Tuesday, October 23, 2007

ATM - All Time Music

When maestros make music, it cannot be questioned. There can be no second opinions. The least that one can rate is ‘quite good’. There was a feel in me couple of years back that Rahman had lost his touch with Tamil cinema. Sillunu Oru Kaadhal and Sivaji changed my mindset. Rahman’s place in Tamil Cinema is irreplaceable. Now, the music of Swargachitra Appachan’s Azhagiya Thamizh Magan(ATM), reinstates this fact very clearly.

Starring Vijay, Shriya and Namitha, ATM has music by Isai Puyal A.R. Rahman. This album will sure be a treat for Rahman fans as well as Vijay fans. Moving away from the typical Vijay film’s music Rahman gives something extra ordinary that will satisfy all class of music lovers. The storm has just begun.

Ella Pugazhum Oruvan Oruvanukke

A.R. Rahman begins the album, packed with all punch and style. An inspirational song for youth interspersed with few lines of praises for the hero, nicely written by Vaali. The chorus that comes throughout the song is nice and the heavy instrumental pumps up the adrenalin. The hero of the song is however Rahman, who with the full throated singing especially towards the end (Maanavan Manadhu Vaithaal) makes a big impression that won’t leave you till you finish listening the album

Verdict: Classy intro for a mass hero

Rating: 9.3/10

Ponmagal Vandhal

Die hard Rahmaniacs may not appreciate this remix work of Rahman very much. But this remix version of the old song from Sivaji Ganesan’s sorgam, is something I feel like Rahman’s answer to those dozen remixes that come up every month in Kollywood. With excellent western mix(by Krishna Chetan) and the subtle rap that doesn’t harm your ears, it makes you realize how well remixes are handled by maestros. Aslam sings it simple and Ember Rap gives the right feel. And very nice mixing of TMS’s lines from the original song in the middle.

Verdict: Remix Reinvented

Rating: 9.2/10

Nee Marilyn Monroe

Completely tuned in western style with lots of English words thrown into the lyrics, this is yet another rocking song. Benny Dayal and Ujjayinee do a great job doing full justice to the tune. Benny's voice modulation is amazing, especially when he sings "Baby un DJ naan" just in the tone of DJs. The female humming in the opening and the second interlude is brilliant. The use of Punjabi style instruments shortly in the first interlude is also a brilliant fusion. The guitar that plays all along the song is simply superb.

Verdict: Western all the way

Rating: 9.5/10

Valayapatti Thavile

This song opens slowly with a nice prelude and then singing by Madhumitha . Slowly it picks up speed continuing at a constant pace. The thavil that beats throughout the song and the mild nadhaswaram bits that play every now and then, gives you the southern flavor which fuses with the well composed North Indian Qawali style of singing by Naresh Iyer and Ujjayinee. There is also a brief jugalbandhi with quite a few instruments and jadhis in the interludes. A cool string instrument, not sure what it is, starts playing in second interlude and continues all along the second stanza. The intelligent use of different Ragas and swaras in the tune as per the lyrics is simply excellent work by Rahman, again a fusion of folk and carnatic. Naresh Iyer is as brilliant as ever.

Verdict: Fusion at its best

Rating: 9.8/10

Kettu Rasitha Paadal

An excellent melody with fast pace and great beats. Well, is that possible? With the maestro’s composing, anything is Its not a straight forward tune like Munbe Vaa, but little complicated like Sahana Saaral of Sivaji or Mellisaye of Mr.Romeo. The chorus of “Paarthum Paaramale Pogum Nerangale” in second interlude is out of the world, typical Rahman. Same with the case of “Kokilam Kokilam” line. Lyrics of Thamarai is an added plus, with brilliant imaginations like "Koondhal ennum yeni yeri muthamida aasaigal undu... Netri mooku udhadu endru irangi vara padigalum undu". The brilliant rendition by Saindhavi and Sriram Parthasarathy are feathers in the cap of Rahman’s great composition. A song that grows over after every listening.

Verdict: Rocking melody

Rating: 9.7/10

Maduraiku Pogadhadi

Listening to this song, one instantly goes back to the days of Kizhakku Chemmayile, when Tamil folk got its techno form from Rahman. Usage of good number of village percussions and instruments like Sitar and nadhaswaram gives this song a very ‘Song of this soil’ feel. You got to believe that it’s the same Benny Dayal of Marilyn Monroe song who has sung this folk song. A very versatile find by Rahman. Yet another surprise is Dharshana whose voice gives this peppy folk a tinge of western. Supporting vocals are very important in such songs and it’s adequately done.

