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Articles on ARR from YG.

Topic started by Are Yaar (@ 203.197.141.186) on Thu Oct 10 08:44:25 EDT 2002.
All times in EST +10:30 for IST.

For many days, I felt that I should have a thread to share some of the articles about ARR in desi and international press and website. I intend to start this thread and expect others also to post some articles about ARR here.

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• Old responses
  
• From: Are Yaar (@ 203.197.141.186) on: Tue Nov 12 04:39:36 EST 2002
  
  Radio Sargam reviews Saathiya
  
  MUSIC REVIEWS
  
  
  SAATHIYA
  
  Director: Shaad Ali
  Music: A. R. Rahman
  Lyrics: Gulzar
  Producer: Yash Raj Films, Mani Ratnam
  Starring: Rani Mukherjee and Vivek Oberoi
  
  1. Saathiya
  The title of the movie, remade from "Pachai Nirame". As with the original, this track is beautifully composed, especially with the flute solos at the music intervals, as well as the background strings. The tune is very flowing and very pleasant to listen to. As with most Rahman songs, orchestration is very effective and contributes to the intonation, giving the track a very "full sound". Sonu Nigam's singing is well-done, though he seems a bit less suited to the track than Hariharan. The lyrics are nice, though some phrases seem stretched out to fit the lines.
  Rating: 9.5/10
  
  2. Chalka Chalka Re
  A festive wedding number with a very distinct South Indian flavor, remade from "Yaaro Yarodi". The singing by Richa Sharma, Mahalaxmi, Vaishali, and Shoma is well-done and makes the track actually sound a bit more North Indian. The instrumentation is traditional and adds to the feeling of the track. The background music is simple and well-done. The tune is nice and even catchy at some times. The lyrics, however, are a bit indistinct and fall into the trap of every dubbed movie.
  Rating: 8/10
  
  3. Aye Udi Udi
  A more forceful, playful number, remade from "Kadhal Sudugudu". The track has a more jazzy feel to it, with stronger beats and less background music. The tune is quite catchy, especially during the main refrains. Adnan Sami's singing is a bit less effective. His voice isn't incredibly suited for such a song due to his flat vocals.
  Rating: 8/10
  
  4. Chupke Se
  Perhaps a universal favorite from the original Alai Payuthey, remade from "Snehidhane". A very beautiful track with two opposing melodies that combine perfectly to form a very memorable song. Sadhna Sargam's singing in her part is beautiful in the slow-moving and solemn phrases. The background music plays a big part in setting a mystical mood to the song. On the other hand, the intervals, sung by Murtaza and Qadr, are very forceful and deep and form a perfect contrast to the rest of the track.
  Rating: 10/10
  
  5. Oh Humdum
  A very westernized track, remade from "Endrendrum". Though the original track was quite good, it seems that this track has lost appeal with age. The music sounds straight out of the early '90s, and the singers sound as if they're trying to be Americans. However, those faults aside, it's still a catchy track with some effective phrases. The digital effects are well-done. The song will probably gain appeal with picturization.
  Rating: 7/10
  
  6. Mera Yaar Mila De
  A sad and heavy track which is new, taking the place of "Evano Oruvan". AR Rahman renders this very solemn track himself. His singing is well-done and heavy, which contributes to the depressing mood of the song. The music, as previously mentioned, is very heavy and solemn, especially with the use of the heavy beats. The tune is slow and stretched out to further encompass this feeling. The instrumentation is effective as is the background music.
  Rating: 8.5/10
  
  7. Naina Milake
  A traditional number which is new, taking the place of "Alai Payuthey". Sadhana Sargam and Madhushree make an effective duet as their voices blend together well. The music is a bit too simplistic when compared to the other tracks on this album, with the entire song resting mostly on a dholak. The tune is a bit simplistic, but pleasant to listen to. AR Rahman's style really isn't evident on this track.
  Rating: 7.5/10
  
  8. Mangalayam
  A slow and serious track, remade from "Mangalayam". The track is slow and solemn, but quite effective. In its very short duration, a great feeling is carried through. The background beats are effective in laying the foundation, and the tune is nice to listen to an impactful. It's really the singing that makes the track, with Srinivas taking the main seat. Shaan and Kunaal are impressive, especially in their re-rendition of "Oh Humdum". Kaykay goes almost completely unnoticed.
  Rating: 9/10
  
