A.R.Rahman Nominated for Oscars

A.R.Rahman nominated for Academy Awards in 'Original Score' and 'Original Song' categories for his score and the song 'If I Rise' in 127 Hours.

127 Hours Score Review

A solo woodwind rises to announce the entry of a sole soul into the endless beauty of the vast and bare Grand Canyon. The soul is awestruck by the sight. Music plays for the sense of awe whereas the breath taking pauses in between play for the soul that is being struck by it. The melody passes on to a string section for the eyes that open wider, the widest it has ever opened in its life, in an attempt to capture all of the beauty at once. It can not. The eyes realise. The woodwind takes the lead again and together with the accompanying strings, the melody of “If I Rise” rises. A subtle, deep bass beat is hit to hint the reality that is starting to sink in. The strings proceed further for the soul that is wandering to find a serene spot to sit and stare. He finds a place to sit and stare, and the orchestra now comfortably plays the melody with which it started the piece. The loop becomes recursive. The piece with its music and no music can be listened to for a whole day in a loop. Thus, begins the experience of listening to A.R.Rahman’s soundtrack for Danny Boyle’s “127 Hours”.

The main motif of the film begins in “Liberation begins”. The nature that revealed its utmost beauty just a while ago reveals its dark side now by tying his arms down between a rock and a rock. Fate and nature are friends. The arrested body, with the power of its soul has to fight both fate and nature to liberate itself. The melody played on the acoustic guitar is constantly trying to move away and part itself from the bass line that plays the role of nature here. The bass keeps pulling the melody of the acoustic guitar down to play in sync with it. The bass line is too powerful, so much so that all the efforts of acoustic guitar go in vain.

In the “Liberation in a Dream” and final “Liberation”, the battle with fate and nature intensify. The levels of desperation, the force within and the determination to win are far higher this time. He has to liberate himself. The madly rushing strings, roughening electric guitar riffs, roiling percussions add to the theme of liberation which cut itself short after briefly announcing its existence in the track “Liberation begins”. The excruciating pain that he much go through is underlined by the harsh guitar layers. The sympathy that one must have as an audience for him is underlined by layers of soft strings. Each instrument layer is growing in its intensity, force and energy. The synergy of the varied music layers adds to the music as a whole. The piece is exponentially growing dense and tight in every next bar. This Is How You Build Up To A Crescendo. And Ah! When the moment arrives, when he liberates himself, at the peak of the Crescendo, I felt a divine current running from head to toe in my body.

After a deadly cold night, when first rays of sun touch his body, he, for the first time, realises the warmth of his father’s embrace. He becomes nostalgic. The all-guitar melody in “Touch of the Sun” has ample amount of silences thrown in between each of its phrases. When there are so many pauses, it is not easy to determine, where the full stop or a comma is. If Cinema is a sentence in a language, its conjunctions are split between the visuals and the music. A visual may take a “but” of the sentence and leave a “because” for the music to fill in and deliver its complete meaning, which is why it is totally idiotic to try to absorb completely, understand and appreciate a piece of background score before watching the visuals. In “Touch of the Sun”, the music and visuals seem to have exchanged such conjunctions in quick succession. However, it does leave a listener with one emotion, which is the warmth of pure love.

The short phrases of Guitar melody, rises an octave higher, to indicate the shift the camera makes from the tight close-up shots of him and his father to the wider shot of both sitting together on the edge of a rock and staring at the setting Sun. A deep pause follows. The memories of moments he spent with his family are rushing back to him. He is engulfed by Nostlagia. Now that, he is with his family in his memories, the lone Guitar melody reprises with rich musical accompaniments until the eeriness of the e-sounds and the harshness of the place he is stuck in, cuts through his memories.

It is extremely tough to tie A.R.Rahman down to one instrument for entire soundtrack of a film. Guitar works wonderfully for the intimacy that the film maker wants to build between the audience and the lone victim. However, Rahman breaks free, liberates himself and composes a piece titled “Acid Darbari” in a genre that I prefer to call “Rahmanica”. Wonder what it is? Rahmanica is Rahman’s unique way of blending acoustics and electronica. No one does it like him.

