Thank You A. R. Rahman

Today has been the day...

- When I experienced one of the happiest moments in my life.
- When my dreams as a school-going kid, praying, hoping and having an epiphany that one day my hero will attain the mother of recognitions, came true, despite the fact that I had no clue then on the basis of how it is given (That’s childhood for you).
- When a few million across the globe felt happy that their co-citizen has won such recognition.
- When a few thousand or probably a million more, came to know or wanted to know & eventually fall in love, with the works of The Genius.
- When I was so excited, when I clapped so hard it hurt later.
- When the A.M.P.A.S awarded A. R. Rahman with two Oscars for his work on the movie Slumdog Millionaire.



You are the best that anyone could get and am honored to be in a lifetime that is the same as yours. Thanks for your excellent contribution that you have given and going to give.

Congratulations A. R. Rahman!

CEO 02: A. R. Rahman - Praying For Your Success

As a kid, before even I hit my teenage, I used to think that fans existed only for the heroes and heroines of movies and not for a music director. When all the friends and relatives I knew were fans of actors, I used to think that I am probably the only great fan for A. R. Rahman. It can be right as much as it can be wrong.

You don’t think too deep when you are a kid and that is exactly what I did. Here are few of the stuff that I could recollect about my craziness for A.R.

Around the time Kaadhalan was released.
- I used to collect magazines which had an A.R’s photo or an interview and stuck the pages to an old diary. I was not bothered about the frustration of those who bought the magazine’s subscription. I just removed those pages. I documented each and every film of his in that diary.

- Konica was a film-roll brand that was popular in the 90s which had a nice packaging. When I first saw it, I was fascinated as it had a picture of the Taj Mahal and a hologram. I started to collect it (There was a photo studio on my way to school which throws off the package). I thought that would be the best thing to pay as a tribute and would carefully cutout the holograms and pasted them side by side (6 rows & 5 holograms in a row) on a handmade, pocket sized cardboard with the Taj Mahal on top. Then on the left over spaces on the side, I wrote A.R.RAHMAN. That was what I thought was a grand tribute to The Genius.

- Found out that A.R’s name was listed as A.S. Dileep Kumar in the telephone directory, got his address and telephone number and wrote it down on the diary. Telephone was a luxury back then. So I gave the number to our landlord's daughter who had a telephone. She called his residence, introduced herself as a fan of A.R and talked to Him! I was standing there with the utmost jealousy that I have ever had on any person that I could recollect. I curse myself for the shyness in me that deprived me of such a great opportunity.

Around the time Rangeela was released.
- It took me a few years for me to venture out and find his residence. I had to wait till I learnt cycling and get a cycle for myself. It took me many days to enquire people who knew Kodambakkam and get an approximate location. Once I went to Kodambakkam, it took me 3 days in all to figure out his place. Every now and then I used to go and stand in front of his apartment for a few minutes, just wishing that he might come out so that I can get to meet him, but I never got to see him that way.

Around the time Vande Mataram was released.
- When I was told that I can go with Simmam Kumar (A journalist/disciple of my carnatic-singer relative) for an interview with A.R, I decided to throw away my Chemistry exam by finishing it in an hour to rush to A.R’s residence. I had no trouble finding his place :). By the way, my Chemistry teacher was the one whom I dreaded and respected the most. It is a shame that I did not talk to/get an autograph/photograph with The Genius. I was so awestruck I think I had my mouth open the entire time. I was flying off the ground for a simple fact that he looked at me in the eye and asked me for my pen (to sign his consent letter for airing the interview). By the way, that was one of the happiest moments of my life and took my craziness for him to a new level – It was the day that I realized that the man himself is as great as his work.

- My other childhood wishes were to die listening to an A. R. Rahman’s song and working for A. R. Rahman, which I think is still possible.

- Even very recently, I was the first person to buy the first concert ticket as a part of his 3D tour. First row first seat as soon as it opened for sale at Ticketmaster. I was devastated when the show in Atlanta was postponed. I had to settle for a 3rd row in Chicago. During the concert when the audience stopped clapping for the next song to start, I shouted “Thalaivaa”. I am 100% sure that he heard it, it was a shout out from a humble fan to a humble achiever.

