Milliblog!

1 | Saawan

November 17th, 2006 at 8:04 pm

AR Rahman gets a li’l inspiration for his ‘Mayya’ track on Guru. Read it here:

http://saawan.wordpress.com/2006/11/17/ar-rahmans-lil-inspiration-for-his-latest-track/

Regards,
Saawan.

2 | Karthik

November 17th, 2006 at 8:28 pm

That flute piece you’re referring to, also appeared in one of the tracks in Shah Rukh Khan’s Asoka! The common thread? Ranjit Barot, who’d credited for additional rhythm programming for both this track in Guru and Asoka!

Besides that, I felt it was an insignificantly small piece that does not have any bearing to the central tune of the song. Could be a commercial loop too.

3 | Saawan

November 17th, 2006 at 8:49 pm

I agree that it is insignificant. I remember ARR using a commercial loop for Taal’s Beat of Passion. Also, in Boys, the secret of success song has a bit (the chorus) that used a piece from ‘Eminem’s Without Me’. That maybe due to Blaaze?

4 | Ashwini

November 17th, 2006 at 10:17 pm

Came here from the arrfans yahoo group. I must say that I can fully relate to your review as my opinions of the songs are very similar. Baazi laga and Barso Re did nothing for me which is quite contrary to the other reviews on the internet, while I quite liked the Bappi number.

Also thank you for your other reviews. I usually wait to read your reviews before getting myself a copy of any new film album as I find myself mostly agreeing with your reviews.

5 | Karthik

November 17th, 2006 at 10:35 pm

Hi Ashwini…thanks for that msg!
Karthik

6 | Arun

November 18th, 2006 at 5:35 am

Thx Karthik,Probably the year’s best and surely better than RDB.
Jaage Hain is splendid,so is Tere Bina.

7 | Hariharan

November 18th, 2006 at 3:46 pm

“Guru” has to be one of the best albums to come out this year. Its been so long since I’ve heard an album like this from Rahman. Tere Bina is one of the most beatiful love pieces I have heard in recent times. Barso Re and Maiyya Maiyya are extremely addictive, Rahman’s unique instrumentations make these two songs a must listen. I’m not a big fan of Ek Lo Ek Muft though. Jaage Hain is also another beautiful number and its USP being its outstanding orchestra work. My favourite out of the lot, Ay Hairathe, is just superb. Marvellous work from Rahman.

8 | Sneha Kochak

November 18th, 2006 at 4:33 pm

Not sure I agree with you this time Karthik - Rahman coul’ve done a better job (or it might be just me and my over-anticipation with the Guru soundtrack). I like how the beats in ‘Ek lo ek muft’ go for Bengali to Dandia. Very innovative. Kudos to Maryam on Mayya and Hariharan’s velvety bawl. But beyond that, I’d say it’s a half-hearted attempt by Rahman.
Waiting for your take on the ‘Kabul Express’ soundtrack!

9 | Hariharan

November 18th, 2006 at 8:13 pm

askbabloo.blogspot.com

10 | Sushma

November 18th, 2006 at 9:06 pm

Did you ever think ARR was not in good form?

11 | Karthik

November 18th, 2006 at 9:13 pm

Sushma,

You should listen to some of his crappy Tamil stuff. Try with something called ‘Godfather’, the name was recently changed to ‘Varalaru’ (meaning, History). The movie apparently is a smash success, but the music is pretty substandard, for Rahman’s level.

12 | Arun

November 19th, 2006 at 6:00 am

Yes,GF was very average by Rahman’s standards.

13 | Polo

November 19th, 2006 at 11:44 pm

Y’know Karthik, I fell you’re a bit bias. I mean, its clear that what Saawan said regarding the Maiyya Maiyya track is so true. Instead of giving reasons, you should really accept it. Also, you only list Hindi lifts on your webbie as of recent. I mean, in your forums, there are clearly TWO lifts identified. Harris Jayaraj’s Go Go which has been copied from MJ’s Smooth Criminal and Mani Sharma’s Gala Gala which has been copied from Jose Feliciano’s Listen To The Falling Rain but there are no mention of them on itwofs.

