Listening to People Like Us

I wanted to watch the film “People like us” to know how well A.R.Rahman’s soothing and sublime score – which I have been listening to and cherishing only as standalone music - has been used in the film. I finally watched the film last week. I liked it.

“People like us” is a very unique soundtrack coming from A.R.Rahman. He diligently maintains a consistent tone and mood throughout the film. Rahman risks monotony to stay true to the central emotions and the idea of the film. If you as a listener are patient and attentive, People like us will take you on a pleasant journey through emotions.

The underlying calm and quiet in the soundtrack isn’t something we get to hear much in Rahman’s works in India. A.R.Rahman doesn’t get to be a part of such sweet little family films in India. In People like us, Rahman doesn’t have to be eclectic, experimental, and he doesn’t. The music beautifully blends with the film. The music feels like it isn’t there at all, but is there and is doing its job with utmost precision, clarity and diligence. The score is honest to the film, never moving even slightly away from the central idea and emotions of the scene or mood in focus.

Rahman’s is a typical Hollywood film score with distinct leitmotifs that could be instantly identified and mapped to the different principal characters in the film. There are many recurrences and delectable variations of the main themes cued at apt moments throughout the film. The score is built around three main themes – Be People theme, Family theme, Dad’s theme and Mom’s theme.

Most of the music is buried under the conversations. The music soars only occasionally, when it does, it blends so perfectly with the drama in the moment that it never feels overt. The extensive use of already existing songs for some key montages in the film might initially make it sound like there is very little score in the film, but every single cue on the soundtrack CD has been used in the film.

And surprisingly, there are few more original score cues in the film which weren’t included in the Soundtrack CD probably for its shorter length, which the insiders call Needle drops. There are pieces of music that serve as a comma or period at the end of a scene. One of them is a beautiful vintage Rahman Piano theme (Cue 11 below) which Rahman could have developed a little further and included in the CD.

Other cues (needle drops)

Cue 1

Cue 2

Cue 3

Cue 4

Cue 5

Cue 6

Cue 7

Cue 8

Cue 9

Cue 10

Cue 11

Cue 12

The main theme of the film is heard in its entirety when Sam (Chris Pine) and Frankie (Elizabeth Banks) have a free-wheeling conversation about their lives in Tacos. Rahman hints just the core of the theme in few instances (Listen to Cue 6 & 8) where Sam and Frankie accidentally bump into each other. I liked how Rahman brings in Dad’s theme whenever the focus of the conversation is on how loveless and indifferent their Father was. The sound of the piece brings with it a sense of an eerie nostalgia, one that you don’t want to go back to and yet can’t help doing it.

Most of the moments in the beginning of the film require the score to pop up for not more than few seconds just at the right point of inflection in drama. And the longer musical sections are mostly buried under conversations and ambient sounds. Only when the movie reaches past its midpoint the score gets more space and plays for longer lengths.

The precision with which Rahman’s score underlines the mood changeover in that conversation between Sam and his mother Lillian (Michelle Pfeiffer) where they finally resolve all their differences and reconcile is brilliant. While you already know that Sam and his mother are going to hug in a while, it happens gradually through the conversation, and every little emotional ascend to that final hug is beautifully underlined by a solo guitar that plays phrases with measured pauses in between and the whatever emotionally their minds go through while they reconcile is traced by the acute musical shift in the piece. And when they hug, everything joins in to gently burst into a soft and soothing musical crescendo.

The cue Family pictures that plays magically over the final revelation scene is a brilliantly done scrambled version of the track Tacos in which the main theme is first heard in its entirety. The signature guitar chords, the guitar prelude, the main thematic melody, and the guitar phrases that keeps the mood afloat when the piece moves ahead of the main theme and the haunting cello sub-theme from Tacos are all there in Family Pictures, but the order of the melodic phrases are totally different here, and phrases that appear as part of lead melody in Tacos become supporting phrases for the main melody in Family pictures. This way of scrambling or jumbling elements in a piece is something I haven’t heard much. You never know what comes next, though on surface it feels like both Tacos and Family Pictures are almost same because of the waltz rhythm. The aching Cello sub-theme from Tacos is finally played on a soothing flute solo in the climax implying precisely how all their pain have been soothed by the final revelation.

Unlike Couples Retreat, soundtrack of which was just a worthy addition to Rahman’s discography, “People like us” is a worthy addition to Rahman’s filmography. This is a very important film for A.R.Rahman. The music for a film, however ingenious it may be as a standalone piece of work, is most often times only as memorable as the film.

People Like Us Soundtrack Review

A.R.Rahman’s non-Indian film scores, almost always had its share of Indian elements. Indian Tarana blends with Spanish flamenco for the introduction scene of a Spanish Yoga guru – Salvadore, and Americans undress to the rhythms of a Ghatam in Couples Retreat. It is Darbari on Continuum Fingerboard or Harshdeep Kaur’s haunting hymns in times of despair for Aron Ralston. A solo Saarangi playing the theme set on an unmistakable Indian scale fills the entire soundtrack, be it for Her Majesty from Great Britain (Elizabeth: The Golden Age) or for the reunion of three estranged sisters from Austria (Passage). When, I first saw the Credits of People Like Us soundtrack, I was surprised that there are no Indian instruments or Voices used, probably for the first time in an A.R.Rahman soundtrack. People Like Us is an all American family drama. However, the instrument used doesn’t matter as much as the melody to set the score in a specific milieu. The major thematic melodies in People Like Us score do not have the Indian inflections and that make the score sound not necessarily American, but it is anything but Indian.

