And Now, Rahman's Time

[Pic Courtesy Dhwanii]

A few days after Naayagan found a place on Time magazine's 100 best movies of all time, another Indian makes it to an even shorter list by the same magazine. This time its A.R.Rahman, whose soundtrack for Roja(the Hindi version), has been selected as one of the all-time best soundtracks by the magazine's critic. According to Richard Corliss, the same critic who chose Naayagan, "This astonishing debut work parades Rahman's gift for alchemizing outside influences until they are totally Tamil, totally Rahman. He plays with reggae and jungle rhythms, fiddles with Broadway-style orchestrations, runs cool variations on Morricone's scores for Italian westerns".

The songs in Roja are definitely classics. The simple but catchy Chinna Chinna Aasai...; the melodious and soothing Kaadhal Rojaave...; the raucous Rukkumani...; the romantic Pudhu Vellai Mazhai....; and the patriotic and uplifting Thamizhaa Thamizhaa... - all songs that had me hooked on the first listen and have stood the test of time. A devoted Ilaiyaraja fan, I still remember being pissed off at Manirathnam for 'abandoning' Ilaiyaraja, who had given him some classic and memorable numbers, and hoping that the songs in Roja would suck! But ARR did win me over the very first time I heard Chinna Chinna Aasai... and Pudhu Vellai Mazhai... And with the gorgeous visuals accompanying them on the big screen, I was a Rahman fan :-)

My favorite Rahman moment in Roja though, does not occur in any of the song sequences.It's the scene where Arvind Swamy douses the fire on the burning Indian flag with his body, even as he is tied up. The music in the scene, starting off slowly before building to a mindblowing crescendo, would ignite a patriotic spark even in the most cynical of minds. Hats off to Rahman(ofcourse, equal credit is due to Manirathnam for the picturization, but we are just talking about the music here...)

Way to go ARR...