Verdict: The techno folk

Rating: 9.1/10

Go and grab your audio CD right away… It’s worth a buy and listen.

Overall Verdict: Adhiradi Isai Mazhai

Overall Rating: 9.4/10

Sunday, October 21, 2007

ATM songs promo!!!

The promo songs of Vijay-A.R.Rahman combo's ATM released in Rahman's official website today with a small trailer. Expecting a great audio on October 22nd. For now, here is the promo:

The link: http://arrahman.com/promo1.html

Watch directly here:

The Goddess is back!!! Let's dance!!

Staying away from TV for a long time, you miss quite a lot. Seems trailer and teasers of "Aaja Nachle" are being aired for quite some time. Anyways, atleast got a chance to glimpse it yesterday.

Wow... The queen of dance, the goddess of acting, the empress of smile, the super star is back. What a grace, what a style, what an expression!!! That too at about 40 years of age for a lady who is a mother of two kids. This comeback will put any over hyped comeback of Indian cine actresses to shame.

Madhuri is goddess!! Madhuri rocks!!! Any doubts, watch the video clip below:

Saturday, October 13, 2007

Vote of Thanks...

Tomorrow is a big day for me :D I am entering into the 25th year of existence in this world.. Haa haa.. Is life a film to be celebrated for a silver jubilee? Mmm.. for me, sure, it is!! Full of characters and thrills. Well, every human being in this world is special in one way or other and every day of our existence is influenced by few important people in someway or other.

This post is for remembering all those unforgettable characters that I have come across in all these years. A heart felt thanks to all of them for the unforgettable moments of all these years.

(I am not including my parents or any one from my family/relatives or my cousins, because I cannot thank them enough for whatever they have done for me, and they are part of my life.)

Ok. To start with, in chronological order from my birth:

Dr. Ramani Sivaraman: The doctor, who brought me into this mother earth

Dr. Venkata Subramanian: My family doctor who is treating me right from 6 months of age

Ms. Bala: My first teacher in school, who taught me the ABCD in LKG

Ms. Kanthimathi: My UKG teacher who taught me mathematics

Praveen: My first bench mate in school whom I could remember, don’t know where he is now and what he does

Ms. Sharadha: My 2nd std teacher who created the urge in me that I should come first in studies always

Ms. Hema: My first Tamil teacher in school

Ms. Radhigua: My 5th std teacher who made me participate in school competitions and made me realize studies is not the onlt thing a person has to do in school

Sreejith, Santosh, Selvakumar, Reagan, Abdul Majeeth: My friends in my first school.. Donno where u guys are, but my best wishes

Surabhi: My first computer teacher. I was living in her house for rent.

Ms. Jayalakshmi & Ms. Jayanthi: My Hindi teachers. The little Hindi I know today is because of what they taught

Sadagopan, Manikandan, Srinivasan, Karthik, Jagadeesh, Aparna, Suchitra: Friends in my second school

Gayathri Ganesan: The first girl who tied me a Rakhi in my life. In other words, my first Rakhi sister

Seshadri, Jude Anand, Deepak, Raghuram, Saravana Vel, Madhan, Jose Vinoth, Ganesh, Sriram, Vasanth Kumar, Srikanth: Friends in my third school (Really sorry if I have missed any name)

Ms. Pearlin: My English teacher in higher secondary, without whom I would have been a zero in English

Mr. Peter: My Tamil sir in higher secondary, because of whom Tamil blood still runs in my body

Ms. Lakshmi: I got a strong base in maths only from her

Sr. Lissy: My moral science teacher who taught me good morale

Sr. Shobana: My unforgettable school principal

Dr. Ashok: For making me stand up and walk after that big accident of my life

Leena and Kalaiselvi: The nurses who took great care of me till I got recovered from the accident

Ms. Shakil Kirupavathy: Well, for assigning me my first seminar of life. Without her I couldn't have overcome my stage fear

Mr. Ramakrishnan: For seeding a thought in me for quest of knowledge

Ms. Aanandhi: My tutor in NIIT who is responsible for my knowledge on C and C++

Vikram: My bench mate, college mate, project mate, X-colleague and dear friend, who is always there for me in my joys and sorrows

Tejus Das: My computer guru, yet another dear friend who was always there by my side in everything

Satish Kumar: The person with whom I have spent most of my time out of college. He was always there to help me when I needed it. A friend indeed.