14 | Polo

November 20th, 2006 at 6:03 pm

Yes I agree that ARR s Varalaaru and quite other few movies which are substandard level. But music too much depends on script and director. For Manirathnam it is not a problem. He will pick the best from the lot. But as far as Godfather(varalaaru) is concerned, music is substandard because of script and director KS Ravikumar who doesnt have much music knowledge ! I can give more examples (Aah Aah, Udaya, Parasuram etc all r tamil movies)Same thing happened to Thenali directed by the same director !!. But songs are quite OK better than other’s music !

15 | Polo

November 21st, 2006 at 1:01 am

Not excellent but it’s good work by A.R.Rahman

16 | Sirish

November 21st, 2006 at 3:24 am

Jaage hain song gives me Goosebumps everytime i listen to it…and you are right Karthik, Tere Bina and ay hairathen have everything right in them…both r like complete songs…also Mayya Mayya has the most different ever Bollywood song arrangement as it doesnt have middle stanzas and yet its a full song with Maryam doing a wonderful job.I’m also glad that many have started like Ek Lo Ek Muft. I read somewhere one guy sayin this is Anu Malik stuff. I mean c’mon man, how can anu malik ever dream of bringing that variation from a bhang song to Garba type in the middle…And for Baazi laga and Barso re…people just have to give few more listenings..a great album all in all

17 | prakash

November 21st, 2006 at 1:24 pm

Guru is a pretty decent album from ARR. Ay hairathay, tere bina and jaage hain are too good. Others are listenable, Rahman has given a new sound in this album with more Indianised music. he is having a decent yr starting off with JOK and now Guru.

18 | Saawan

November 22nd, 2006 at 3:37 am

Use the new technology and please make itwofs a wiki for a rather unbiased site… My article on current trends in contemporary Indian music… Read it here…

http://saawan.wordpress.com/2006/11/22/the-trends-in-contemporary-indian-music-scenario/

Cheers,
Saawan.

19 | Saawan

November 22nd, 2006 at 3:37 am

Use the new technology and please make itwofs a wiki for a rather unbiased site… My article on trends in contemporary Indian music… Read it here…

http://saawan.wordpress.com/2006/11/22/the-trends-in-contemporary-indian-music-scenario/

Cheers,
Saawan.

20 | Karthik

November 22nd, 2006 at 7:07 am

Polo:

I’ve gone through this many times in the past, but that ‘bias’ you’re referring to is, from my side of things, called discretion. I cannot pander to everyone pointing lifts all over the place and put it all up. Mayya’s piece is, as I said, insignificant, regardless of who is responsible for it - Ranjit or Rahman. I’d rather be interested in where the tune is lifted from than one solitary note of flute.

For instance, Dhoom 2’s ‘Touch me’ has a very prominent music piece lifted directly from Tarkan. Now, we all know how much Pritam likes Tarkan and how many of his tracks are influenced from him. But, I use my discretion there and based on a criteria (that the given piece does not impact or make up for the core tune of the song), reject its entry into ItwoFS.

Similarly, Falak Dekhoon from Garam Masala. Almost the entire intro and prelude is again lifted off an Amr Diab track. But the tune is different. Same criteria.

With regard to the Harris’ tracks…I’m sorry, but those are time biases…I just have such limited time to check into the details and conclude on something. I’m just a normal guy like anyone else and need to really search for time in a day to get the sources to compare before adding it in ItwoFS.

There are instances of people mailing me about some lift, almost 4 years back and I have still added them with a note of thanks to the same person. Just a matter of time

21 | siddi

November 27th, 2006 at 7:04 am

My 2 paisa:

Jaage Hain: Amazing. If only Rahman would create a private psychedelic album, it would contain such sounds. Reminds me of Guru Dutt’s famous Pyasa song.

Tere Bina: Beautiful.

Ay Hairathe: This is another beautiful song. This song made certain why Rahman should have done Umrao Jaan. He would have recreated the magic of “Zindagi jab bhi teri bazm mein” in a very contemporary way.

Baazi Laga: Is this a collaboration with Rajesh Roshan? It wasn’t that I didn’t like this song. I can not like a song and live with it. But this one was so Rajesh Roshan-ish that I couldn’t believe it. And Udit’s singing just accentuates it more.

22 | Jaydeep

November 29th, 2006 at 8:23 pm

I listened to the album a few times before commenting just becoz I didn’t like it at first. So I thought of giving it few more hearings and allow it to grow on me. It has happened with me, Rahman’s earlier works grew on me with time.

