The Legislative Assembly. Lots of people (MLAs) clad in white shirts and dhothis enter the hall. Their appearance suggests that most of them are probably illiterate or not much educated. Along with them, 4 youngsters in t-shirts and jeans enter the hall. A glaring difference between these 4 and the rest in the hall.
This is how Mani Ratnam's Yuva (Aayitha Ezhuthu in thamizh) ends. This is Mani's dream - that more and more of educated youngsters will enter politics - which will hopefully satisfy the ultimate goal - a developed India - in the near future!

But, how soon can we expect this to happen? I was shocked to hear some statistics quoted by my professor Mr. R*ajeev G*owda in class today. Mr. G*owda is a congress party member and is contesting for the Legislative Council elections to be held in 2 months time. He is contesting under the P*rofessors Q*uota (or something like that!!), for which the electorate will consist only of graduates. And, when he told of his decision to contest in this quota, all that he got was discouragement!!!

The reason? The number of graduates from Bangalore who voted in the last Lok Sabha election, was a mere 27,000. The electorate consisted of about 5 Lakh graduates. That is just 5.4% polling from the graduates!!!

Why is this so? How can people be so irresponsible?
If the educated people are so careless and and are so hesitant to spend just a few minutes of their time cast their vote, can we expect them to enter poiltics?

It is a small consolation that there are at least a few well-educated youngsters like Dhayanidhi Maran in the cabinet. I started this post saying that educated younsters in politics is Mani's dream... Well... it is my dream too... And, it must be the dream of every Indian.

"Dream, dream and dream; and convert these into thoughts and later into actions."
-President Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam
By Aravind on Tuesday, July 26, 2005 at 11:13 PM Post Categories:

Aaararai kodi paergalil oruvan,
Adiyen thamizhan, naan ungal nanban

Thus starts the title track of Ah Aah. Was it written to signal ARR's return to Thamizh movies after a year? well...I do not know...

Whatever!! ARR has come back in style with Ah Aah. Beautiful, colourful album!! You get to hear so many different sounds and lots of experimentations throughout the album, which leaves you spell bound. There are 6 songs in the album, each one so different.

Anbe Aaruyire
This is the title track of the movie. ARR sings this song, along with child-chorus. ARRs enchanting voice makes me play this song in Winamp in repeat mode! And the lyrics - It is as if ARR is saying, "I am a thamizhan and I am back in thamizh". Look at the lyrics - Vanna thamizh paattu aayiram solven and Ungal Magizhchiyai Paattil vaippen. The lyrics fit ARR! Still wondering how this is picturised in the movie!
One negative aspect is the heavy percussion, which shadows ARR's voice in some places.
However, this is a great song!

Thazhuvudhu Nazhuvudhu
Shreya Ghoshal and SPB rock! Is it really Shreya? Flawless thamizh pronunciation, and that too, considering the fact that the lyrics are nothing less than a tongue-twister!!! The constantly changing rhythm patterns keeps you interested in the finer aspects even after repeated hearings!

The way the voice is blended with instruments (is there a technical term for this?) is brilliant! This effect is quite pronounced in Maramkothiye song too. ARR had earlier used this technique in "oh humdum suniyo rey".

Mayilirage
The song starts with Thavil. Then an instument that sounds like nathaswaram joins in! There has been a debate going on, in ARR Fans Yahoo Groups regarding what this instrument is - people came up with different ideas - Tenor Sax, Oboe, Shenai Voice in KORG etc. etc... We still do not have an answer. Whatever... That piece is so catchy and keeps playing in your ear even after you switch off the player!

The vocalists are Madhu Shree and Naresh Iyer. Madhu Shree's voice is as sweet as ever! She sounds like Sadhna Sargam in many places. And for those who don't know about Naresh Iyer - he is the one who failed to win the Super Singer (ARR was the judge), but got a chance to make a great debut under ARR!
A Beautiful melody - the next "Snegithane"!

Thigu Thigu
Slow ghazal-type beats and Sadhna Sargam's melliflous voice provide a very different start. And that too, the first 45 seconds of the song sounds, as though we are hearing it on an old radio set, with lots of disturbance. Will have to watch the movie to know why it is so...

ARR has this knack of inserting a catchy bit in some songs, to which you will be addicted. In this song, it is the "thala thala thala... anai anai anai" bit. This rhythmic bit has been inserted into the soulful melody without losing the effect of both.

Strangely enough, neither the cassette/CD covers nor the websites mention the name of the male singer in this song!

Maramkothiye
Maramkothiye is a fast, disco number with lots of techno beats and sounds. The beginning rap "wanna wanna be a woodpecker" is good. Think it is by Blaaze. Shalini and Vasundhara Das are best suited for such songs and they do deliver. Shankar Mahadevan too does a good job.

The most interesting aspect of this song is that this song has the same basic tune as that of "Mayilirage". I figured this out only after 4-5 hearings. So well disguised. It is really amazing that the same tune fits a pleasing melody and a fast dance number!

