Friday, October 31, 2008

Yuvvraaj

A.R.Rahman is the yuvvraaj!

The first few times when I heard it, it seemed a bit unfamiliar and I could not get the melody flow. But once you get the flow of the song, it is simply mind blowing. It is rich, profound, grand and magnificent. This will go in as one of the master pieces of the little Maestro.

Each song can be discussed in great detail, but I'll limit myself for want of time.

1. Main hoon yuvvraaj: Beethoven's 5th symphony aptly used as an intro to the character as well as the album, to hint on what the listener is in for.

2. Tu hi mera Dosth: The intro with the cello, backing vocals and solo female operatic singing is sheer magic. Benny rocks. Shreya croons and Rahman aptly supports. Gives you a feeling of floating.
Note at 3:57 the introduction of an African drum kind of percussion for a brief while... WOW!

3. Tu Muskura: Alka and Javed score fully. Sargams are euphoric. Another song that lifts you up, makes you light. Note at 2:01, how the interlude switches from the Dosth to serve as a prelude to the tune in the Charanam. Another WOW!

4. Shano shano: I hated this song for the first few times, with its old style pop music feel. But after some time, now I am able to enjoy this. This will be the next Pappu can't dance... Straight to the disco floors. The "shano shano" is quite catchy. The singers omitting the last words of the line for the first time and then singing it the second time in the beginning of the song gave an interesting listening experience. The switching sounds between left and right will give an enhanced listening experience to those using headphones.

5. Shano Shano remix: Awesome for a remix. Do not skip since it's a remix. In fact, this is slower than the original, with a great hip hop theme around it.

6. Manmohini: Vijya Prakash will become a well known name after this song. Very catchy "thom thanana" backing up, great hindustani rendition and an ultra cool fusion song. When I saw "manmohini" in the song list, I was actually expecting a slow devotional number, but this surprised me pleasantly. Wouldn't have complained if the song was longer.

7. Zindagi: Srinivas, MY MAN!!!! What a soulful number and what a soulful rendition. After a long time, this song made me search for lyrics and memorize it for I can sing along. One of the best melodies in the recent time.

8. Mastam: What a fun number!!! It's very unconventional... We haven't heard a song like this before. Sonu justifies why he was chosen. With all the different animal noises, continuous claps, unconventional melody pattern, I am eagerly awaiting the picturization of this song...

9. Yeh Rishta: Should be the climax song. This has the standard ARR trademark for racy orchestration and full throated vocals. A very interesting song with sargams intertwined with a western classical tune that flows to Indian style too. Great singing by everyone. The beginning piano is simply awesome.

I don't have a great confidence in the movie's plot but I do believe that Mr.Ghai would do visual justice to this opulent composition. The preview pics are promising. However the movie be, it is going to be a musical treat as the music is interwoven with the whole story with all characters related to music in one way or the other.

One line summary: As this post begins, A.R.Rahman is the Yuvvraaj.

Thursday, October 30, 2008

Isai...

One of the everyday activities for me is to indulge in music... be it singing along, or just listening, or both or working alongside music... but music is an essential part of my everyday life... My interest in music grew primarily from Film music... Tamil film music to be particular... since advent of A.R.Rahman in Roja, to be even more particular... Ever since my interest in music has only grown and that little master never ceases to amaze me and continues to captivate me... It was after A.R.Rahman that I started to listen to the older compositions of Ilayaraja, another master with his own niche... The interest in Irish music and western classical violin stemmed out of exposure to these genres in the recent past, thanks to youtube...

Music isn't just entertainment... It takes me to various states depending on what I am listening to... Music does definitely have an impact on your inner nature, in my experience...

As is eating and sleeping, so is music, to me... This post stands in thankfulness to the above people for being a part of my life, everyday...

Half baked

Not of the intelligent lot
To just be focused on the one...
Not of the other lot
To wallow in the mundane...
This half-baked state...

Came the knock one fine day,
To go about strengthening
That rope on the path...
The one that will Hold
Till the very end,
To the other end...

Tuesday, October 28, 2008

:)

The get together went along very very well... All 14 turned up and we had a great time and of course great food. The menu that Naresh and I decided was thus:

Starter: Vegetable bread bonda (Gomathi/Vimal)
Panneer curry (Pallavi/Vijay)
Chapathi (Us)
Veg biryani (Gomathi/Vimal)
Bisibelabath (Us)
Kovakkai fry (Harini)
Curd rice (Us)
Gulab Jamun (Vidya)
Payasam (Harini)
Chocolate torte (Yamini)
Ice cream + Fruit custard (Sindhu/Ramanathan)
Miscellaneous snacks from shops

General chat followed by lunch followed by the gaja-buja game, some sam anderson and TR stunts made the entire day a laughter filled one...



