Sivaji Music Review
April 5, 2007
People always want to listen to music that makes them forget all their sorrows and give few minutes of relief. Some people just want conventional pieces of music and some want variances. But on the whole I think people like to see change. Even if its conventional tunes, they want something new out of it. Some freshness. No one will listen to the same kind of music on and on and feel good about it. They always look for a change. Something thats never been done before. Something of class. Something memorable. Something unique. Something that has its IT quality that when you listen to such music you feel amazed, you feel something magical and feel all your nerves give some kind fo a shiver and shrill and make you want more! And only a very few composers know how to make this magic potion well. Well enough that its not only good, not only unique but something thats so precious that its worth carrying on for generations to come and makes you feel proud that you live in the same era as such a music genius. That in my opinion is A R Rahman. A person who knows the pulse of his audience very well and is never afraid of trying something new and always ready to experiment. Not only he gives great music butis very experimental and way ahead of time! That it will take few years before other music directors can or will have such guts or talent to incorporate such new trends in their music. One such example was the rap in the song Peta Rap from Kadhalan. When rap wasnt even heard in the tamil cinema music genre he introduced rap and he introduced it well! But only now every other music director has some kind of rap music in their compositions and think they just rock the world! But they are wrong! They are just makign us bored! Now one such example is the music of Sivaji. It just sets a new trend! A new style! A new beginning for the Tamil music scene! Rahman has been very experimental and has worked so hard that every single song is something unique and pleasing to the ears and above all it makes you think ” Ive never heard such music before….but……its cool!” Now to my individual evaluation:
Balleilakka:
This tune just brings back memories not only if you lived in a village before but just basically anywhere! Its a rustic tune with village beats all along which makes it a typical Rajini intro song. I was really pleased by the way the female chorus starts off the song with its ” Sooriyano Chandirano ” tune. It has an amazing cresendo and staccato effect in every single word which makes it sound interesting. SPB’s voice sounds fresh and yound and no other man can do better with singing beautifulyl so fast with all the rettai kilavi present in the song. Rahman is such a fan of the Nadaswaram therefore in every single village folk tune he makes sure he adds a small interlude of it which is fascinating to hear! Otherwise this song is mainly depended on village folky beats and its a great song to uplift your spirits!
Style:
I should say this song just brings a new style to the tamil music or I am pretty sure to the Indian music industry. Its amazing. Its very obvious that this is one of rahmans experimental pieces but it works big time! It has the rnb, hip hop, techno feel to it and the mixture makes it such a hip and cool song. Its very funky and I am sure this is going to be the youths anthem in the comming years! Thesong has a different way of pronouncing tamil and makes you wanna have fun with your own personality. The best part of the song is the interesting interlude in middle of the song when the chorus sings the “Ada Ada” part. The electronic guitar and the funky beats work big time along with the weird sounds from the keyboard! I was reading that many people were complaining about the tamil accent used in the song. To be honest it doesnt bother me a bit becuase I consider it as another tamil accent. An accent you hear when a foreigner speaks our language and it works well for the song. Theres nothing wrong with it.just simple fun. A new singer called Rags has been introduced to the music scene and he does his work well! One of my picks of the album.
Athiradee:
This is my favourite song from the album. Again such a new feel, a new genre of song. To top it all of the singing of Rahman! I dont know how he does it but in every song he sings theres something different about his voice that makes the song extra special. This song has some heavy beats and just makes you wanna dance wildly. Sayanora compliments Rahman with her western voice as well. Again this song makes use of electronic guitars and gives some techno funky feel to the song. Before the 2nd verse is sung there is this instrumental interlude which gives you the feel of a spy movie and spookiness, hold on before you even digest it the lyrics tells you ” James bond pola seyyum spy thaan!” how great is that! Simply perfect. Adding on to this is the lyrics by Valee. I love the way he has used the rhyming words thee, jothi, thil thik thil, anril kunril, sikuthey, sokuthey, thotta potta and it just keeps on going! simply perfect. The only fear I have is that this song might be used as some kind of background score and I hope it doesnt happen. The reason is I cant seem to match up rahmans voice with rajini! so lets hope for the best!
Sahana:
A romantic slow melody sung by one of my favourite Chinmayee. As always Rahman is just the king of making sof romantic melodies and it always has something new to offer. One of the classic examples of class composing is when Chinmayee sings her first line and it ends off with the touch of a mridangam beat! It just nails it! I would have to say Chinmayee out shines Udit in this song. Shes just perfect every note is honey to the ears. One thing I noticed in the song is that the female part never sings Sahana Saaral thoovutho as her first line. Even when she does at the ending its been completed by udit. Theres something spooky about that. The best thign about rahman thats evident in this song is the amount of layering he provides even for a simple melody. Theres a main beat, a minor beat, the beat of the mridangam, a orchestral filling and some flute pieces inbetween along with the song which serves you as a perfect chocolate cake with perfect cream and cherry filling! Another interesting observation is that the lyrics are very little in the song but the song is about 5 or more minutes long and you never feel bored of hearing the same lyrics! Thats the power of this man that no one else can beat!
The Boss:
Some kind of theme music which is the icing on the cake! It starts off with a sound of a coin falling down and then some whooshing sounds that haunts you!And slowly proceeds with some clapping and then comes to some interesting notes made by some new instrument, again bringining that techno funky dancy feel to the song!He uses the elctric guitar again and then comes the best part of the song the weird thumping deep sound that goes up and down and just makes you go aww! It brings a new feel to you and makes you wonder what this man cannot do! Then after the words have been sung the haunting thumping sound comes again accompanied by a trumpet! Then its topped off some intersting deep beats that make you thump hard! Interesting composition and I wish ti was longer than the 3 mins! Its a new experience!
Sahara:
The sad verison of Sahana but doesnt feel that sad at all! again slow melody accompanied by a guitar and amazing flute work by Naveen. Vijay yesudas is good but nothing really special about him. I am still wondering the reason for the additon of the thiruvembai in the song. But it works well! A good piece, feels more like a lullaby. The chorus does great work with the humming as well! A well deserved peace after all the new funky heart thomping beats!
Vaji Vaji:
A conventional rahmanic score. Nothing is bad about it except that Rahman is used to giving such pieces in the past so nothing unique about the sound of it. A typical rajinish song will work well with the masses! Hariharan and Madhushree do they job well as always!
On the whole a splendid journey which is very unusual and funky! You should be ready and be open minded to accept such new fresh pieces in order to appreciate them! Hats off to rahman for introducing us to this new genre of music fusion to tamil music! A well composed album and will serve as a pioneer to other composers for introducing such new fresh fun sounds!
One word: Splendid!
