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2002 - Inspiration for a New Generation
by Magix, 16, India

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.
My first guess was that it was Hariharan. Looked at the cassette cover. It was A.R.Rahman!!! And what do you know !!
I started to like every song the very 1st time I heard it! Sundari was cute and then came the title song by a new girl called Chinmayee. My sister reminded me that she was same girl who bagged the 1st prize in a singing competition that Srinivas was judging. Ah! now it made sense!! The tune was just out of this world. I'm not totally for slow carnatic kinda songs. But this song was just something else. Then came Senjore on side B. Oh my God! ARR could compose Baila too! And I cud sing nothing else for a whole month! Vidai kodu, a very very intense song by a gamut of artists including M.S.Viswanathan. How does ARR manage to do it ?? Balram, of Parthale.. fame had also sung the song. And then came the best of them all. The title song by Jayachandran. I guess no song has touched me to the extent of this song, in recent years. Even my mother, who had by the time come to my room, was enchanted by the music ! Jayachandran had put his heart and soul into the song, and the rendition moved me big time.

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.
A batch of ten cassettes arrived. and was sold out even b4 we reached the counter ! There were ppl waiting inside the shop as if they were shopping and pounced on it like starved vultures. Of all the nerve! My friend's dad worked near Music world and he got it the next day (that lucky dog!). I had to wait for two excruciating days, being taunted by my friend that I'd not got the cassette yet. And then, my local music shop, whose manager had just asked me "Bhagath Singh? appadina??" a week b4, called me up and said, "Vandhaachu ma.. eppo vena vanthu vangiko"!!! I scared him outta his wits by appearing b4 him in less than a minute!! I listened and listened and listened. ARR has the god given knack of composing classics for the Hindi guys. This had so much of pre-independence feel to it. Pagdi sambal was very cute (it was not supposed to be in the movie!). Mere rang de was fab. ARR recreated Udit-Alka magix (!!) with Mahive and Jogiya re . 2 very sweet songs.. and an interesting fact is that the girl sings for Bhagath while Bhagath sings for Bharath, the country! Well done Rahman for weaving such a wonderful piece... Master craftsmanship indeed. Des mere was the Lagaanesque -spirit-raising-musical-bit. Sarfaroshi ki tamanna (both versions) were beautifully rendered by Sonu Nigam. On the whole, Rahman had done it again!

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 !
Rahman... thuje salaam!

 

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2002 Constellation - A group of ARR fans from TFMPage.com