  9. Chori Pe Chori
  An item number, remade from "September Madham" (along with a bit of modernization in terms of some extra beats and some English intervals). Unfortunately, Asha Bhosle is a bit too old to be singing a song like this. Though her vocals are effective, another singer (even Alka Yagnik)) would be better suited. Background music is lacking, placing most of the emphasis on the singing and the beats. The sound maintains a very festive mood and Karthik does a good job with his vocals. The tune is somewhat catchy, but a bit clichéd at the same time.
  Rating: 7.5/10
  
  Overall Music and Instrumentation:
  As is expected, Rahman's compositions are very effective and add a sense of fullness to every song. The compositions are absolutely first-rate, and no song really sounds out of place. AR Rahman's musical genius really shows through in the heavier numbers.
  Rating: 9.5/10
  
  Overall Singing:
  As is expected, once again, Rahman picks the best singers for the job. He has a knack of extracting the best performances from his individual performers. Most of the singers match their vocal talents to the excellent music and form winning combinations.
  Rating: 9/10
  
  Overall:
  A very impressive album on the same level as the original Alai Payuthey. The music is very effective and all the tracks are sure to be picturized well in the film, especially with the Yash Chopra touch.
  Overall Rating (Not an average): 9.0/10
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• From: Are Yaar (@ 203.197.141.186) on: Tue Nov 12 04:40:38 EST 2002
  
  Interesting article from ARR YG.
  
  
  http://www.metroactive.com/papers/metro/06.27.02/allshookdown-
  0226.html
  
  
  Culture Vulture
  
  Do we like foreign music because it's good--or just foreign?
  
  By Gina Arnold
  
  DESPITE THE AWARDS and accolades it's received, including an Academy
  Award nomination for Best Foreign Language Film, it's hard to
  recommend the current Indian movie Lagaan (Once Upon a Time in India)
  in good conscience. It's an amazing Bollywood spectacle, complete
  with those wild lip-synched dance routines that look so cool and
  foreign to our jaded eyes. But it's also a musical, not a genre that
  many Americans go for these days. Lagaan is also a full four hours
  long, and the entire last half concerns a lengthy and intricate game
  of cricket, which most Americans don't know the rules to.
  
  Thus, telling people to go see it is a bit like telling people they
  ought to buy Lou Reed's Metal Machine Music. Sure, it was
  superinfluential in a way. It's also unlistenable. I think Lagaan
  would be hard for a lot of people to enjoy, even the 10-minute-plus
  musical sequences in which entire villages break into song and dance
  with solo interludes for various featured players: the love-struck
  couple, the cricket teams, the English maiden and the token
  Untouchable.
  
  I have finally been struck by World Beatitis: the deep-seated sense
  that music from other cultures is a lot more interesting than the
  poppy, cheesy, mainstream music by Western artists. It's a somewhat
  elitist thought process that borders on patronizing. Why, when I see
  Britney Spears gyrate and lip-sync, do I go, "Bleah," but when I see
  Asha Bhosle do it, I think, "Beautiful"? Only because it seems more
  exotic. And yet, patronizing or not, World Beatitis is hard to avoid.
  
  At a certain point, all rock critics start paying attention to
  foreign artists like King Sunny Adé, Astor Piazzolla and Nusrat Fateh
  Ali Khan. The same thing happens to musicians, too: Paul Simon, David
  Byrne, Peter Gabriel and Dave Matthews have all gone multicultural.
  It used to annoy me, but now I totally see the point.
  
  It's not an age thing so much as a boredom thing. At a certain point,
  you just feel you've heard the same three chords way too many times.
  And while you don't really want to hear a different three chords, you
  need some kind of variety in the way it's served up to you. That's
  where pop multiculturalism comes in. Add a few different instruments,
  a few different scales, a different language and a front person who
  differs slightly from the standard-issue tattooed, skinny pop star
  and--voilà!--it all seems fresh again. Alas, Americans are so damn
  xenophobic that their intake of foreign-language pop has been limited
  to a handful of four foreign-language hits in 40 years: "La
  Bamba," "99 Luftballoons" and maybe "Macarena" and "Der Kommissar."
  
