When The Building Came Alive

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Kasturi Dhama Apartments — the play area where many evenings came alive. The lights would go out without warning. For a brief second, the entire building would fall silent. Then, from somewhere in Kasturi Dhama Apartments, a chorus would erupt. “Yayyy!” It is difficult to imagine children celebrating a power failure today. But in the Bangalore of the nineties and early 2000s, a power cut did not always feel like an inconvenience. Especially in the late evenings, it felt like permission. Permission to stop whatever we were doing, leave the darkness inside our homes, and step into the building outside. Before Kasturi Dhama became home, we had moved through a few different parts of Bangalore. My family had begun in Srirampuram and Vyalikaval before gradually cementing ourselves in Malleswaram for the next few decades. My earliest memory is of living in a vatara —a Kannada word loosely used for a building or a cluster of homes—on 15th Cross, near Karur Vy...
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New York Nagaram - Another ARR Magic


As AR Rahman came up with his latest album, Jillunu Oru Kadhal, I expected it to be just an yet another composition from the maestro. But, it turned out to be an amazing musical experience for the listeners. This album from Rahman is one of the best Tamil compositions in recent times. There are about six songs in the album, but the one that caught my attention was New York Nagaram. This song is sung by ARR himself, and the silky voice lends a soothing touch to the song. It is good to see that Rahman is singing more often these days, as we saw in Rang De Basanti and Swades. Both, Lluka Chhuppi and Yeh Jo Des Hai Tera went on to become charbusters. New York Nagaram has become a sort of anthem for the youngsters, with amazing music and unbeatable lyrics from Vaali.

The song starts off in a very unconventional mode, with Rahman lending an out-of-mode humming tune to the song. The humming is soon drowned to a nicetly by the touch of guitar, and then the lyrics flow forth in absolute clarity. The lyrics are not lost in music, as it happens sometimes. But, as long as the music is good, who is going to complain about the lyrics anyways? The perfect ebb in Rahman's voice renders a totally different setting which would have lacked totally with the purists. The modulation in voice, the synchronization, the background beats, the percussions and anything that can be thought of, has resulted in the end product being of very high quality.

This album has already hit the charts in style, and it remains to be seen whether the movie can support the quality of music. It has always been a problem for Rahman in recent times, where the movie has bombed when the music has been of exceptional quality. Bose and Kangalal Kaidhu Sei are perfect examples in this regard. Whatever may be the outcome of the overall music, Rahman as always has set a new trend with New York Nagaram, which undoubtedly is the best song of the album. The freshness in the album is sure to do well with the masses.

Comments

  1. AnonymousNovember 3, 2008 at 1:17 AM

    'naatkurippil nooru thatavai unthan peyarrai ezhuthum enn penna….ezhuthiyathum errumbu moikka peiyyar indru aanathenna thenna’. awesome words and perfect tune with wonderful feel.
    Now I am doubtless. Synonym of music is none but, A.R.Rahman…
    You know, this song simply takes us up away from tension. Play this song while sleeping…I swear u can feel the beautiful night skies upon u.
    ARR rocks!

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