Varugirai
A pathos song from ARR after a long time. And it breaks all the conventions and rules of pathos songs. Hariharan and Chitra are the singers. What more can one expect from the legends. Hariharan shines in the high pitched parts in the second stanza.


True to the line "Ungal Magizhchiyai Paattil vaippen" in the title song, ARR has made everyone happy with this album.

Overall, ah aah-some musical treat.


(ah... my first attempt writing a review for a music album... finally!!)

By Aravind on Sunday, July 24, 2005 at 11:03 PM Post Categories: , ,
This weekend was painful, with 2 quizzes on Saturday and one today!! Finished all 3 and here I am to blog-o-sphere! Based on last years papers, we expected the all 3 quizzes to be very very tough! Last year, the first quiz was meant to psyche out everyone!! But. all of us got a pleasant surprise when we saw the questions. Pretty simple actually! But, there is this factor of RG (Relative Grading). It is not your performance alone that matters, but others performances matter too!!!

Whateva, finished with it... will have a peaceful sunday!!
By Aravind on Post Categories:
Have been listening to the songs of Ah Aah for the past 3 days. Have been totally hooked on to it.

The website for Ah Aah is also up! In fact, there are two websites for the movie. And, both of them claim to be the "official" website for the movie.
www.ah-aahthefilm.com
http://www.ah-aah.com/
By Aravind on Friday, July 22, 2005 at 11:24 PM Post Categories:
As I had mentioned, it is indeed going to be a double treat from the master! Anxiously waiting for ARR's Thamizh movie after a year!!!
By Aravind on Wednesday, July 20, 2005 at 7:15 AM Post Categories: ,
One of my toughest weeks at IIMB... With 2 submissions and 3 tests coming up this weekend and impending surprize quizzes over the week, there is hardly any time for anything else - let alone blogging!
Still manage to find some time to catch up with "Rising" songs at least once a day !!!

Hopefully, will update my blog over the weekend!
By Aravind on Tuesday, July 19, 2005 at 11:19 PM Post Categories:
Ganguly jokes were quite popular few months back... now, Ganguly jokes are back - with the latest sensation - Anniyan. Read this converstion, which has been circulated over the net! Quite hilarious...


Ambi: Mr Ganguly y r u shouting at the umpire, after u have been declared out ??? athu sattappadi thappu

Ganguly:dey kudumi, naa yaar theriyuma bengal tiger appidithan kathuven.

Ambi:kenya,bangaldesh kooda century adikirale australia,pakistan na 1 bathroom poralae...y?

Ganguly:naan dhadha da , thevayana apo matum than aaduven.

Ambi: mr ganguly captains like ponting, inzy, smith ellarum century adichu team jeyika vaikara ,aana neengo aadave maatiringale?

Ganguly:dey kudumi,athan sachin, dravid, sehwag ellam century adikiraanungala apuram naan yethuku adikanum

Ambi: alatchiyama pesathingo Mr ganguly, aduthava talentla fame gain pandrathu thapu!!

Ganguly:poda kudumi, yenake advice pandriya @#%@^#$%^@$%^$%^$%^


(Oh saka shasiya.. maa shisa anniya plays in the bacground)

Ganguly:yaaruga neenga gillespi maathiri hair style vachurikinga???

Anniyan : naan avan ila da yema , yenda run adika ve maatingara,

Ganguly: batting form appo appo vanthutu pogum, cricketla ithellam sagajam thanunga.....

Anniyan : ippidi soli thapichidalaamnu paakiriya.....

Anniyan: 5 run edutha thapa?????????

Ganguly:onum thapu ilinga......

Anniyan: 5 matchla 5 run edutha thapa?????????

Ganguly:thapu maari thanga theriyuthu..........

Anniyan: 5 varushama 5 5 matcha 5 run edutha thapa?????????

Ganguly: periya thapu thaanga...........

Anniyan: kamunati athathanda oruoru matchalayum nee panikitu iruka

Anniyan: unakellam ballbojanam thanda, nee than stump akthar,sami,lee,mcgrath ellarum una vachuthan bowling practice panaporaanga!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
By Aravind on Sunday, July 17, 2005 at 11:35 PM Post Categories:
Came across this blog of singer Chinmayi... If the name does not ring any bell to you, then think of "Oru theivam thandha poove" from Kannathil Muthamittal! The blog contains some well written posts about music!

Click here to access her blog.
By Aravind on Saturday, July 16, 2005 at 10:29 PM Post Categories:

Finally, the audio of Rising has released. Listened the album 3 times today. Dont want to comment on it now as it takes lots of time and repeated hearing to digest all the new experimentations ARR has done!

But one song that stands out in the album (on first hearing) is "Mai Vari Vari". Simply mind-blowing!!! Wonderful classical piece. This song surprised me a lot, because this is one of the very few songs which I started lovvvving right from the first hearing!!!

About the other songs... later!!!
By Aravind on Friday, July 15, 2005 at 11:01 PM Post Categories: ,
It was really funny to listen to some of the songs of Anniyan. What makes it funny are the lyrics. For example, lets take "Kannum Kannum Nokia". Such inane lyrics.

