya kehna,
woh,jaise asmaan ke tare,
chuya jo toone pyar se unhe,
chann se bikhre is jameen pe saare!
waiting for your haunting music……your new cd’s.
Thanks for the great post. If I am correct, is this the translation of the original Marathi article which was also written by you only?
Please correct me if I am wrong.
We Pune fans wanted to contact you for something, but had no contact information. Could you please give us your contact information? My mail id is:
amithchandhran@gmail.com
Thanks in anticipation.
Amith Chandhran,
Member,
The A.R. Rahman Fans Group,
[www.arrahmanfans.com]
I wanted to write this earlier, but somehow things slipped my mind.
Your observation of Diminishing Marginal utility and ARR’s compositions – I grew up learning carnatic, like most Madras tamil-brahman children and I do think even Carnatic classical uses the same technique – to a large extent. The Pallavi, Anu pallavi opening, followed by the Charanam and Chitta swarangal is a structure common to all compositions. Where, the Pallavi and Anupallavi are usually the same tune, with different lyrics.
Once again – an awesome post. Well worth the comeback read
Chanced here from dont know which blog but glad i did..
your ability to analyze a fellow composer (though a very popular one) and conclude the way you did (Rahman & I) is very appreciable.
Lovely and indepth – what a wonderful read into mine and many millions of people’s MD of choice! 🙂 Do keep your words pouring.
Musical Blessings
aSHANTI OMkar (Geetha)
http://www.OMkari.net
http://www.myspace.com/ashantiomkar
Hi! A thoroughly enjoyable and objective piece! Good luck for ur musical journey
Had a clarification:
U said
“I have always maintained, and I have no doubt that I am in the minority, that Rahman is more a technocrat than a composer. This opinion was formed mainly because I could trace the origins of his composing techniques to Illayaraja, with whom Rahman worked as a keyboardist.”
So you think Ilayaraja is a technocrat as well? I personally revere Raja for his composing skills and I think more than his film songs, his bgms(movies like hey ram etc) and albums like How to Name It,Nothing But Wind & Tiruvasagam in Symphony stand testimony to my belief! I have very less theoretical knowledge about composing music but I still rate ARRs composing skills second only to Raja in India!!If you could expand on why his composing skills dont appeal to you it would be awesome!!
Hi Kaushal,
Being an ARR fan, it was a pleasure reading your post.
I’m sure you wud’nt have listened to a Malayalam composition of his, “Yodha”. You may want to hear that too. This was released even before Roja or may be just before Roja and was a hit in Kerala. The film was directed by Santhosh Sivan and had Mohanlal as the lead.
You sound like someone who obviously knows Rahman’s music so maybe you can help me in locating one of his background scores. More specifically it is a piece of background music in ‘Rang de basanti’. It is during the scene where the students enter the radio station towards the end of the
film. It starts as almost a chant and works its way into a very
hypnotic and powerful song. During the director’s commentary of the film, he states that he asked for and received this track from Rahman about 3 years ago during his london opening of Bombay Dreams. He may have mentioned a track named ‘Assam’ but i am not sure. If you have any idea of what this track is called and where I can find it, I would be ever so grateful. It is my favourite track of the entire film but it is not listed or ever mentioned in any soundtrack listing.
My email is: sundeep24_1999@yahoo.com
Wonderful Post but i guess the post is slightly incomplete as u have not discussed at length about the pre lude and interlude music pieces, where arr has been the most experimental musician of our times.For example the song Azhahinna Azhah from the movie Ennaku 20 unnaku 18 .In the intro he has juggled with the time signature beat after beat (and not bar wise ) juggling with a 1/16 straight pattern to a 1/16 triplet pattern.One more exapmle could be the song Manmatha masam from the movie Paarthale Paravasam again here has experimented with the time signature as the rhythm section keeps going from triplet patterns to the straight 4/4 patterns.Also i have a different take on one of the points raised by one of the readers, that to hear rahmans music u need a cd player I belive that Rahman is probably the only composer who gave cd quality music playback on a cassette.Talking a bit more about this point I had heard from a friend of mine that Rahman had actually mixed roja many times only to get the cd effect on the cassette as Mani Ratnam wanted the music to sound out of this world.As a concluding point i would like to once again congratulate you for having put up this blog I like the way in which u have treated the whole subject matter.Would like to know your reaction about this post…..
hi kaushal,
I am saurabh from pune. i play the keyboards and guitars . Well rahman means so much to me i really cant write it all but in simple owrds “Music is my religion and rahman is my God” !! Your article is simply too good.Its like u have totally written all those things which i obsreved in his music and also i got to learn lot of trivia.