A.R.Rahman is extremely good at writing pieces combining Synth and acoustic instruments, which, thankfully, is what People Like Us soundtrack is full of. People Like Us is more melodic than atmospheric. A.R.Rahman wisely allows the Synth and atmospheric soundscapes to dominate a piece, only when gloom is the mood that he is after in the piece (Dad’s Shaving Kit, Dad’s Dead). The Synth in other pieces is there to make even most emotional of thematic melodies less mushy. With a subtle synth always thudding, tugging, lingering and looping along underneath, the solo acoustic instruments parade one after the other to make the main thematic melodic statements, and minimal yet abundantly adequate strings section provide a tender supporting cushion to ease the burden of the main melody to evoke intended emotions. There is a delectable innateness in the melody, intimacy in the way solo instrumentals are layered and the breeziness in the orchestration throughout the score. With the score emerging from the softest of the registers of every solo instrument - Piano, Harp, Harmonica, Clarinet, Flute, Horn, Acoustic Guitar, Cello – used, the score as a whole is exquisitely soothing to listen to.

People Like Us is also thematically rich, with the themes and their variations adequately recurring throughout the soundtrack, in an attempt to narrate the complete story and hint at the key moments, even without the aid of the visuals. A strong melody is introduced right in the beginning in the People Like Us track, strong enough to make us believe it to be the main theme of the film. The theme from People Like Us track appears immediately in the next cue Newyork to L.A where every note of the melody is hesitantly hit on Piano with longer gaps in between the notes to suggest the mind of Sam, who at this moment wants to avoid attending his Dad’s funeral. Just a few bars of the main Frankie theme (Sam’s Sister) are hinted toward the end of this piece, hinting at the surprise that awaits Sam.

Frankie’s theme recur most number of times throughout the score, undergoes a number of delectable orchestral variations and is even expanded as a song “Dotted Line” (Co-Written by Liz Phair). Frankie’s Theme is heard in all its glory in Tacos. The themes and so many instrumental layers from the various cues crisscross each other in varied forms throughout the score. A melodic-synth layer from Dad’s Studio sneaks into Discount Prom Dress, the People Like Us cue makes a soul stirring reprise in “Breakfast for Mom/Just be People” hinting a sense of closure attained in the narrative. “I’m your brother” is a delightful conversation between a subdued Horn (Sam reveals that he is Frankie’s brother) and a Cello (that plays Frankie’s theme). However, even if you aren’t much into such motif-spotting exercise, the immensity of emotions the pieces invokes is reason enough for someone to immerse himself into this score.

My only little grouse about this entire soundtrack is the song “Dotted Line”. A.R.Rahman attempts a mainstream American film song and it sounds like a typical mainstream American film song, with a very faint stamp of A.R.Rahman in the Orchestration and that is so atypical of A.R.Rahman. There definitely seems to be some problem in knitting English words with an already composed Rahman melody. It has always been much better when Rahman sets already written English verses to a melody (Journey Home from Bombay Dreams). But, that is from someone who has been closely following A.R.Rahman’s music for past two decades. The other song Airport Adventures (featuring Michael “Nomad” Ripoll) laced with many layers of assorted Guitars and drums that scream the American sound, injects the much needed energy in an otherwise totally mellifluous album.

There are cues that don’t rely on any of the main motifs, and that liberty of not having to use one of the motifs A.R.Rahman uses to his advantage to make the soundtrack much more exotic and eclectic.

Sam follows Frankie (Following Frankie) with cascading layers of Celtic tinged Violins racing over an unstable synth rhythm that suggest a sense of urgency and uncertainty. “Welcome to People” set in a relaxed Waltz rhythm is relentlessly mellifluous, melodious and the arrangement is simply sublime. Beat the Living starts off like a solo guitar piece but makes a surprise turn midway and becomes a cool whistle-along whistle melody with a swing rhythm.

A rhythmic beating and breaking of a shell of a cooked crab leads us to the most exhilarating piece of the soundtrack – Crab Drumming / Finding Sam. A guitar strums into way into the next section of the piece in a rhythm set by the drumming of the crab. What follows is the unmistakable signature A.R.Rahman sound in the blissful Piano piece that runs around a heavenly surge of strings and this piece precisely is what Alex Kurtzman could be referring to as “a sound unlike anything else” in his notes. The way the piece builds up to a crescendo and cuts itself at the peak, leaves you yearning for more. It is one of the most refreshing and rejuvenating pieces of music I have heard in a while, and ever since I heard the thirty seconds sample of the piece on Amazon, it has been the piece of the music that alarms and wakes me up in the morning every day. I couldn’t ask for a better start to my day.

A.R.Rahman sticks to simple melodies, ornaments the melodies with ethereal instrumental layers and maintains a thematic integrity. A coherent sonic texture and orchestral color is maintained throughout. I already like the score immensely and it can only get better with the film. People Like Us is another worthy addition to an eclectic repertoire of A.R.Rahman’s Hollywood scores.