The top 10 greatest AR Rahman film soundtracks
Sidin Vadukut -
Wednesday, February 25, 2009 10:34 AM
Don't take our word for it.
It's what you, the readers of this blog, told us after enthusiastically participating in the poll mentioned in the last post. Many of you left comments and dozens of you polled. At the final count, we had exactly 200 votes when we decided to analyze results at around 10:30 AM this morning. We had asked you to choose from five films of our choosing (Rang De Basanti, Roja, Pudhiya Mugam, Delhi 6 and Lagaan) plus Slumdog Millionaire and let you add films of your own choosing. And you committed music fans added plenty: we had atleast one vote for a total of 25 films. (Opinions made in the comments section have not been taken into account. Not because we don't like your comments, we crave comments, but because we could be double counting people who commented and polled.)
Here in reverse order of votes won are the top 10 most popular ARR film soundtracks according to PlayThings readers:
Number 10: Thiruda Thiruda
A ARR-Mani Ratnam project from 1993 that did not do too well at the box office but won plenty of fans for its music. Every track was a hit including Veerapandi Kottayile, Konjam Nilavu and Rasathi. Little known fact about Thiruda Thiruda: the writing credits for this movie goes to a then little known writer and film maker Ram Gopal Varma. He went on to later make Ram Gopal Varma ki Aag and make me want to bludgeon myself to death with a remote control.
Number 9: Iruvar
Again a ARR-MR project, Iruvar was a controversial lightly veiled biopic of Tamil politician, film star and god-on-earth MG Ramachandran. No one will forget the Hello Mister song in the movie not just for the music itself but for the unveiling of a young, sexy Aishwarya Rai in her debut film. Cue goosebumps. And then some. (Also Mohanlal! Yay!)
Number 8: Alaipayuthe
Yes, this ARR-MR collaboration business is beginning to bore no? But whatay soundtrack this is. And the rare movie that matches Rahman's music with stunning visuals. One of my fave tracks from the album, Endendrum Punnagai, was originally not part of the album. (And if I remember right, was missing from the first batch of CDs and tapes.) But it was very popular and they brought it back into the official OST.
Number 7: Pudhiya Mugam
Collective high five everyone. I won't repeat everything I said before, but if you haven't had a chance to listen to music you really must. And try to ignore the damp squib Vishwavidaata remix.
Number 6: Delhi-6
For a while I was worried about Delhi-6. After the first 100 votes or so, there wasn't even one vote for this recent masterpiece. Thankfully it picked up steam later. A wonderfully varied and nuanced track if you ask me. That and Dev D will take time to be replaced in our iPods.
Number 5: Bombay
No surprises here. A critical and popular success in every language. Wikipedia adds these bits of trivia:
The track "Bombay Theme" from the soundtrack is an instrumental orchestral piece composed, arranged and conducted by A. R. Rahman. It was recently featured in the soundtrack and score of the Nicolas Cage film Lord of War, released in 2005. It has appeared on several compillation CDs since the film's release including on Volume 5 of the chill-out compilation Café del Mar, released in 1998. It also appeared on a French TV commercial for Volvic starring Zinedine Zidane in 2000. The soundtrack also found success in its dubbed versions.
Number 4: Lagaan
What did you say? A three hour musical about a cricket match? HELL YEAH! The L.A. Times spokes for us all when they said:
Ashutosh Gowariker's glorious "Lagaan: Once Upon a Time in India" is to the Bollywood musical epic what Ang Lee's "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" was to the period martial arts action adventure: an affectionate homage to a popular genre that raises it to the level of an art film with fully drawn characters, a serious underlying theme and a sophisticated style and point of view.
Most crucially, its songs and dances are not mere interludes inserted in the action, bringing it to a halt--a Bollywood trademark--but are fully integrated into the plot and marked by expressive, dynamic singing and dancing that infuse a historical drama with energy and immediacy.
Number 3: Rang De Basanti
Did you know that Nelly Furtado was, at one point, lined up to perform on the album? And while the movie didn't repeat the Oscar nomination success of RDB, it did get a couple of tracks on to the long list. Super super album.
Number 2: Dil Se...
Notice how accurately we put three dots at the end of the title. This one was not on our list and was added on by enthusiasts. Weonderfully shot, beautifully supported music but a slightly underwhelming film. The opening song, that one on the train with Malaika Arora and SRK, ranked ninth on a BBC World Top Ten.
Which nicely brings us to the most highly rated AR Rahman motion picture soundtrack of all time... (drum roll... okay now a little flute... trumpets...)
Number 1: Roja
ARR's first ever movie soundtrack remains his most popular. Roja was easily the most favoured in our poll, picking up almost half of all votes polled. Which is remarkable for a movie album now going on 17 years. (My, haven't we all grown old.) Richard Corliss of Time magazine puts it nicely in his listing of the Top 100 soundtracks of all time:
Through this grim political parable, Rahman laced some spectacular melodies that not only serve the drama, they create their own[EM]as in the duet ballads "Yeh Haseen Vadiyan" and "Roja Jaaneman," which first are grounded in recitative, then suddenly ascend into celestial melody. 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.
Many thanks for everyone who read the post, commented and voted. Do tell us what you think of the results. And a colleague also asks me to hark out to all the Illayaraja fans out there. So what do you guys have to say about all this attention going out to your arch-nemesis? Vent fury I say!
P.s. The poll remains open indefinitely. Who knows? Maybe time will change those ratings.