Thanks a ton;
Saurabh
Such a balanced view on a fellow musician is hard to find. I can sense both your admiration and your confidence in your ability in the artilce without sounding jealous or arrogant. And I agree with 905 of your observations. thanks for writing a very beautiful article.
Wow! I really admire your perception and observation ability to analyze the music. I think that is the must quality one should have as a musician. Wonderful!
All The Best!
Avni.
I just stumbled upon your blog and amazed at your indepth knowledge on Tamil film music. I am great admirer of Maestro Illayaraja and yet love Rahman’s music immensely and I can’t go to bed without listening at least one song of ARR.
I sincerely request you to listen to the following two songs and send me your comments. I would very much appreciate it.
1. Ennuyir Thozhiye (Kangalal Kaithu Sei)
2. Kanava Nee Katra (Ratchagan)
Thanks and regards,
Karthik
Amazing post.
In my opinion ARR’s compostion does not completely depend on the tune.He brings out the emotions from the singers and synthesiser.But as far illayaraja concerned his tune alone conveys the feel of the song.thats y u can enjoy illayaraja’s song in hummimg too.
Being a pukka tamilian i have grown up by hearing those two great musicians.ARR was my hero during my school days but now after learning classical music and nuances illayaraja became by GOD.
thanks….
oh ! arr rocks
Hi boss,
That was really a very good post! I really enjoyed reading it. Ya know wut? Dr.Ilaiyaraja is my God. I really admire rahaman’s sounds and improviation. I really feel bad on him w.r.to raagas… Because when I started learnin carnatic music, I was really shocked tat rahaman does not use/know basic raaga structures…especially Maandu raagam (Narumigiye) and Kedaram (ennavale) were awkward usage of swarams on em. Still, I love those songs very much. I really enjoyin his recordin pattern, international quality…Before his arrival only few songs of Raaja sir has Interntional sounds in recording, however, rahaman’s al de compositions has excellent sound effects. It seems tat he started using live orchestra nowadays like Raaja sir…Even, Raaja sir said rahaman is a bright spark 🙂
~~Raaja rules
Hi, I really enjoyed this post… I am not classically trained, but love music deeply…. There is one song composed by Rahman which is not very popular, but stands out from almost everything else… the tamil song “vellai pookkal” from the movie “kannathil muthamittaal”… if you have not heard this one.. do listen to it… It is personal favourite..& I consider it the best piece I’ve ever heard… if you can understand the lyrics, all the more better… because there is a tremendous amount of symbolism in the song… which makes it extra special… Wish you success in music… 🙂
Excellent analysis on Rahman & his musical abilities. I myself am a hardcore fan of his. Not to mention, equally a fan of Ilayaraja’s! A blogspot on him & what you think of his music would be excellent to read too!
Chandrachood
Right now Ilayaraja’s son Yuvan Shankar Raja and also Vidyasagar music are much better.
It is a dissapointment that neither of these were chosen for Sivaji. Sivaji was not a hit because of the music but for other things like graphics. Music in Sivaji is poor.
Yuvan music is much more melodious than Ragumaan’s. It is disgrace to have overdose of Anglisized lyrics in Sivaji. (you dont need a director of such esteem for giving music with poor lyrics)
Hopefully the upcoming Iyandhiran (Robot in English) will have Vidyasagar or Yuvan.
Immensely enjoyed your essay. Rarely do I come across a critique in India that focuses on creation aspects of piece such as composition, performance and recording. Most of the reviews merely express the effect of a musical piece, but they almost never tell you how the composer achieved that effect. As a composer on a composer, you have given us marvelous piece of writing that is revealing and thoroughly enjoyable. Thank you very much.
