Hassan Learns French Cooking - A. R. Rahman.

               

 Link to the Soundtrack: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JPRf96ETE6U

I got to listen to A. R. Rahman's latest Hollywood soundtrack Hundred Foot Journey, only after a month of its release. I listened to the first track, and needless to say, I was bowled over! I was so addicted that I postponed listening to the remaining tracks.

Hassan Learns French Cooking is an absolute delight with the perfect blend of Western Classical and Indian music. Who else in the west (among those 'wannabe exotic' ones and the significantly better Mychael Danna) can think of a near-perfect Carnatic Violin bit amidst a western string section? Wait!! You have a bigger surprise here. That's NOT a Carnatic Violin, but a Sarangi, that deceptively appears like a Kunnakudi Vaidyanathan cameo in one of Bruce Broughton's less complex pieces. The humble, soft-spoken Rahman has a 'screw the rules, screw the conventions!' attitude here, being daringly, audaciously out-of-the-box! By the way, would Broughton have imagined a disguised Santoor in one such piece?

Here, Rahman is not being exotic just for the sake of being so. Just see how brilliantly the Santoor compliments the oboe from 2:20 to 2:23. Oh yes, Rahman is being his avant-garde self here, for the first time in his Hollywood stint. (By the way, Mr. Hans Zimmer, why don't you consider sampling that short Santoor piece and adding it to your trademark ostinato template? :D !)

Though, the strong Mozart influence from 3:58 to 4:17 sounds extremely pleasing, the phrasing sounds very familiar. Shortly after that, the subtle French horn and its Oboe-counter from 4:18 make us feel that we are back in the Broughton territory, just when Rahman punctiliously shifts gears to exotic Indianness.

What a theme! Saying that this is a promising start to the soundtrack, would be an understatement, because the piece has already delivered to the promise!

'Rana's Dream', one of AR Rahman's finest and most complex compositions.

I have been a big Rahmaniac since childhood. In fact, I had my first overwhelming experience with music at the age of six, when my father gifted me a cassette of Rangeela (The song  'Rangeela Re' was aired on a television channel and my dad noticed me enjoying it. He got me the audio cassette the very next day! The first audio cassette I owned!)

Though proud that, Rahman proved his proficiency in numerous genres and revolutionized Indian film music, I always felt that his orchestral/symphonic attempts after 1994, were shallow. Even in Hollywood, his orchestral pieces like 'Jason and Cynthia Suite' (from 'Couples Retreat') lacked depth.

But his most recent orchestral piece 'Rana's Dream' proves to be a different experience. It turns out to be one of the most complex compositions of Rahman till date.

Though it starts off with ostensible nods to Ilaiyaraaja's score of 'Pazhassiraja', it goes on to carve its own unique identity. What's brilliant is that Rahman uses the same melody to employ counterpoint in a fashion which Gustav Mahler employed in the second movement of his 5th symphony. Here, Rahman's main melody, (which uses the tune of 'Enge Pogudhu Vaanam..Ange Pogirom Naamum') counters itself. So how does Rahman go about constructing this complex contrapuntal texture?

Well, I don't know notations as I am no musician. So kindly allow me to split 'Enge Pogudhu Vaanam..Ange Pogirom Naamum' into notes:

'en', 'ge', 'po', 'gu', 'dho', 'vaa', 'nam'

AND

'AN', 'GE' (In uppercase to denote that it is different from the above 'ge'), 'PO', 'GI', 'ROM', 'NAA', 'MUM'

So for instance, the main melody is on the Cellos and reaches the note 'dho', the Horns join in and start playing from the note 'en'.  Again when the melody on the horns reaches the note 'NAA',  the cello simultaneously starts playing from 'en' and so on. This is just an example, but the complexity of counterpoint is much more as the track progresses, with the horns, strings and woodwinds continuously countering each other, and sometimes (rather many times) counters happening within the horn section itself.

Sheer brilliance!

Sad to see Alexandre Desplat doing pastiches of Hans Zimmer's action scores, particularly those ostinatos accentuated with bombastic brass. Desplat could have taken the score of 'War of the Worlds' by John Williams as an influence (rather reference) while scoring Godzilla.

There are occasions in the movie where subtle notes in piano and harp punctuate silence, and one would expect Desplat to sustain this with adequate support of restrained, but serene strings, but instead he chooses to go for environmental synth mumbo jumbo. 

Though, Desplat made his Hollywood entry sometime in the early 2000's, I became a huge admirer of him, after watching 'The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button'. I fell deeply in love with the score, and the very thought that another French maestro has announced his arrival in Hollywood excited me. I thought the scene would change, as the ideal successor to Maurice Jarre has arrived! But he too has resorted to aping Zimmer!

Poovaname Punnarame...

                          

Poovaname Punnarame, a simple but spellbinding composition by Sharreth from 'Thalsamayam Oru Penkutty'. The melody in the Pallavi, the pattern of chords and the backing strings in the 'kannippoovani thennale' portion are signature Ilaiyaraaja stuff.

After the first BGM filled with heart-warming strings, Sharreth returns to his 'Manjuneeril' (Thirakadha) style in the charanam. Rendered to perfection by Alka Ajith!

It has been almost two years since the release of the Amal Neerad film, Bachelor Party. The DVD of the film remains one of my most prized possessions. Not for the story, not for the characters, not for Amal Neerad's lensmanship, but for that stunning original [background] score by Rahul Raj.

The score was composed and produced in less than 18 days. Despite working under ridiculously constrained schedules, the resultant score was in my opinion, the finest ever electronic and percussive action score produced in Indian Cinema.

Each cue is intricately layered with riveting guitar riffs, pulsating rhythms and inventive synth sounds resulting in intriguingly dense sonic textures, never before heard in Indian film scores. I know this is one of those films, which Malayalis 'love' to hate, or rather consider a 'fashion' to hate, lamenting on 'style over substance'. But the score definitely is a flamboyant display of the composer's extraordinary talent and exceptional craftsmanship!

Ilaiyaraaja's song from Vyaamoham (1978)
 


LINK:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nj9J3zteEb0



'Neeyo Njaano' composed by Ilaiyaraaja for his Malayalam Debut 'Vyaamoham' (1978), directed by K.G. George. The film was also Ilaiyaraaja's FIRST Non-Tamil venture.

The song was well ahead of its times. Be it the stylish flute prelude or the counterpoint from 1:44 to 1:59; the song alone would have sufficed to judge his sheer genius!

Back in those times, I believe Ilaiyaraaja and Salil Chowdhury were the only Indian composers with contrapuntal mastery.