But this one doesn’t seem to be growing on me. Tere bina & Jaage hain are excellent and made me fall in love with them at the very first listening. But rest of the album doesn’t have mark of a genius Rahman is, apart from flashes of brilliance here n there in other songs.
To me Mayya is too noisey, Bappi’s number is boring except for the word play by gulzar . Barso re, Ay hairathe & baazi laga were substandard compared to Rahman’s previous works.
Overall album doesn’t have that universal appeal, it might work in south but not everywhere.

23 | siddi

December 2nd, 2006 at 12:25 am

Karthik, what do you mean when you say a song is “situational”? Do you mean that there is a lot of context behind it and listening to it you cannot form or imagine a situation behind it? Do you use the word as an escape instead of trying to form a valid review?

I ask because a lot of rock songs come from a certain situation that the song writer has in their mind and then the listeners (without the benefit of a video) form thier own interpretation or relate it to their own personal experience or feelings. Sort of like art?

Why can’t we take a “situational” hindi movie song and do the same?

24 | Karthik

December 3rd, 2006 at 8:21 pm

The comparison with rock albums may not be appropriate since they are a collection of assorted thoughts with no coherent script, like that of a movie.

Indian film soundtracks are unique in the sense they are bound by the script, most of the times…even though there is flagrant disregard for the script in many potboliers!

This particular song reminded me of Mangal Pandey’s Takey takey in terms of the paisa theme, and doesnt quite fit in the overall scheme of things in Guru’s story that we know so far. Guess its the Russian/ Central Asian sound….I dont quite see any Spanish sound here like many other reviews have claimed.

25 | Shantanu

December 4th, 2006 at 5:14 pm

Behind the audio cassette cover of the album, ARR has written that the song ‘Tere bina’ is a tribute to Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan & to cherish the decade old assosiation with him.

The song does feature a ’sargam’ in classic Nusrat style and the opening piece sounds very similar to the classic ‘Dum mast kalandar’. Can you locate anymore of the ‘Nusrat style’?

26 | siddi

December 4th, 2006 at 8:16 pm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nusrat_Fateh_Ali_Khan

27 | sun2fs

May 16th, 2007 at 6:33 pm

What a shock! No one on this blog has been able to trace the roots of “Jaage hain”

Has anyone heard of Madan Mohan’s “Lag ja gale” sung by Lata? Now shake n mix it with “Yeh duniya agar mil bhi jaaye” from Pyaasa. What dya get?

28 | jemsheed

May 17th, 2007 at 12:13 pm

Mr.sun2fs, I think u need a shock for making such pointless comparisons.. :).
I dont think rahman needs these much procesees(shake n mix Madan Mohan’s “Lag ja gale” with “Yeh duniya agar mil bhi jaaye”)to make a song.

29 | sun2fs

May 17th, 2007 at 2:26 pm

Mr.jemsheed, do you deny that rehman has lifted the tune of ‘lag ja gale’? the orchestal flourish & the overall style is similar to the pyaasa song.

If jaage rahe was pure original, it would have definately topped the charts. Why do I say this? coz ‘lag ja gale’ is still very popular after so many decades.. its not a classy, not-for-the-masses tune and neither is jaahe hain. So the reason it was not a big hit was becoz of the familiarity of the tune.

30 | arun_verma

May 17th, 2007 at 6:23 pm

sun2fs is right - there is a striking similarity in the tune. Karthik - does this deserve an i2fs.com entry?

31 | jemsheed

May 18th, 2007 at 8:39 am

Mr.sun2fs,Do u think a pure original song will be always a chart buster?I dont hink so.And Jaage hain is not a mass song in anyway.

32 | sun2fs

May 24th, 2007 at 4:41 pm

Mr.Jemsheed, will qalandari’s opinion convince you?

http://qalandari.blogspot.com/2006/11/music-review-guru-ar-rahman-2006.html

Imagine a cross between the Madan Mohan classic Lata solo from Woh Kaun Thi — Lag ja gale ke phir yeh haseen raat ho na ho — and A.R. Rahman’s own Azaadi from Bose, then add night and solitude, and you’ll get the haunting Jaage Hain.

33 | jemsheed

May 24th, 2007 at 5:28 pm

I think its purely conicident..Nothing more than that…if u r goig for this process with another music Directors u will get a lots of songs..

34 | gokulpai

July 31st, 2008 at 5:22 pm

[3/5].. Good.. but doesn’t deserve a Filmfare 4 this!