The Seventeenth Year of 'Rahmanaddiction' - A Tribute

I remember. I was six years old. I was in Hyderabad. I watched Roja in theatre. I remember. I remember remembering only 3 to 4 scenes from the movie. I remember the super strong music that goes in the background when Arvind swaamy is kidnapped and later when he falls to put off the burning Indian flag. However , there are so many things that I don't remember. I don't remember how the teenagers and the twenty thirties of the early ninetees were pissed off with mani ratnam for breaking the golden combination with Ilayaraja. I don't remember how half of the other mentioned crowd and the rest of everyone else fell flat listening to what probably will be the best debut album ever composed. I don't remember how some one that year had got into every home in Chennai on an aeroplane called music. On an aeroplane called scintillating Music.

In fact, my first memory of properly (i mean proppperly) appreciating a RAHMAN album was as late as in 1995. Rangeela. That cassete with yaayi re, hai rama, the theme and the tapori song on its "A" side and tanha tanha, hai rama again and two more songs on side "B". Imagine how much of Rahman i had missed by then. In that gap of 3 years this man had made kollywood music his OWN. He had composed absolutely unforgettable tracks for Gentleman, Thiruda thiruda, Duet, Kadhalan, Bombay, May Madham and Indira. Each of these albums is a masterpiece on its own. Kadhalan had 6 songs and all six were individual chart busters. They were the only reason for the movie being a giga-hit. In that one album Rahman had composed 1)A national award winning carnatic classic, 2)An ultimate dance number which even till this date is the first choice of participants in any dance competition,3) A super cool jazzy duet and above all 4) A rap song in tamil that would be played day and night every week that year in all radios and TV channels. What versatality. The man was just 29 then. In the above mentioned albums Bombay and Thiruda thiruda are ample proofs of how brilliant the RAHMAN background score can get. Thiruda thiruda especially. The pulse of the crime thriller is completely captured by the music.

I have just decided that this tribute is now gonna go through Rahman's glorious career three years by three years. The next three years (from 1996 to 1998) saw Rahman's already super duper career go a huge step higher. He reigned both bollywood and tamil cinema like no one has ever done. Infact no one has actually ever ruled over both the worlds of film music . In what happened to be the starting of an absolutely DEADLY combination, Rahman joined hands with super star rajinikanth to compose Rajini's best opening song TILL DATE. Oruvan Oruvan Mudhalali from Muthu in S.PB.'s timeless voice gives maximum goose bumps to any rajini fan around. Unfortunately in Muthu Rahman did one bad thing to tamil music. He introduced Udit Narayan to tamil cinema and the latter went on to cut,butcher and burn Tamil - alive!! . On the music front Rahman made rapid strides this year. He gave an exhilarating score in Shankar's most powerful film ever - Indian - the Kamal Haasan starrer which required very powerful music and got just that. We also got some super-soothing melodies in Kadirs Kadhal Desam, HAUNTING tracks in Deepa mehtas FIRE, fresh musical fragrance in Rajiv Menons Minsara kanavu /sapne and to top it all we had IRUVAR- Mani Ratnams most technically SOUND film and that technically sound part of it is also thanks to the sound sounds that rahman created. Rahman went on to win the hearts of all youngsters with peppier than the peppiest numbers in JEANS, DAUD and Rakshagan. Then came the masterpiece. From his heart. Dil Se - Oh what tracks. The best of singers collaborating with the best music director in the country to give the best songs Krish King Nishanth and his countrymen have heard in years. Sukhwinder Singh is all soul in chaiyya chaiyya, Lata Mangeshkar is all poise in Jiya jale, Udit Narayan is all melody in Aye ajnabi and sonu nigam is all pain in satrangi re. Add to all this we have the Rahman himself in a stunning title track.

The goose bumpy combo of Rahman and Rajinikanth returned in Padayappa - formula intact - had one opening song, one 'hero rises from ashes' song, one sad number and two duets. A mind rattling combo of class and mass. We had more magic in Taal, Takshak, Mudhalvan, Kadhalar dinam and tajmahal - a film which even Rahman's music could not save from being a flop. Thanks to this star-son called manoj.B....

Then in the year 2000, Rahman did the UN-DO-ABLE. He composed absolute gems of albums on a trot - Pukar, Alaipayudhe, Kandukondein, Rythm and Zubeida - ALL IN A TIME OF A FEW MONTHS!!! - BELIEVE IT? No other Indian composer has ever been in such a music making form. Rahman was. This was the GOLDEN ERA for sure. This was the time when people totally fell in love with him. WE surrendered to the GENIUS.

2001 , for RAHMAN had a bang on brilliant start in Lagaan. The movie which almost made it to the oscars had a collection of very "made for the situation" songs - again of all genres and also had a 'well researched and made' back ground score. After a dull year Rahman struck back with the most patriotic album ever made in India- THE LEGEND OF BHAGAT SINGH. THIS album remains the "most played album ever" in Krish King Nishanths tape recorder history.
Kadhal Virus And Boys were hip and very very hot on the market. They made more money for the audio company than all their previous albums put together. Then came the super BGM and international glory in WARRIORS of heaven and earth. Followed by more hip songs for unfortunately undeserving movies like Meenaxi, e20u18, Yuva and New.

Then began a slight slide downwards in touch and form but Rahman kept bouncing back every other film with mind boggling chart busters like RANG de basanti, Sivaji the boss, Guru.
More international glory with Elizabeth:- the golden age. And more show of sheer versatality in Jodha Akbar and Jaane tu ya Jaane Naa - how different the two of them and how satisfying - both.

And finally ALLAH RAKHA RAHMAN - NOW JUST 42 years old - Has truly arrived on the International stage. A dozen awards for his soul-stirring scores in SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE iced on top with the GOLDEN GLOBE and high chances of being the first INDIAN to win an OSCAR award in a live category - Rahman has made it bigger than what anyone could have ever imagined.

But guess what? - This is just the beginning.