  In the dance world, where lyrics are unimportant, and the music's
  essential sameness is even more pronounced, foreign idioms have been
  percolating for ages. Rich ravers have flown all over the world in
  search of the perfect island beach to rave on--Goa, Ko Tao, Ibiza,
  Cyprus have all had their day. The Far East in particular is
  musically well represented in clubland, if not on radio or MTV or in
  the minds of the general public.
  
  Lagaan, however, is not mere Indian dance music but fully articulated
  musical-theater pop, sung in Hindi. That said, it's pretty easy for
  Western ears to assimilate, remember and even hum along to. Composer
  A.R. Rahman uses many elements of Western classical music along with
  traditional Indian folk. He is obviously the Andrew Lloyd Webber of
  the subcontinent. The opening number, "Ghanan Ghanan," a song about a
  rainstorm, is by far my favorite, an ensemble number that really
  evokes all the joyous and unusual elements of Hindi pop.
  
  Unfortunately, the more Western a song gets--like "O Rey Chhori,"
  with its frightening English interlude--the worse it sounds. But for
  the most part, the Lagaan soundtrack is a great place to start if you
  want to integrate your record collection--the Buena Vista Social Club
  of the year 2002.
  
  Lagaan is currently playing in San Francisco or can be rented or
  bought from www.Desifilms.com. The soundtrack is available at a
  record store near you.
  
  
• From: Are Yaar (@ 203.197.141.186) on: Tue Nov 12 04:41:35 EST 2002
  
  Review of ARR's SFO concert 2001
  
  A bit late in the day...but what the heck..its a nice one..
  
  http://www.geocities.com/kalpana_mohan/RahmanConcert.htm
  
  
  
  At the Epicenter with A. R. Rahman
  
  
  
  10.8 on the Richter Scale. The epicenter was the Cow Palace at
  San Francisco on the night of October 8th, 2000. A. R. Rahman, a
  man of few words, said little until a pushy, bratty Javed Jaffrey
  prodded him. And then they came. The words that poured out from
  the maestro sent ripples of aftershocks through an ecstatic
  audience. "Dil Se Ree" he crooned, his eyes shut in rapture, his
  head turned heavenward.
  
  "I always pray before I compose a number," a tired Rahman tells
  me during a half hour interview, hours before his show in San
  Francisco. "And then I sit down to work with my setup – my keyboard,
  my computer, my harmonium." A. R. Rahman is the highest paid music
  director in India today. When he hums, everyone perks up and
  listens.
  
  Little wonder then that they were all there heeding the Rahman
  baton, those men and women whose voices cajole, caress and jolt our
  senses in our houses, in our cars, on the way to our homes, on the
  way to a friend's, on the way to Kmart. Among the fourteen singers
  and six back-up singers were S.P. Balasubramaniam, Hariharan, Udit
  Narayan, Shankar Mahadevan, Chitra, Kavitha Krishnamurthy, Sujata,
  Sadhana Sargam, Anupama, Sukhwinder Singh, Dominique Manuel, Deepa
  Narayan, Clinton Cerejo and Srinivas. For over four hours, these
  singing wizards dextrously wielded their vocal wands and cast a
  strange spell over a sea of ten thousand heterogeneous Indian faces.
  
  "Look at that nerdy look. We should have brought our recruitment
  kit, man!" A female voice snapped, a few rows away in the
  bleachers. Wherever you looked, there were engineers and
  scientists.
  
  The reviews are now in. It's a standing ovation.
  
  "It was the most crisply executed production we have ever
  seen in all these years."
  
  "Oh, and the audience was mostly so well behaved, the security
  agents could have taken the night off."
  
  "And Hariharan, isn't he the sexiest man alive?"
  
  "His voice, it's to die for. The tuft, nah…"
  
  "And, did you see, wherever we looked, there were those big wheelers
  and dealers!"
  
  "Of course I saw all those entrepreneurs. Some of those
  entrepreneur wives, with their mismatched high heels! Gawd!"
  
  Yes, they were all up in front in those VVIP rows, those
  millionaires and billionaires. The Internet technocrats, the
  software Gurus, the networking stalwarts and the Java freaks - whose
  intellectual and technical achievements crumbled and melted to dribs
  of gelatin under the potent power of perfectly executed musical
  notes.
  
