1993
- His Best Year in the Tamil Film World |
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It is a popular notion in cricket and tennis that a player's second year is toughest. For the first year, expectations are understandably low and player himself is free of the presure of expectations. Its the second year that people expect too much from the player and consequently the presure to perform increases rapidly. I think this logic can be easily extended to the celluloid world and especially to AR.Rahman. A little bit of background here for those unintiated with AR.Rahman. Kavithalaya's Roja was released on Aug 15, 1992. "chinna chinna aasai" was the first song shown in oliyum oliyum the same day . At that time DD was the only tamil channel. The audio was released about 20-30 days, before the movie release. I read somewhere that, the sales picked up only after the movie got released. That was the trend with Mani's earlier movies. The movie also marked the debut of Hariharan. They decided to do the movie in Digital Dolby but later mani dumped the idea as he did not want to do too many things at the same time. Otherwise Roja would have beaten 1942 A love story as the first Digi Dolby movie. Why Roja's acheivement is significant because. It faced tough competition movie and music wise. It is easily one of IR's best years. And movie-wise it had so much competition from other blockbusters. 1992 was the best year for tamil cinema in any recent memory. I have been told IR's "annakili" was explosive.. but sorry! I was a baby then and I wudnt know.... All I remember is Roja's music took the Tamil world by storm! The Movie released on August 15, 1992 in a single stroke. opened up the tamil movie world to the whole of India. The first thing that stuck me about the songs was it had drums instead of "dappan kuthu". Good clear sound like a George michael pop song. But overall in the big picture Roja's acheivement was great but not ARR's biggest. ARR had reserved his magnum opus for his second year in film Industry. 1993 was a very good year for A.R.Rahman by any standards. The movies he released were 1)
Gentleman Gentleman:
(Summer 1993) The moment "chiku bukku rail" hit the viewers on Friday Night , It was a hit. This song was already making the rounds in radio and in Haircut saloons and other public places. But once the movie got released in summer of 1993. It was going to take ARR and Director Shankar places. This movie was widely advertised by the hyper active market campaign of K.T.Kunjomon. Although I have nothing good to say about Kunjumon. Suffice to say that he became "Gentleman" KT.Kunjumon after this movie no matter what kind of a man he was before. This movie was a super hit. This started the latest trend of having new singers. All newfaces(or voices) to tamil audience used to listening "padiyavargal SP Balasubramaniam S Janaki" in the morning AM radio. Gone were the day when SPB, S.Janaki and a select few ruled the roost. Now it was time for the trendy pep generation of Suresh Peters, Minmini and Shahul Hameed. Even though much of the attention was given to Chikku bukku rail. The other songs such as "usilampetti", "ottakathai" and "parkathe" were good. The songs were picturized very well which meant good presentation for ARR's works. Chikku Bukku Rail catapulted Prabhu Deva to instant Stardom and started a career for him as an actor. No one song has ever changed a life of a person in the History of Tamil movies. Thiruda
Thiruda: (Diwali 1993) This is my personal Favorite. Not many would agree with me But this is ARR's best work till date. Both in BGM's and in FGM. Carolene, Anu.. a whole lot of new voices. It is said that IR made Tamil Crowds listen to Tamil Songs. ARR made even the Hindi crowds also listen to Tamil songs. Chandralekha
: Now
this song itself is an amazing song. Anupama was brilliant in this song!
I think this was shot in front of Madras museum. Imagine the effort
put into this song. The time it would have taken. the lightings. I think
MR and PCS would have divided this song into 1000 different portions
and paid equal attention to all 1000 portions. The crowd in theatres
clapped when Watch the editing effort into this song. At every beat there is an explosion behind as Anu Agarwal sings a new line.. queer is the way audience are sitting everyone with the right foot on their left:-) But this should be the # 1 song ever picturized. I used to have Dil se and Pachai Nirame as #1 but recently i saw Thee Thee and Chandralekha and changed my opinion :-). I frankly dont think anyone else measures upto Manirathnam PCS- ARR combo.. Shankar maybe is the second best but way down! This song revolutionized the way songs were usually written. This is my personal fav. of all times. Thee
thee:
Now why is this one of the most amazingly picturized songs ? Have you
ever seen MJ's "In the closet" video ? Other
Songs: I can write on and on about Thiruda Thiruda but to make it short. "Kannum Kannum" continued the tradition of same_last_word kinda songs. "Rasaathi" introducing Shahul Hameed was a very different song which was also popular. "Veerapandi Kottaiyile" had brilliant orchestration and was a very good song. The
BGM What
is ARR's best BGM effort so far? Its got to be "Thiruda Thiruda".
There can be no doubt about it. He 1)
The initial train sequence (which sounded similar to "eye of the
tiger") The
BGM in the begining train sequence. The one that occurs when Prashant
& co are being chased. The I
especially loved the "Suryo Suryoo sambhe" humming when Anu
Agarwal walks towards the baddies. Also the "Aangapattu
inga pattu agapattukitalaam thumdika patta"...and the memorable
"thirudan 15 mile tholaivla I watched the movie 9 times in theatres. Covered all the theatres in Madras from Kamala to Abhirami. This
movie didnt do very well. It broke MR's success run of 7 in a row! But
this will always be one of my ARR is not well known for his BGM skills, But Thiruda Thiruda is an exception. In "Iruvar" there is a wonderful bit when Prakash Raj interrupts Mohanlal while eating and takes him to the terrace and looks down at people gathering to meet Mohan lal. Some bits in "Indian" with violin where interesting. But If there is a unanimous allrounder its Thiruda Thiruda. 3)
Kizhakku Seemaiyile The Then BIG 3 directors were K. Balachander, Maniratnam, and Bharathiraja. Although AR.Rahman had worked under KB's banner he never worked under him as a director. This movie was a significant step for ARR. Doing music for one of the Big 3 always was an advantage because the probability of the movie being a hit was high. This
movie tested ARR's mettle as a Music Director for village oriented themes.ARRahman
came out with flying colors. Songs such as "Aathangara marame"
and "Thenkizhakky seemaiyile" were simply wonderful and rich.
It gave a different flavor for Rahman. The movie was a resounding sucess
and started a good partnership with Bharathiraja for AR Rahman. |
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2002
Constellation - A group of ARR fans from TFMPage.com
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