Acid Darbari is a psychotherapeutic track. It is transcendental. It is in times of utmost adversity one feels closer to oneself and realises the endless limits of their spirit. I guess this track plays in one such moment of realization in the film. The very sound of the Fingerboard Continuum and the bass that gravitates the whole piece, set a serene, soothing aura. The bells, an aching cello, a distant alaap, an Oboe and strings sneak in and out of the song, without ever intruding the main meditative mood of the track. “Acid Darbari” is bliss at its blissful best.

Harshdeep Kaur’s sympathetic humming begins R.I.P on a gloomy note. There is a sense of despair in the aura. He has tried everything that he could. There is no hope. He is convinced that he is going to die a painful death. No. Wait. Ethnic percussions join in with the alaap to indicate a germ of a thought. He senses a way out. He contemplates the thought. The percussion aggravates with a rhythm. A thought soon becomes a decision. A deep pause with eerie electronic sounds, and then it begins. The lower registers of strings are dramatically bowed in a rush. It is bowed to create a hard, harsh and sharp sound of a thick saw cutting him from his fate. It leads to puke inducing turn in the stomach when we listen to the ultimatum he puts himself through for liberation.

The moment the bass line kicks in and begins to loop, we are hooked to “If I Rise”. The words might boast of optimism, but to me, the song as a whole puts a listener through a passage of nothingness. The song fills the soul with a divine calm. With A.R.Rahman and Dido crooning the lines on the softest of their vocal registers, the eclectic sound scape created by the omnipresent bass loop, the soft thudding beats, the confluence of worldly sounds and instruments in the third act of the song, the track as a whole takes us on a spiritual ride into an ethereal sound scape.

Some of the cues from the film’s background score are missing in the compilation. Energetic rock guitars play when he challenges himself to bike fast and reach a place, which usually takes 4.5 hours to reach, in 45 minutes. This piece is not there. The drums begin with singular strokes and gain a rhythm gradually, when after getting stuck he is shown to be picking out things from his bag, and placing it on the rock. Also, the Liberation theme, when it plays in the rain scene, has a slightly different layering of Strings.

“127 Hours” score is a stunning follow up to Slumdog Millionaire.

Needle Drops

Is Ilaiyaraaja doing the background score for Anubhav Sinha’s “Ra.One”? He definitely is doing one song in the film about which Sukhwinder Singh has given an interview. I don’t think Ilaiyaraaja would agree to do only one song in a film and so there is a good chance of the news about him writing the score, being true. I heard that it is a science fiction film. If Ilaiyaraaja is doing, it is going to be Budapest Symphony Orchestra again and as it is a big budget Shahrukh Khan Film, there is a very good chance of background score getting released in the soundtrack CD. Let us wait and watch.

It is confirmed. A.R.Rahman is doing the background score for Danny Boyle’s next “127 Hours”. Matt Dunkley - the Orchestrator, has posted a message in his webpage that he is orchestrating and conducting A.R.Rahman’s score for 127 Hours in London.

August 2010 - orchestrating and conducting A.R.Rahman's beautiful score to Danny Boyle's new movie "127 Hours", which will close the London Film Festival.

Matt’s response in Facebook about the score -

"It's beautiful as always - with electric guitars mixed in with orchestral strings and samples. No songs as far as I know - it's more subtle under-score fitting the subject matter of the movie, which deals with one man's triumph over adversity and the power of the human spirit"

Now, the trailer is out with A.R.Rahman's name in the credits



I saw “Naan Mahaan Alla” on a cam-rip and therefore cannot comment on Yuvan’s background score as a whole. Even in that dirty, small sized cam-rip I saw, the film is thoroughly engaging. I ripped two themes that I could hum on the very first viewing of the film. Here they are

Naan Mahaan Alla – Villan Theme and Title Music

Naan Mahaan Alla – Love Theme

A.R.Rahman at BAFTA

For the first time, they didn't play 'Jai Ho', when A.R.Rahman walked up to recieve the award.

