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2002
- Inspiration for a New Generation |
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Place : Chennai, India. Day :February 8th. This was early 2002. My prefinal exams had just come to an end. And this happened to be the most crucial year of my life! Coz I was entering my 12th standard right after the common exams scheduled in March. And I had not even a faintest of ideas as to where I was heading. Flashback to January Folx at tfmpage.com said Kannathil Muthamittal's got its own website. I, being one of the biggest fans of Mani Ratnam and A.R.Rahman, was certainly not going to waste anymore time. A click and right on the front page was a bold message "Cassettes releasing this week". Yeah!! An ARR album after quite a long time. Parthale paravasam, I think, was the last album I bought (well, two months certainly felt long !). "This week" :) 1st day
1st cassette!!! I was waiting outside the cassette shop when the cassette
carton (yes carton! the music guys said KM was in great great
demand) was being unloaded. I came back and put the cassette in thinking
it'd take a couple of days to grow on me. There was a soft guitar piece
and an absolutely fab voice melodiously rendered Vellai pookal.
And then, a looooooooooooooooooooooooong wait. My exams were over. My holidays had begun. And there was this amusing controversy of 3, which turned to 4, which turned to 5, movies on Bhagath Singh. And one of them had ARR on it's crew! May: My friend
and I were camping outside Foodworld waiting for the 1st batch of
The Legend of Bhagath Singh cassettes. Then came JULY!!! THE BEST MONTH OF MY LIFE! I'd bought Bombay Dreams, the much awaited album from Rahman. I cud say only one thing. WOW! 19 musical pieces from the guy acknowledged as the "Asian Mozart"... and the album proved that the title conferred upon him was not very far from the truth. Well.... how do I classify the title track ? Fusion, yeah I guess that's the only thing I can call it. With street sounds, lotsa cymbals and drums, and even the instrument that a snake charmer uses (pardon me for my ignorance!). Like an eagle caught my attention rite away. Love's never easy, Happy endings, Ooh la la, Shakalaka baby, Chaiyya chaiyya, and Closer than ever were tunes handpicked by Andrew Lloyd Webber and mixed beautifully by Rahman. Hey! I just realised that these songs were from the cream of directors in Indian cinema! Subhash Ghai, Ram Gopal Varma, Rajiv Menon, Shankar, and of course Mani Ratnam. Shakalaka baby was selling like hot cakes as a single in the US. Dont release me was totally funky and cool, Dalip Tahil had done a good job. Salaam Bombay and Ganesh were a dream come true for any one who loved to have his stereo on near full volume driving along a beach. Then came the "Mubaruqa" part in Wedding qawwali . Took my breath away. I just melted! Overall, a perfect launch pad for our man if he planned to go international. July 13th, 2002.. Saturday: I've got 5 words that cud make any ARRF turn green w/ envy. "I had coffee with A.R.Rahman!" http://tfmpage.com/forum/11445.11.15.34.html (he he.. space constraint!) Then another anguishing wait... If any one understood what the word tantalising meant, it was the guy who wanted to buy Baba's first cassette! July 15th.. wait 18th.. no no 23.. what r u saying? it's 26th.. hold on it's 29th. Finally the theatre guy said "paper-a paarthuttu vaanga". Then on July 31st, surprise surprise. Baba had arrived. CP and I were listening to it in RAM format on the net and were a bit cheesed. What happened to Rahman?? But then, the moment I got hold of the cassette (I'd bought the coupon.. gosh I'd have loved a CD!), it became my daily naah.. hourly suprapaadham. Just got hooked to it. The theme song .. well, it's in sanskrit and I wudn't understand it if Srinivas was singing in praise of the Lord or scolding me with darn bad words! and I call myself a sanskrit student!!! anyways.. Dippu Dippu just blew my mind away. The usual Shankar Mahadevan high pitch and a very intense start and all of a sudden hey, it turned peppy! That's exactly my definition of a surprise from a Music director. The usual Rajni thathuvams and the "Dippu dippu OK" were just awesome! Baba Kichu is sooo cute! Right from "ahem... hey you" to "un niram pola en niram mara..." Reena sounded very sweet. The "Voice of Rajni" in music, SPB, ruled the rest of the song. My favourite bit, as I'd mentioned once in tfmpage, "Anbaaga nee vandhaal baba odu pillai adi.. vambu endru vandhu vittal 'taen taen taen taen '(guitar)" with glass breaking. AWESOME! Side B... Karthik sounded outta the world in Maya maya, a beautiful duet along with Sujatha. Rajyama, hyped to be a very important part of the movie was good. Very IRish but good! (hey don't read between lines .. there's nothing here!!) :). Then the most inspirational song (IMO) after Chale chalo (Lagaan) ... Sakthi Kodu . I'm still searching for an adjective! I would go "Amazing! Awesome! Deadly! Super! Outta the world! Beautiful! Wow! Sensational! OH MY GOD!" even if I were not hit on the head with a thesaurus book! :) Karthik had done it again! He's going miles, I tell ya... miles! Just stirs ur soul... Rahman surely knows how to warm a person's heart. And to think Rahman's been sending the songs to and fro over the internet and these songs had been recorded without his direct supervision. I'm gasping not for breath but for want of words. I guess this is the first time I'm making such a direct statement, but..."Rahman's the best!" >>And I had not even a faintest of ideas as to where I was heading.<< well..
now I do. Sound engineering is my cup of tea !
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2002
Constellation - A group of ARR fans from TFMPage.com
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