Kannun Kannum Nokia ('eyes and eyes are Nokia'..what the hell does this mean?)
Nee Kollai kollum Mafia. (wow.. what a word to describe a girl!!!)
Capuccino coffee-yaa?
Sophiaaaa
(Sophia?!! Who the hell is Sophia? Where does she come in?)

aiwa aiwa aiwa azhagey Vaa vaa ("Aiwa" beauty?????????)


Here are more such irrelevant words used in the song:

Cyanide, Apple Laptop, Octopus Viralgal, Atom-Bomb, America Varaipadam (Map of America!!!)

Pretty disgusting lyrics. One of the worst lyrics I have come across, for a long time - and what shocks me more is that, these were written by none other than Vairamuthu.
There are people like Thamarai - who writes "prose" for lyrics (more on this later). Snehan, Vivegan etc., who degrade tamil lyrics. Vairamuthu was the only hope - but what is happening now? Excuses such as "director wanted the lyrics that way" do not hold water. He is the best in the industry and he can dictate. And of course, if he is forced to write such lyrics, he can simply walk off! If Vairamuthu himself wields to the pressure, then what can we expect from the lesser-known so-called poets?
By Aravind on Thursday, July 14, 2005 at 10:23 PM Post Categories:
Finally, got to hear the much-hyped "Thiruvasagam in Symphony(Tis)". And, as it usually happens for most of the media-hypes, TiS is a big disappointment. Nothing new in tunes. All the tunes remind of some of the earlier tamil movie songs of Illayraja. And the "aaah" chorus in most of the songs, irritate.

Here is a review that appeard on Indian Express:
Any music becomes significant based on melody or
harmony or both.While melody is intrinsic and
spontanious, harmony is invariably introduced. That is
the reason why many of our folk songs and carnatic
music rely heavily on melody than on hormony. Western
music is known more for its harmony. There is
absolutely no bakthi in it. They concentrated more on
their technical wizardry and intellectual creativity.
Fusions are always odious and many times atricious.
The most grotesque fusion of recent times is the much
hyped Isai Gnani Ilayaraja's "Thiruvasakam in
Symphonic Oratorio".
How can purely South Indian Tamil devotional verses
fit into a totally alien orchestral extravaganza,
however chaste and perfect it might be? The tunes of
Ilayaraja for the Thiruvasakam carry vague
resemblancesto his film songs with weak notes of
Kalyani, Shanmugapriya and Sudha dhanyasi. Listeners
are assaulted by a chorus in English at the most
inappropriate junctures. The cover of the album says
that this is a cultural crossover, I feel it is
anothing but cultural aggression. As an ardent Raja
fan, I have only one word to say about the album:
Sorry.
By Aravind on Wednesday, July 13, 2005 at 10:08 PM Post Categories: ,
I often wonder, why this happens to ARR everytime. I am talking about the delay in release of albums and movies of ARR. Rising did not release yesterday, as was stated.
Total disappointment :-(

ARR has been in a terrible luck, of late. Some of his masterpieces over the past one and half years, have gone unnoticed - Tehzeeb (listen to the 3 awesommme melodies by Sujatha Bhattacharya aka Madhu Shree! Wow!! Wowwww!!!), Bose (one of the best by ARR), Lakeer. The main reasons being delays and lack of publicity. Bose came in after a very longggg wait, but not enough publicity was done. The case with Tehzeeb and Lakeer was much different. People hardly knew that such an album was ever released - such is the plight of an album of India's best composer.

The media also played a biggggg role in this. It was the media which wrote off Swades as a bad movie and poor music - they only support stupid skin flicks.

Looking at all this, I often wonder, if the north-south bias has come in to play - we have seen that happen all the time - SPB, Kamal Hassan, Illayaraaja, Director Shankar.....

All were rejected. Only the actresses from south could survive in Bollywood. Sincerely hoping this is not the case with ARR - otherwise, even God can not save Hindi Film music from the stupid Anu Maliks, Nadeems and Shravans!

Waiting for Rising to break all this and create history!

By Aravind on Tuesday, July 12, 2005 at 11:46 PM Post Categories:
Lots of rumours have floating around about the release dates of 2 of A.R. Rahman's albums:
   The Rising - Ballad of Mangal Pandey
Ah Aah (Tamil)
Finally, got a news from a fellow Rahmaniac, that audio of Rising will be available tomorrow
(12th July) and Ah Aah on 20th July. Its been quite a long time since 2 of ARR's albums have released within such a short span of time (Taj Mahal and Mudhalvan were released at around the same time, if I am not wrong). Anxiously waiting for the 2 albums.

The music on the site of "Rising" truely rocks, and increases the expectations. And of course, lots of expectations on Ah Aah too, as it is ARR's thamizh (I always prefer to spell it this way !!) album after more than 1 year, the previous one being New. Hope there is no further delay and both albums release on time.

Hoping for another great treat by the master!
By Aravind on Monday, July 11, 2005 at 9:44 PM Post Categories: ,
Was planning to start blogging for a long time now.. Finally, started today :)
By Aravind on Post Categories: