Rahman in 2008: You know or you know not!

Two new albums of A R Rahman, 'Jane Tu Ya Jane Na' and 'Ada: A Way of Life' were released just in time for me to review during the long weekend. This makes it three albums for Rahman already this year, and with 'Ghajini', 'Yuvaraj' and 'Dilli 6' as also a few Tamil albums round the corner, this year seems to be one in which Rahman returns full-fledged to mainstream cinema.

As other reviewers would agree, the task at hand was already daunting because of the variety of music that Rahman has presented in these handful of songs. Especially with Ada carrying a historical journey of six years of Rahman, expectations ran high. With my little knowledge of music, the best I could do was to break each musical piece into parts, and analyze them irrespective of the whole. I used this opportunity to review 'Jodha Akbar' as well. Even though Jodha Akbar had been listened to several times already, and had undergone the test of time, it surprisingly has achieved high scores.

To ensure that all my measures are comparable and do full justice to Rahman, I heard the songs in the same stretch, reviewing them as I listened. The measures used are particular to Rahman, and since Rahman does not have comparison, cannot be used for anyone else. (Especially not for Pritam!) Worth mentioning is the fact that one factor that adds to Jodha Akbar's magic is the lyrics, whereas it is the same that is missing in Ada. Prasoon Joshi in Jane Tu is way less impressive than in Taare Zameen Par and Rang de Basanti, but of course, way better than the Sameers in other Hindi flicks.



Rahman also seems to miss his stalwart singers in some songs, notably Asha Bhonsle, Hariharan, Lata Mangeshkar, Shankar Mahadevan, Adnan Sami, Kavita Krishnamoorthi-Subramaniam, ahem...well the list goes on. But, look at the new singers he has brought in - they all have their own original styles. He has also taken advantage of the full voice of Malayalam's own "morning-singer" Jayachandran, to whom Hindi has so far been alien terrain. Sunidhi Chauhan is at her liberterious best whereas Blaaze is thankfully not overshadowing Rahman's work. I went back to the songs in Roja , Dil Se and Rang de Basanti as reference points to where today's Rahman is. I found that 'Milo Wahan Wahan' counts among the best songs of Rahman, and is close to 'Ae Ajnabi'. So does 'Jashn-e-Bahara', and my spreadsheet agrees. As the Rahman fans exhort, it certainly seems to be Vintage Rahman, and I am sure it will continue to be so album upon album, like it has been from 1992.

For more information, refer to the Rahman in 2008 spreadsheet. And do not miss the latest interview of Rahman in CNN-IBN, posted as a six-part series, here.