As someone who grew up in Tamil Nadu and now living in the US, it was a pleasure to revisit the 80’ and 90’s through your account. You were dead-on in capturing the attitudes of the majority towards ARR since his inception.
We grew up listening to IR, but did not realize that we liked him very much until ARR came into the scene in 1992. As a consequence, I was among those who had trouble embracing the new extraordinary musical talent, ARR. It took probably the entire 90’s to overcome that. Having said that it would be a lie to say I did not enjoy ARR works during that period. How could anybody, who likes music?
Nowadays I not only enjoy ARR’s music, but also study them. As you do, I too admire his intelligence and hard work, and there is a great deal to learn from him and his works. Since I don’t have a formal knowledge or background in music, I rely on essays like yours as a vehicle to broaden my understanding and appreciation of the music I like and listen to.
You writing is fluent and the style is engaging. Another good attribute is that you made this particular article reachable not just for those who know music, but anyone who can read English. Thanks again, hope you write more.
PK
Thanks a lot for this insightful post. Enjoyed it a lot. Wonderful.
I donno how many times i’ve read ur comments, but this is the first time am commenting on ur comments.
back in 1992, when i was 12, i hated ARR’s music when my father had bought Roja cassette. after a few listenings (as usual to all his songs), i liked it so much that, i ‘invented’ my way of learning Tamil language coz of his music and the debut album’s songs still is on my mobile’s playlist!!!
Thanx a ton for the post. It just re-defines my faith in his music!!!
Nice read indeed. However, music is not finite or localized in one place. It is fluent and with technology music has become worldwide or global. One can get instant access to any music of any artists on this planet online. Thus, it leads me to say that in the beginning of AR. Rahman’s career, he had very little knowledge of the worldly music or western musical style. As a result, the very first movie, Roja, he composed music for was down right original or was his own composition. There was hardly any resembles to anyone else’s music. I enjoyed it a lot but as you put it his music wore out on me after a week. How can I say such a thing about AR.Rahman, because I live in the USA and listen to all kinds of music from all over the world. I have a huge collections of the best music in the world. As for as Roja movie songs, they were some of the best songs he has composed. However, since the advent of the Internet one can start to notice the western style of music in AR. Rahman’s compositions. Heck, there are a lot of AR.Rahman’s music I can recollect that matched note per note of other artist’s music – particularly Americans or western style. For instance, for the movie Indian in Tamil, he composed music for the song, “Telephone Mani Pollae” was taken beats per beats and notes per notes right out of the European’s band, Ace of Base from their song, “I saw the sun and it opened up my eyes…” Go head listen to that song on Youtube and tell me that I am wrong lol.
As I said earlier, Ar.Rahman’s work in the beginning was of his own creation but as time past and technology grew his music stared to sound like others — 99% Western or Americans. Today, that’s all he got. Anytime, he creates a crappy tune or music we know that it is his own creation and the ones that are cool and funky sounds is copied from someone else.
By the way, not just AR.Rahman who is copying other’s music but all Tamil composers do except only one – Ilayaraja. He was and is the best to this day. No one can match his talent. The only reason, he is not on the front line is because he is not hip and cool looking or more appealing to teens. He is for sure an old-timer, whereas AR.Rahman is all about looking nice and nice hair style lololol. That image goes a long way too. Nonetheless, Ilayaraja is the best. Even today, if you listen to his evergreen oldies from 70s, 80s, and 90’s, you will be dancing and feeling very very happy. I have played his musics over and over and over again and again in my car, on my computers and of course online and never got tired of his musics. In fact, Ilayaraja is the only one I listen to, although I sample other composers every now and then.
So, I disagree with your assessment of AR.Rahman. He is in short a copy cat, truly, like others. AR.Rahman is not a genius but a copy cat. Copying a music is very very easy to do, but creating music from scratch is very difficult and only the true genius can do that.
Long Live Ilayaraja.
