http://rameshram.wordpress.com/2009/01/16/three-from-dilli-6music-a-r-rahman-bollywood/
Dilli 6 is a Raykesh omprakash mehra(Rang de Basanti) film receiving rave
reviews for it’s haunting music , by AR Rahman.
Im trying to get my mind wrapped around the very diverse ten tracks,
and not finding a unifying anthem through the album, I am treating
these songs as individual compositions for the purposes of criticism.
A R rahman used to do this kind of thing in his early tamil film scores. The
score for Kadhalan,
for instance, would have one soundbite of pure carnatic music seducing
the listener on behalf of Nagma(the heroine of the film) , and the next
one would be a complete chennai equalent of a frat boy comedy in five
minutes.
You wouldn’t know quite what to make of the mood shifts across the
album, until you saw the film and then the soundtrack would fall in
place, because you’d see the songs as high emotional points in the
film. The melody in the melodrama would be part of the one two punch of
a film. ARR, the OST composer would have earned his keep, while
indulging in his need to compose diverse genres into the same album.
You realize that ARR is doing compositional heavy lifting here, not
dabbling in many genres or styles.
In this same spirit , from dilli 6 here are three very diverse
tracks, each a classic in its chosen genre.. The abiding feature of the
album is the peace in each track. ARR composes no sudden moves,while
easing the techno …or genre mixes in , almost without us realizing that
we’ve suddenly started dancing to Bhangra, in what started off as a hip
hop track
To the songs…
The simple ones:
Bhor Bhaye : Shreya Ghosal, Ustad Bade Ghulam Ali Khan
Bhor bhayi is a remix . its a bade ghulam ali khan thumri in gurjari
todi (todi is very popular with film composers of hindustani classical
music. Ja Ja Re from Lekin, Insaan bano from Baiju bavra and Jo Tum Todo
Piyafrom silsila in gurjari todi, Jhoote naina bole from Lekin in bilaskani
todi.
) Shreyas ghosal does a voice over. (presuming here that Soha will be
picturized singing this to a grahamphone record. This is a voiceover
technique used in a couple of films before. The songketaki gulab juhi (basant
bahar) had a very classical Bhimsen joshi pitting voices with the more pop
Mohammed rafi, for instance.In
this song, Shreyas sounds very much like the student. while she sounds
outclassed in training and easy of rendition, she is more than equal to
taking the melody of the thumri and making it her own.
Rehna Tu : A R Rahman, Benny Dayal, Tanvi : is a lounge classic from ARRahman
that walks us through an amazing array of smooth jazz and soft
rock genres. When ARR overdoes the smooth in jazz, he does so with an
enthusiasm that is so endearing that you like the song much , in the
end, even if smooth jazz is a genre you loathe.
It starts like an old deva favorite from the film kadhal kottai.That song(
Kalamellam Kadhal )featured a kenny G style sax cameo, Or even ARR’s New york
nagaram from sillendru oru kadhal.Soon we’re awash in california smooth jazz.
The song then morphs into a pop ballad in Rahman’s voice and sounds
very yanni.
A change in scales wakes up the melody luxuriously…..and then the
Oud(Iraqi instrument) takes over and floats us down middle eastern
coloring…. but not long enough…we waft back into the reinforced main
melody… is he holding the song too long? it’s already four minutes
gone….wait…there’s more….you give up. he wafts you gently into a mandolin
srinivas(styled) hamsadwani
on a synthesizer/panflute….for another two minutes….and the sounds are
in your head …gentle..long after the melody has faded out…
An openended blend of genres. it lets you define where your mind wants to go
next.. mine , for some reason, went to the Amjad Ali khan(edit: Pandit VM Bhatt
on the guitar. thx qalandar for pointing this out..) cameo on the Rahman
composed Iruvar song Narumughaye (go to 1:30 to 2:10, and again 3:52- 4:06).
Hey Kaala Bandar : Karthik, Naresh, Srinivas, Bony Chakravarthy :
Brings together a few musical ideas ARR has been
playing with in his mind for some time. One is a genuine rap sound
(bony chakravarthy?), which the track opens with, the second is the early
hiphop sound he worked on in the apache Indian ( No Problem)collaborated album,
Love birdswhich had a song that was titled Om Santhi Om Santhi (with
aslam mustapha) . The arab coloring blends pretty seamlessly with the
rap but this is not the last…we morph smoothly into bhangra! I’d
explored this in aphotograph of a poster I
saw in New york city a couple of months ago…a smooth blend of bhangra
and hiphop is the most logical possible of popular musical blends. Good
job AR! The small problem is that the song is not long enough. is a
remix and a longer version in the offing?Dilli
6 is the most freeform set of compositions from ARR (or anyone, really)
Ive heard in a long time …I might post more on the utter freedom from
genre dictated constraints in these songs, subsequently, but three here
were fun to deconstruct.
