1997 -
by

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
2) Thiruda Thiruda
3) Kizhakku Semaiyile

Gentleman: (Summer 1993)
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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)
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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 :
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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
all the lights went off a small white glow of Anu Agarwal lit up. That was the first time I have seen appreciation for picturization! Did you see the way she claps her hands with the male dancers around her !! kewl wasnt it!!!!!

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:
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Now why is this one of the most amazingly picturized songs ? Have you ever seen MJ's "In the closet" video ?
If you were able to distract yourself from Naomi Campbell for a few minutes. you will see how incredible the cinematography was. The set the colors everything was amazing. That was done by a ace french cinematographer.
No doubt PCS inspiration came from that video. Each shot in this video is amazing ! The zoom in zoom out illusion.
The rotating shot. The lighting.. all wonderful !

Other Songs:
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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
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What is ARR's best BGM effort so far? Its got to be "Thiruda Thiruda". There can be no doubt about it. He
had 3-4 sets of BGM's going on . I may have listed this before

1) The initial train sequence (which sounded similar to "eye of the tiger")
2) The general theme which happens throughout the movie with a few variations in the cycle chase scene
3) The "thattalanga pottalanga..... thiruda thiruda" rap
4) "Aathu kulla ayilai meenu" when elephants pull the truck out.
5) "Suryo Suryo sambhe..." bit when Anu Agarwal walks towards baddies with the computer card in her hand and
one guy is waiting to shoot her.

The BGM in the begining train sequence. The one that occurs when Prashant & co are being chased. The
"Thiruda Thiruda" rap.

I especially loved the "Suryo Suryoo sambhe" humming when Anu Agarwal walks towards the baddies. Also the
"aathukulla ayilai meenu" when the pull the truck from the pond!

"Aangapattu inga pattu agapattukitalaam thumdika patta"...and the memorable "thirudan 15 mile tholaivla
irunthaale santhosathukku naadi thudikkum"...

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
MR-ARR favorites. If I have to rank their Movies/music. This will always be #1.

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
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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