Why A.R.Rahman deserves it for SdM Score?

I am really surprised by level of ignorance about movie background score as most of the media reports mentioned that A.R.Rahman won the golden globe for ‘Jai Ho’ song. The irony is that it is exactly not for what Rahman got the golden globe; in fact the song wasn’t even nominated in the best original song category (ofcourse to compensate two songs have been nominated for Oscar).

On the other side, though unanimously everyone is happy about an Indian winning a golden globe and especially Rahman winning it, most weren’t sure about whether Rahman deserves it for Slumdog Millionaire score. And I am sure they will be unsure even if he wins the Oscar. And all those who claim so, either haven’t seen the movie or have seen it on pirated DVD or internet. If you aren’t someone who is interested in the finer aspects of background score, it is hard to get its real impact while watching on such illegal means where the experience isn’t a complete one. These finer aspects of a movie like the background score can be best experienced, understood and appreciated only while watching the movie, the way it is meant to be where all your attention is just on the movie, its characters and their emotions.

As I already have mentioned, there is no bigger sin than reviewing the music on an Original Soundtrack CD before even watching the movie. The purpose of the music in that CD is not to entertain while you shit at home with an iPod on your ears but to engage, involve and suck you into its narrative when you are watching a movie. In that process, if the music finds a life of its own, it is just a bonus. This is not to mean that the Slumdog Millionaire score doesn’t work without the visuals but I try to emphasize that its emotional impact is much higher with the visuals.

And everyone easily arrive at a conclusion that as it all sounded so fresh and unique for a western crowd, it appealed to them more compared to other clichéd (by their standards) orchestral scores and so it won. Of course there is some truth in it, but nobody realizes that how it all would have easily gone wrong. (Satyajit Ray’s golden words come to my mind at this moment– “An easy way to ruin a perfectly good film is to apply an unsuitable music to it”). A.R.Rahman and Danny Boyle are taking a big risk by using such a loud score in a movie which is primarily made for a western audience and both would be quite aware of the fact that western crowd don’t like such loud score. But they cleverly pulled it off by filling the soundtrack not with loud orchestral outbursts (and there are quite a lot of such moments in the movie which would easily tipoff any ordinary creator to go for such a score) but with loudness of Indian classical exotica and eclectic electronica. And their big risk has paid off and how.

After watching the movie, I realized that it couldn’t get any better than what Rahman did and no one could have done it in the way Rahman has done it. Even if it was done by someone else, it would have gone as a purely functional background score which doesn’t harm the movie and which doesn’t add anything special by itself to the movie. But Rahman’s score bombards the audience with its high energy, unique sound and its symphony with the visuals is just so perfect.

This is an attempt to make people understand that we all can be proud about A.R.Rahman’s victory not just because he is an Indian, but also because his work in ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ is truly worthy of it.

If you haven’t seen the movie yet - spoilers ahead.

Those who complain that ‘O Saya’ was too loud for a routine chase scene, have either seen just that one scene in the trailer of the movie on the net or completely missed the real essence of the scene. The complete chase sequence between the kids and the police is an excuse to showcase the colour, energy, the spirit and the vibrancy in those narrow by lanes of slums in Bombay. In true Indian film tradition, it is a hero introduction song of the movie, and the hero here being Bombay and the music more than serves its purpose with thumping train rhythms and rocking guitars.