  An ensemble of fifty-seven instrumentalists was on stage to
  create what Rahman calls the "symphony" effect. Twenty-two members
  of the orchestra were from the American Federation of Musicians in
  New York. Their dazzling array of instruments stumps even the
  mighty Rahman: "A French horn, an oboe, violas, cellos, a double-
  bass, a harp, a saxophone, a trumpet and many others - I don't get
  to work with some of these in India, they're amazing!" A crew of
  thirty-five from India, whose proficiency ranged from the western
  guitar to the traditional South-Indian thavil, complemented and drew
  many an applause from its western counterpart.
  
  Adding spice and verve to melody was one maverick drummer whose
  beat caused your heart to skip a series of beats. He is now a
  fixture in the Masters of Percussion concerts around the world,
  sharing the stage with none other than Zakir Hussein himself.
  Sivamani opened the show to frenzied shrieks, his coterie of six
  sequin-clad Brazilian percussionists belting out a jaunty rhythm on
  a bevy of drums. As Sivamani rapped and pounded on every little
  widget from his bulging bag of tricks, the Master of Ceremonies,
  Javed Jaffrey, bounced in with a jive, his lines unfailingly armed
  with a gibe. Sivamani's Jugalbandhi with Guru Palanivel on the
  thavil and B. A. Srinivas on the mridangam was sensational. As
  jathis and drumbeats pounced off the walls, Shankar Mahadevan jumped
  in to challenge them with swaras.
  
  Can you imagine hearing absolutely nothing but just one
  mellifluous voice, bolstered by Rahman at the piano? Unplugged was a
  short tribute to the voice control and technical mastery of
  Balasubramaniam, Hariharan, Kavitha Krishnamurthy, Sujata and
  Chitra. In the words of Balasubramaniam, the six of them
  represented "three generations of musicians". It was a privilege,
  he told a rapt audience, to work with the young Rahman to whom music
  was "his mother tongue".
  
  To every song there was a unique emotional response. As Shankar
  Mahadevan launched "Que Sera" (Pukar), armies of screaming second-
  generation teen-age girls jumped off their seats and scrambled to
  the back where there was room to rock and swing. If there were ever
  a meter to measure the mental infidelity of women in that audience,
  the needle would have climbed to new highs as Hariharan teased his
  way through a prelude of kalpanaswaras into "Sakiye Sakiye" (Alai
  Payudhe).
  
  "Dil Hai Chota Saa" (Roja) still continues to drive an audience
  wild. This was the song whose Tamil original ("Chinna Chinna
  Aasai") catapulted Rahman into instant fame. The song is now an
  integral part of his concerts. "With Roja, my intent was to cut
  across cultural and linguistic barriers," its creator tells me. "I
  think it's important to experiment with all kinds of music. For
  instance, I have played with Reggae in "Dil Hai Chota Saa" and
  in "Rukumani Rukumani" I have African chants in the background."
  
  Rahman credits open-minded directors like Mani Ratnam with
  instilling novelty into a formulaic film industry. In turn Rahman
  has tried to open the doors to fresh voices in an Indian music
  industry that had believed, for decades, that every female playback
  singer had to sound like Lata Mangeshkar or Asha Bhonsle. Rahman
  claims he looks for new voices and seeks constantly to compose a
  song to suit a voice. "Anupama of the Chandralekha (Thirudaa
  Thirudaa) fame was one such discovery," he says.
  
  It's an infectious rhythm, the taal of Rahman's dance
  numbers. "Rang de" (Thakshak), "Muqqala" (Kaadalan), "Ramta Jogi"
  (Taal) and "Uppu Karuvadu" (Mudhalvan) had the audience swaying
  madly in their seats. Dancers snaked in and out for twelve numbers
  on a stage ablaze with laser beams and fireworks. Tender April
  showers rained from pastel umbrellas in Hariharan's "Nahin Samne
  Tuu" as two ballet dancers pirouetted to this soft, romantic solo
  from Taal. Two dancers in Kathakali costumes sailed in for the
  Malayalam interludes in Dil Se's `JiyaJale' rendered by Chitra,
  while the other dancers pranced about in bright purple harem parents
  and glittering lavender bodices. The choreography by Sanjay
  Pradhan, better known as Lollipop, was riveting, plunging sometimes
  to the farcical. For Anupama's seductive, impassioned rendition
  of "Chandralekha", men out of Star Wars clashed with female dancers
  holding white paper moons - seemingly, out of "Sesame Street Live"?
  
  "I absolutely love what I do!" says dancer Carol Furtado, a
  fashion designer from Bombay who previously toured around the world
  with the program crew for Kumar Sanu and Laxmikant Pyarelal.
  Furtado is one of a dozen dancers who performed in the show. A
  freelancer who regularly turns down opportunities to dance in the
  movies, she was picked out by Lollipop for the Rahman's North
  American tour.
  
  Preparations for such a tour are exhaustive and exhausting.
  Deepak Gattani of Rapport Global Events, who directed and co-
  produced the Rahman show, rattles off big numbers. Four truckloads
  of props and equipment traveled with the Rahman crew of one hundred
  and twenty people. "When the crew landed in New York, we put up a
  mockup stage inside an airport hangar - off of Long Island - which
  we rented for two days," says Gattani. The performers had been
  rehearsing in Madras for four months. They rehearsed several times
  with the American team even though the music scores had been sent
  months in advance to the instrumentalists. The tension - of having
  to deliver for large audiences who have paid dearly for their
  tickets - is very high for a music director whose name is now
  synonymous with top quality entertainment.
  
  "I could not sing at first, I was a bundle of nerves," says
  Rahman, referring to his New York program where key singers had not
  landed at the venue one hour before the program was to begin. "How
  could I sing my piece, not knowing how I was going to wing the
  concert?" Rahman says. Even though the musicians landed late from
  India and were tired and groggy, they had to go up and do their
  best, jet lag or no jet lag.
  
  Rahman is passionate that his music should transcend culture and
  language and strive to unify people. "Music is the only thing that
  can do that," he says. Ironically enough, in every one of his
  stops, his music seems to have fired up strong sentiments. It even
  divided his audience temporarily. He admits that, in New York,
  there were angry protests when the crew consecutively performed
  several Tamil numbers. In San Francisco, angry voices rose up
  shouting "Hindi! Hindi!" during Hariharan and Chitra's "Uyiree"
  (Bombay) when three Tamil songs were sung in succession.
  Unfortunately, Tamilbusters, who stalked out of Cow Palace angrily,
  missed out on the spellbinding number of the night from Sukhwinder
  Singh and Dominique Manuel, "Chaiya Chaiya"(Dil Se). This was also
  the song that originally captivated Lord Andrew Lloyd Webber, the
  name behind `Cats', `Evita' and `Phantom of the Opera'.
  
  "Bombay Dreams", a musical production by Webber and Rahman will
  premiere in London's West End next year, holding Rahman up to world
  scrutiny. At the Rahman concert, Karen David, the lead singer
  for `Bombay Dreams', ended "The Moon never stays behind in the
  clouds" - written by Don Black and Rahman, - to a thunderous
  applause.
  
  Opportunities come knocking on Rahman's door. On June 27th,
  Rahman performed a Sanskrit composition titled `Ekam Satyam' with
  Michael Jackson for an international charity concert in Munich,
  Germany. Luciano Pavarotti and Stevie Wonder were some of the other
  performers at this star-studded event.
  
  "Don't you want to perform on Broadway?" I ask the man whose
  inscrutable face masks every feeling he shows in his music. I'm sure
  he has a dream, a holy grail. The soft-spoken, mild-mannered Rahman
  gives his typical, guarded smile. That might happen, he says,
  if "Bombay Dreams" does well in London. "But I'm happy. I'm happy
  to continue doing exactly what I've been doing in India for the last
  eight years," this humble man adds, with a shrug. That would not do
  at all, for the whole world deserves to hear those beats of passion.
  
  
• From: Are Yaar (@ 203.197.141.186) on: Tue Nov 12 04:52:38 EST 2002
  
  
  
  From Pakistan newspaper 'Daily Jang'...
  
  
  http://www.jang.com.pk/thenews/nov2002-weekly/nos-10-11-2002/instep.htm#10
  
  
  Hindustani
  
  1. Saathiya
  
  2. Sur
  
  3. Dil Ka Rishta
  
  
  
  

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