Aravind: My source of MP3 songs once upon a time and my Guru on various aspects :P

Amarnath: College buddy, classmate, X colleague.. one of the few from college with whom I am in constant touch

Rajesh: My first friend who tied me a friendship band

Vandhana: Only girl from my college whom I am in constant touch with till today. Yet another Rakhi sister of mine...

Rest of Class of ECE A sec, VEC: Well, I cannot specify that big list here, because I cannot forget my classmates in college for ever in my life.

Sundara Balaji: My dear college junior, friend, colleague and the one who constantly keeps pulling my leg.. Very naughty ;-)

Dinesh: My friend and dear junior, who always keeps in touch

Balachander: My X-PG mate and colleague. Can’t forget the days when we stayed in the same PG in Bangalore

Mr. Pradeep: My first manager at work, who has given me lots and lots of insights of IT world when I was a fresher

Mr. Seenivasan, Mr. Swamidass, Ms. Sreelatha, Mr. Sunil, Mr. Adarsh, Mr. Ramesh: My mentors in early days of work. I learnt my work only through them.

Mr. Praveen Gorur: My supervisor in Bangalore for over one and half years who played an important role in shaping my early career

Rest of my project team in Bangalore: I had lot of fun and learnings working with them, an unforgettable team.

Ms. Sheela Ganesh: My trainer who has given me a very strong base for my work I have never seen a great teacher like her.

Mr. Abhinay Kalmath: My team mate,who made my first stay in US enjoyable and comfortable.

Pramma: My friend, college mate and X-colleague/project mate. Very helpful.

Gopinath: My friend, college mate and X-colleague who was my source of information in Bangalore

Sandeep: My friend, colleague, college mate and training mate in office. Always cheerful.

Krishna, Rajesh, Lalith, Savitha, Keerthana: From my lunch team in Bangalore office. I miss u all a lot…

Sivakumar, Priya, Suresh, Muthuselvan: My friends from my company’s internal forum

Venki, Mahesh, JP, Karthik: Training mates in office.

Mr. Vijay: Haa haa.. Film actor, one of my inspirations and the only actor whose films I love to watch.

Bala, Venkat, Nirmal, Brindha, Karthik Gandhi: Special friends from Orkut

Ram, Poojith, Senthil, Sai, Ashok, Shrinivas, Kanna, Aravind, Karthi, Karthik, Kavitha, Prem, Prasad, Vanchi, Jayaram: Friends from Vijay fans community in Orkut

And finally, My current project team for all the good times I have in office these days.

And thanks to all those innumerable souls, who make my life happy and enjoyable everyday on earth, and whose names I have not mentioned here.

Friday, October 05, 2007

Random Thoughts....

I have not blogged for a long, so bringing here few of the recent frustrations that came to my mind:

1. The dumbo bandh conducted by Government on October 1 for a dumbo reason. All that was gained by a Chennai citizen is a working Saturday and chance to watch a lot of drama with stunts on TV.



2. The drama played on Vijay TV's Jodi No.1 Season 2. Lets leave aside the debate on who was right, Simbhu or Prithviraj. But that was a dirty drama played to raise the TRP of the show, and Simbhu showcased his arrogance once again. Epdi thaan appanum pillayum orey dialogue-a pesaraangalo!!



3. The stinking and clumsy Chennai infrastructure. Every area of the city stinks with garbage and drainage leaks and every area is congested with traffic jams. Unplanned, haphazard projects in many parts have made the life of common man pathetic.

4. The messed up T.Nagar. Traffic regulations have been totally screwed up by the so-called "Traffic police" leading to congestion in every nook and corner of the area. Add to that the non-stop purchase crowd, which will ransack things from numerous shops till the last breath of their life.

5. My sucking new office. Lacking in facilities to infrastructure to ambiance to comfort, in everything, I wonder if I should call it my fate or curse to be put up there. I can understand there, may be some hiccups when companies move to new offices, but such unplanned movements are not expected in big corporates.

6. The big junk released by Microsoft names as Windows Vista. Except for few UI changes and complicated user controls, there is nothing useful in this hefty version of Windows. Consuming memory like hell and irritatingly slow few times even with 2 GB of RAM, it totally sucks, I will be happy if Microsoft offers a downgrade option back to Windows XP as my friend told me.