The ‘Riots Theme’ which we hear in the soundtrack CD doesn’t have one main layer of a tension filled oscillating melody (played on harp, harpsichord, piano or plain keyboard, I can’t say) that is used in the movie. Rahman also hits some deep piano chords in between to heighten the tension further. For almost same kind of scene, 13 years back Rahman scored similar percussive score for riots scene in Maniratnam’s Bombay but this one is edgier and suits the pace of the sequence well. It is not that Rahman just composed some piece with layers of rhythms and e-sounds and just played it on the background in the scene, if you carefully listen, as the main rhythmic layer proceeds with Jamal and Salim running around the streets, Rahman introduces one more rhythm layer and makes it louder as people running behind almost catch Salim and Jamal and as Jamal shouts ‘Baagh’. And when the whole episode cuts to the present, showing Jamal answering the question about Rama, the rhythm just plays again in the background implying that the whole riots episode was playing out in his mind as he was taking his time to answer the question.

The starting guitar bit of ‘Mausam& Escape’ appears when Jamal meets Lathika for the first time after the riots and it is the same piece which appears again when Jamal finally finds Lathika arriving at VT station. There is a pleasant aura that this piece creates which perfectly suits their warm meeting on a rainy night in the earlier scene and a sweet surprise and a dream like brief meeting that happens in the later. And that’s the Mausam part of it.

And the Escape theme is used many times in the movie as there are lots of chases and escape scenes. It appears first when Jamal, Salim and Lathika escape from Maman’s camp and is also used later in the scene when Salim chases Lathika in VT station. The piece was put to great use in the former scene because as Salim, Jamal and Lathika escape from Maman’s camp and try to get into a running train, the sitar plucking and the beats get more and more energetic as the three approach the train, and finally when we expect Lathika to get into the train, all that energy in the music suddenly stops and deeply moving vocals of Suzanne takes over singing the Lathika’s theme. With the scene set in complete darkness, it is the sudden appearance of Lathika’s theme that tells us the amount of disappointment of Lathika and Jamal than anything else in the scene. Later when Maman finds Jamal and Salim in Pila Street, as they are now trying to get Lathika out of there, the escape theme again comes in handy to establish the connection between this scene and the first great escape scene. It is used so subtly along with a sustained bass loop to underline the tension in the moment. And finally it is again used when Jamal searches for Salim K.Malik’s phone number in the call center, and ofcourse by doing so he is virtually chasing Salim to find the real whereabouts of Lathika.

Lathika’s Theme is the main theme of the movie as Lathika is the pivot around which Jamal’s life swivels. This theme has the ability to express a wide variety of emotions in the pinch of sadness that it evokes. The Lathika theme appears first when Lathika gets separated from Jamal and then it is used in its entirety when Jamal comes back to Mumbai in search of Lathika. The whole montage of Jamal searching for Lathika in the streets of Mumbai is emotionally uplifted by the theme. A very slow and mellow version of the theme with just the vocals of Suzanne fills the atmosphere as Jamal gets to meet and hug Lathika finally in Javed’s house. The theme is at its haunting best in the climax when Jamal and Lathika meet in the VT station, and it plays out as a theme for Jamal’s entire life as the scene intercuts to shots from their troublesome past.

‘Ringa Ringa’ aptly fits in when Jamal walks into the Pila Street in search of Lathika. ‘Gangsta blues’ lasts just for a few seconds when Salim goes to meet Maman’s opponent Javed in their area. It is very difficult to understand the thought process behind the track ‘Liquid Dance’ which is used for the scene in which Jamal secretly follows Salim to find where Lathika is. But surprisingly, it doesn’t sound odd or out of place with the visuals. And the techno ‘Millionaire’ theme is used in the scene where the whole India is shown to be preparing to watch Jamal face his final 20 Million rupees question in the show.

When I saw ‘Jai Ho’ for the first time, I thought it was so badly choreographed, but later I came to know that the song was composed for already shot visuals and they had used a completely different song for shooting. Though it shows quite badly, nobody seems to be caring, the thumping rhythm and energy of the song just blows you off and especially as it comes after the triumphant climax.

Finally, it is so difficult to technically analyze and objectively comes to a conclusion about which is the best background score when you have five equally deserving works in the list of nominees. For that, one has to ask other four composers to score background music for ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ and see if they are able to outdo A.R.Rahman. What is important is the fact that Rahman’s score fits and it fits to an extent that people tend to believe and accept that it can’t get any better.

Here is wishing Rahman to bring 2 Oscars home.

Listening Slumdog Millionaire

On other Scores of A.R.Rahman

Lagaan
Iruvar
Guru
Jodhaa Akbar
Elizabeth: The Golden Age
Scoring Moments of A.R.Rahman
Celebrating A.R.Rahman

Golden Globes - Rahman

Rahman gets a Golden Globe nomination for Slumdog Millionaire Score and misseds out in the Original Song category.



And here is a nice interview of A.R.Rahman about SdM score

Rahman's First for SdM Score

A.R.Rahman wins in ‘Best Musical Score’ category in L.A Critic’s Award - his first award for ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ score. It is not for the ‘Jai Ho’ song but for the complete background score. It won over Alexandre Desplat’s score for ‘The Curious Case of Benjamin Button’.

For best musical score, the group voted for A.R. Rahman, a go-to composer for Bollywood films making his debut on a Western film in "Slumdog Millionaire," besting Alexandre Desplat for "Benjamin Button."

Also, Rahman gets nominations in the Original Song and Background Score categories in 14th Annual Critic’s Choice Award.

Slumdog Millionaire Score

A.R.Rahman has always been fascinated by the rhythm sound of a train and there are not many who have used it in songs as interestingly as him. The fascination was very evident in the background score of Bombay much before the ‘Chaiyya Chaiyya’ thunder hit the world of music. In the movie Bombay, in the scene when Manisha after hearing the news of Arvind Swamy leaving to Bombay, runs towards a train moving on a distant bridge, we don’t hear the natural train sound, instead Rahman fills the soundtrack with a thundering rhythm that imitates that of the train as if the deafening sound of the train - carrying her beloved soul away, is tearing apart the music in Manisha’s life.



And now Rahman takes one step further and creates the thunder once again with a thumping train rhythm in the opening song ‘O Saya’ of the ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ soundtrack, tearing apart the barriers and making the real cross over in his own inimitable way. The song gives me the ‘Thiruda Thiruda’ days of exhilaration. It sounds as fresh as the songs of ‘Thiruda Thiruda’ sounded, when it released and from what I read and understand even people from the other part of the world feel the same about this song. The beauty of the song is not just in its rhythm, as the Rahman’s alaap is one of the catchiest hooks I have heard in recent times. While the rhythm is all Rahman sound, the vocal melody is all Rahman music and together it spins a captive aural web on the listeners. M.I.A’s vocal portions and the cute and playful kids’ choral portions are nicely sandwiched in between. Also, the music beautifully matches with the rapid cuts and energy of the visuals where kids are shown running in the narrow streets of Bombay slums.

‘Riots’ with its sustained bass implying the prevailing tension and the turbulent rhythms adding upon a disturbing aura and with a very petrifying layer of e-sounds, brings out the intended effect quite well.

‘Mausam & Escape’ is the first piece I heard with the visuals from this movie (thanks to Youtube) and the one which I instantly liked. The initial pleasant strain of guitar beautifully underscores the sweet surprise of Lathika and Jamal as they meet each other in the railway station and before they could come closer and before guitar could take a complete thematic form, it is abruptly broken by the gang abducting Lathika, as does the freaking Sita(r)ock and running violins that abruptly ends the guitar piece and aptly captures the chaos, the struggle and the high energy chase in the visuals. After reaching its maximum energy and sound with thick layers of chorus, strings and beats, it turns mellow at the end and the tempo slowly fades and sitar theme gasps and whispers like how a person running and chasing someone would stop and gasp before he stabilizes.

Rahman gives a new meaning to the term Inspiration with the track ‘Ringa Ringa’, a beautiful rework of notorious and catchy Lakshmikant-Pyarelal’s ‘Choli ke peeche’ song. The ‘Ringa Ringa’ line in such an additive phrase of melody that I kept singing it, long after listening to the song. Even cookcookcook hook gets a twist as chikchiku. Rahman thickens the rhythm section with lot more loops of beats along with conventional Dhols and Dholaks, keeps the eroticism of the original intact by making Ila Arun and Alka Yagnik to land the ending notes of each line sensuously and infact injects more feel with additional hmms, hoons and haas of Ila Arun. He also adds a lot of beautiful sub layers like occasionally joining flute pieces and expressive humming of backing female harmony.

‘Liquid Dance’ is a cocktail solution prepared with a spoon of Sriram’s alaaps in ‘Love Check’ song from Rahman’s Tamil soundtrack ‘Parthalae Paravasam’ and a spoon of string section of the ‘Spirit of Rangeela’ from Rangeela. But it indeed is a sweet cocktail that alternates between catchy Arabic strings section and classical Indian alaaps that just nicely touches and parts with each other at various moments. Madhumitha’s voice is a surprise; Rahman indeed knows when and how to use the singers. Can’t imagine what could be the situation in the movie that this piece is scored for.

While I was getting a bit worried about lack of simplicity in Rahman’s melodies off late, here comes a bonanza in the form of ‘Lathika’s Theme’ that sounds so simple and yet a beautiful, deeply moving piece of music which also gains longevity with Suzanne’s vocals. The leisurely sitar strains playing the main theme towards the end adds a serene and divine touch to this emotional romantic melody. The ‘Dreams on Fire’ is the vocal version of the Lathika’s theme exquisitely sung by Suzanne again. With a constantly running bass, guitar strains, shakers and effective yet muted beats that thud deep under, this vocal version of Lathika’s theme is such a gripping love ballad and is one of the best English songs Rahman has written so far next only to ‘The Journey Home’ from Bombay Dreams. And the ending Flute version of the main theme is absolute bliss to listen to.

It is difficult to decipher the all-techno ‘Millionaire’ track. I don’t know if it sounds like the theme of the KBC show because the piece continuously transforms into different shapes as layers pile up one over the other and main motif keeps changing. It suggest a build up and it seems to be trying to tell a story especially the distant sounding somber cry in Madhumitha’s alaap implies something dramatic. This piece is strictly a background score material which relies heavily on the visuals to gain its completeness.

The strictly hip-hop ‘Gangsta Blues’ is a slow poison in which Blaaze and Tanvi Singh has put up a neat performance with right attitude and punch. It was tedious to listen to it initially because of its monotonous beats, slow pace and not so instantly identifiable structure of the song. But there are hooks in this one too and once you figure them out, you won’t skip this track next time.

If ‘Jai Ho’ was there in one of our Hindi film soundtracks, we would have definitely and easily rejected it out as another mediocre effort of Rahman. The song isn’t great but it isn’t bad either. Rahman gets the energy and the emotions right in the song with a clever structure that doesn’t ponder too much on the weak vocal parts in middle and instead breaks into the catchy hooks and the punchy percussions every now and then. Being quite aware of the highly emotional triumph at the end of the movie, I can understand how the overall energy and the euphoric sound of the song take over the audience. It is okay if Rahman gets nominated for Oscar for this song and wins it. Though not his best, if he wins then the world will come to listen to his far better Indian classics.

M.I.A’s ‘Paper Planes’ is quite catchy and I liked the way gun shot sound is used in this track. And there is Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy’s ‘Aaj Ki Raat’ which is my favorite from Don Soundtrack.

Oscars and Other debates

I would like to insist on one thing which I have been doing quite often in this site that great background score is all about apt music and it need not always be a great music in its own (an obvious example being Psycho theme). For example, Rahman’s own ‘Warriors of Heaven and Earth’ score sounded great on audio but I was totally disappointed with the way it was used in the movie. So, there is no bigger sin than reviewing a movie soundtrack without even watching the movie.