Back row: Harini, Pallavi, Yamini, Gomathi, Vidya, Sindhu, Vimal and Naresh
Front row: Arun, Vijay, Ramanathan, myself, Raghu and Anto

Happy diwali!!!

Saturday, October 25, 2008

Diwali here...

This is what has been planned... Let's see how things go... A potluck get-together among my college mates (Anna univ 2k4 passouts)

:-D

அன்புள்ள பெரியோர்களே தாய்மார்களே...

வரும் தீபாவளித்திருநாளை முன்னிட்டு சியாட்டில் வருத்தப்படாத வாலிபர் சங்கம் தங்கள் இல்லத்திற்கு வரும் ஞாயிறு (26 ஆம் தேதி) மதியம் ஒரு மணிக்கு உங்களை வருக வருக என வரவேற்கிறது... இந்த முறை நாம் அனைவரும் "அதிர்ஷ்டப்பானை" (அதானப்பா பாட் லக்) முறையில் தீபாவளியை கொண்டாட உத்தேசித்துள்ளோம்... ஆகையால் தாங்களும் தங்கள் துணைவி/துணைவரும் எங்கள் வீட்டிற்கு வந்து சிறப்பிக்குமாறு கேட்டுக்கொள்கிறோம்.

சமீபத்தில் எங்கள் வருத்தப்படாத வாலிபர் சங்கத்தில் இருந்து முதியோர் சங்கத்தை சேர்ந்த திருமணமான மக்கள் தங்கள் திருமணப்புகைப்படங்களை எடுத்து வருமாறு கேட்டுக்கொள்ளப்படுகிறார்கள் மிரட்டப்படுகிறார்கள்.

அனைவரும் இந்திய பாரம்பரிய உடையில் வருவது அந்நாளை இன்னும் சிறப்பாக்கும் என்று எங்கள் சங்கம் நம்புகிறது...

கொசுறு: நாம் கொண்டாட இருக்கும் தினத்தில் தங்கத்தலைவி அசின் பிறந்தநாளும் இருப்பதால், சியாட்டில் அசின் ரசிகர் மன்றத்தின் தலைவர் மற்றும் ஒரே உரிப்பினருமான நரேஷ் நமக்கு சிறப்பு நிகழ்ச்சிகளை வழங்குவார். எங்கள் சங்கத்தின் மேற்கூறிய கோட்பாடுகளை மதிக்காதவர்களை அசின் மற்றும் தெலுங்கு சூப்பர் ஸ்டார் பாலய்யா நடித்த பயங்கர மொக்கையான ஒரு அட்டுப்படத்தை கட்டாயப்படுத்தி பார்க்க வைப்போம்.

தங்கள் வரவை எதிர்பார்க்கும்,
சியாட்டில் வருத்தப்படாத வாலிபர் சங்கம்.

Saturday, October 11, 2008

SA-RO-JA

Super entertainer!!!

I don't bother if the meat of the plot was from an English movie, still it is a pucca time pass movie.

Why you should watch it?
- The comedy intertwined through out the plot, including the climax fight
- PremG, his dialogues and expressions. Special mention is needed for the one who has written his dialogues: springing out a surprise every time he opens his mouth.
- The kind of humor we see in college... predominantly teasing in nature... esp teasing the recent movies/actors (Sivaji and Simbu)
- The unique flavor and slang in the dialogs, esp Shiva (Eg: when he sees saroja for the first time, he asks "yaaru saar indha ladieS"....)
- The entire team is fun and does a good job in the acting department... Special mention to Sampath (the kidnapper), who has what we call as gethu
- Nice songs. Goes well with the pace of the movie
- Kodaanu kodi song + Nikitha.... I liked her a lot in Kurumbu and she is sizzling in this raunchy foot tapping number. I liked the black and white effect with just the red color singled out.
- Climax.
- The scene where most of the chennai-28 crew does a cameo... Rockers Raghu once again rocked (Tason pakkathla veedu venaam tason pakkathla veedu venaamnaa kettadhaanae...)

Would like to see more movies from the crew!

Tuesday, October 07, 2008

Just as the thoughts were endlessly going on within... just when the topics of the recent past were surfacing... just when I wanted answers... the speaker in my PC plays....

காலம் இன்னும் கூடவில்லை
மாலை இன்னும் வாடவில்லை
நம்பிக்கை இழக்கவில்லை...