Hi
I am a film composer from Chennai. There are very few intelligent articles on the internet, not just on ARR or IR but on music itself. This is one of the best I have read till now. And it is evident from the fact tht my comment is the 99th comment on the post. I have always wondered what makes people enjoy a song. Different people fall under different musical intelligence slabs, ranging from those, who don’t even know who the music is done by in a song and think it is Rajesh Khanna or Amitabh who is singing, to people like you who try to use as much intellect as possible to decipher what constitutes a musician’s success/failure. Depending on the slab in which the average person falls in a particular era, is I think, one good way of understanding the depth of musical content in the songs of the dominant composer of the era.IR was the dominant composer in Tamil for close to 16 years before ARR took over. And both have been around till now, very much active. I have been amazed by the richness of musical content in ILayaraja’s compositions. He simply doesn’t allow anything that has not originated in his mind inside his song. Not even something as trivial as an additional kick / bass note. But he has around 4500 songs in Tamil, while ARR has around 1000. And IR has produced some of the richest songs imaginable by an Indian, orchestration and arrangement-wise. And if there is an inter college cultural competition or something, almost every band plays IR’s songs. His songs in Mumbai Express (Kamal Hassan movie 2005) are one of the richest in the history of Indian cinema. IR has also done some incredible fusion of Carnatic, Hindustani and Western Classical in his How to Name it, Nothing but Wind and the recent Thiruvaasagam in Symphony. They are simply unbelievable.
ARR however is a genius of a different sort. And u put it perfectly. he is a music producer and not exactly a composer. If a fellow musician (flautist/singer/guitarist) offers him a good phrase, he’ll keep it and doesn’t care if it is from his own intellect or not. A comparioson between ARR and IR will be like comparing a doubles tennis player with a singles player so I’m not going to do that. They have different principles and different ideologies. But I must say, though ARR has won the Oscar and I’m one of the proudest abt that fact, my heart goes for IR who is “the perfect composer” according to me and the avenues and rewards available on the planet for his kind of composers. But one thing is for certain. Composers keep getting closer and closer to the “just sufficient to be a hit” mark, these days and it is only a matter of time before music as a work of quality art disappears from mainstream Indian cinema. They are getting more commercial than content based. People’s satisfaction threshold with respect to quality is being approached at a rather dangerous rate. The solutions possible at this point to save Indian music are few. Someone like ARR or IR who raised the average musical intellect of the audience and their attitude towards music, creating a revolution again is our best chance.
Finally to round it off… What is the average intelligence of the IR era audience? They are in their 40’s now, including ARR himself who I can say developed bcos of Raja. And these musicians of today, know those added chords and arrangements thanks to ILayaraja. Wht bt the intellect during ARR era? The sheer failure of the Mumbai Express album and the close to nothing recognition for IR’s Thiruvasagam epic, gives us a fair idea.
It has amazed me that there are so many knowledgeable people about music and all have poured their heart to sing songs in praise of Rehman. I am going to be pelted by lot of words when I will say that Rehman music is not that great. He does good sound effects but melody is missing. He is good if you are looking for magic but we are looking for pure melody.
Rehman will make an average good song because he is a trained musician so he will follow the rules of the game and the chord progressions that will make it acceptable but to make it a truly memorable song where the true meaning of the lyrics comes out will not be easy for him to achieve and that is what I have been seeing. I have my opinion and that is what I would like to say.
A well written post, I liked it!
Thanks,
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wow!! you made my day!!! what a great post !!! and yes even I had doubt when you said about the Bhagat Sing's sound track… and appreciate the explanation you have given…. it makes real sense when you compared with 'bharat hamko jaan se pyara hai'
thanks for your great insight on great artist like RAHAMAN…
Wwow! An Article with minute detailed analysis. I liked it a lot & yes, while reading I found that most of the points are matching with my thoughts about ARR. 🙂
Such writeups give me pleasure of enjoying Mehfil. Thanks for it.
Very insightful and objective post!! I think when you say Rahman lacks something as a composer it might have to do with the Ragas and the many ways they can be explored – both Hindustani and Carnatic. This is the criteria by which you may measure say, from Shanker-Jaikishen to Ilayaraja etc.
But what about a composer in Hollywood, they only follow chords and their measuring scale of good music – even classical – is different. How do you say who is a good composer there, what is the criteria to measure that there – and how does Rahman, an Oscar winner now, compare?
As a musician, do you have any thoughts to share on that?