I am not saying this to understate the goodness of the soundtrack as a stand alone audio. The soundtrack is very good, and it may even sound great once we understand how well it fits in with the visuals. The film director is the one who decides how the movie should sound, the type of music to be used, and sometimes even the instruments to be used (have seen videos in which George Lucas asks John Williams to sublime the brass and horn section of the orchestra from one of the cues while recording the score for Star Wars - directors get as specific as that in their requirements). So it is absolute stupidity to comment on a composer’s choice of genre of music for particular situation in the movie. Infact, the most people’s complaint about ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ is that it is in-the-face and so loud, but if those who complain have seen or read Danny Boyle’s and Rahman’s interview, it is very clear that Danny wanted the score to be loud and they deliberately mixed it in such a way that the music should hit the audience the moment they hear it with the visuals. And even I have complaints about Rahman being generic in his background scores which doesn’t capture minute shift in emotions in the visuals and it is obvious to feel so for someone to feel so who has been drenched with innumerable masterpieces of background scores by Illayaraja. But that is not what Danny wanted; he wanted each music cue to be a separate song in itself and that which captures the overall energy and the mood of the sequence. And Rahman seems to have fulfilled Danny’s requirements.

And coming to the Oscar nomination for Best Background score debate, it wouldn’t be a surprise if they nominate and if this score actually fetches an Oscar for Rahman. As I said, there are no set rules in background score, its only aim is to effectively convey the director’s vision and the emotions in the visuals and if possible elevate it at times with the music. In that sense, if what critics from all over the world said can be believed, Rahman’s score seems to have done the job to near perfection in Slumdog Millionaire. Yes, it doesn’t have a theme or thematic development or symphonic swells like most of the scores nominated in this category use to have. I am also a big fan of Thomas Newman’s score for Wall-E, and an incredibly thematic orchestral score by Alexandre Desplat for ‘The Curious Case of Benjamin Button’ seems to be another serious contender in this category.

But the eclectic sound that Rahman and Danny puts up with Slumdog Millionaire is a refreshing change for a western crowd, that breaks rules and conventions and that sets up narrative in fire with its energy. So we can’t completely ignore the chance of Rahman winning it and if he wins we have every reason to be open heartedly proud about it. Let us not ask those stupid ‘Why should we care about Oscars’ questions. Rahman has nothing to prove to India by winning an Oscar, his music has already done it enough but an Oscar in his hand will definitely help him to go to the next level in the international arena. Here’s wishing Rahman all the best and keeping the finger crossed.

Jai Ho - Rahman

Four High Quality Tracks from Slumdog Millionaire are here. Can’t wait to listen to the complete soundtrack…

I am happy that A.R.Rahman has impressed Western audience in his own way and not by doing symphonic orchestral pieces which is kind of becoming a cliché there, though I would want him to do more of that also.

Slumdog Millionaire

Thisis from the much talked about score of ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ composed by A.R.Rahman. A.R.Rahman with his background score and that song in the end credits seems to hit bull’s eyes with Danny Boyle’s Slumdog Millionaire.



It is being discussed in some forums that the score is too loud for the visuals. But we can’t speak about the score’s appropriateness without watching the whole movie. We can understand the approach of the composer and a director towards a movie’s background score and their intention for choose loud music pieces only after watching the whole movie.

From what I read, Danny Boyle seems to have asked for not so subtle score, I guess he asked for a very Bollywoodish score in a way that Hollywood can understand and relate to. Rahman has clearly chosen a middle path and gone for Sitarock in this scene, which even otherwise sounds pretty apt for the scene. The mild understated strains of Guitar for Jamal and Lathika finding each other is just right for the emotions both the characters go through after they see each other, they haven’t yet bought the joy or surprise of seeing each other. So there is no loud string section instantly taking off as their eyes meet and if it was done in that way, then that is what one can call as a loud background score. Before they could experience the complete joy and the surprise of spotting each other, few strangers storm from somewhere to abduct Lathika which is conveyed quite well by playing Sitar and loud strings with rocky percussions.