Today, when I think of all those, a great nostalgia sets in, cheering his works in good times and bad. I was proud that I stuck with him all these years. I am never embarrassed about myself when it comes to what I have done as a fan, however silly it might be if I had done it to anybody else.

The Man’s work has helped me at many times, in getting over whatever emotions I have gone through. For that, I thank you. For that, I wish you all the good things in life. For that, I pray to The Almighty that you win one of the most coveted awards of all time – The Oscars.

Godspeed, my beloved A. R!

CA 04: Slumdog Millionaire - Truth Hurts

I am really getting annoyed by the criticisms on Slumdog Milllionaire, particularly in India. I am actually not surprised that the likes of Shiv Sena, Preity Zinta and Shilpa Shetty criticizing, but well-informed movie makers? Come on. Give me a break. I saw the movie and liked it for the movie.

It is not new that the slums are being shown in a movie. There are hundreds of movies made each year which portray slums and its dwellers. For example, take the two Oscar nominated short documentaries this year, "Smile Pinky" and "The Final Inch". Both these show India, not in an exotic or a romantic way. You get to see the slums. Please do not deny that slums are highly sanitized green rooms.

These people who criticize were fricking sleeping all the time and wake up all of a sudden when the movie becomes a hit. Who wouldn't want to take a piece of the publicity pie. These people behave is as if the people of the world were thinking that India is a rich, developed, uncorrupted and a highly moral society. Please.

Another sideshow are the claims that the kids were exploited and that the parents were demanding more money. The justification - Now that the movie is making more money why don't you share your profits. Yeah right - Now the movie makers are the devil not sharing the profits when they had signed a profit-sharing contract with royalties and copyrights to the kids' parents. Talk about exploitation!

First of all, the movie is not about the slums, it is about a person who is a slum dweller, that too only in the intial part of the movie. The movie starts in the Mumbai slums of the 80s and 90s goes on to depict how Mumbaikars have been improving. There is clearly a scene that shows that the slums do not exist anymore, instead high rise bulidings are built in that area.

The anger that is being vented is not because India is being shown wrongfully in a bad light, but because of bringing it out to the open the actual filth that exists, that too in a subtle way.

If a kid jumps in a pile of shit, it is the creative freedom that the director enjoys and does not say that every Indian would jump in a pile of shit for a movie star.

If the movie shows kids kidnapped/bought, eys removed/hands/leg amputated, for the sole purpose of making money out of begging, it is an absolute fact. If you deny that such things do not exit, then you are doing nothing but burying your head in the sand and pretending that the world doesn't exist.

If it is shown that there are people who swindle money from tourists by acting as a fake guide and that a parked car has its parts removed, it is the truth that is being told. How many times have you parked your vehicle in a place to find the vehicle itself missing, forget about its parts. Do not tell me that no one does that in India. If you stll tell me that it is not so, you are nothing but an ignorant twit and I don't have anymore patience to explain it to you.

If you thik that you are voicing your concern on a falsehood, and think that you are expressing your patroitism, my opinion is, you are not. You are just exhibiting your callowness.

In short, truth hurts. So stop being in denial, accept the harsh facts, try to deny the opportunity for future filmmakers by making things better. And yes, finally, move on and get a life. After all it is a fictitious movie and enjoy it for what it is and don't take it personally.

CORE 07: Dilli 6 - At It Again...

No wonder I am still a great fan of Rahman. His sheer genius proved once more in Dilli 6 or Delhi 6, the new movie to be released soon, starring Abhishek Bachan. You cannot expect anything but praise, so here is a rundown on the songs.

Masakali
The first time I heard this song, it was on Youtube and to say that I was disappointed is quite an understatement. Listening to the high quality songs, this song does grow on you. The Accordion on this is by the Maestro. The "Thampattai" in the middle of the song would definitely surprise you. The Violin going at the back reminds me of the 80s.Singing a laid back song, actually should sound lame, instead it brings a coolness factor to it. One of my favorites.

Singers: Mohit Chauhan

Arziyan
This one has the feels of Sufism and Ghazal to it. A nice melodious song, might not stick to everyone right away, but has the potential to become one. No surprises on this track.

Singers: Javed Ali, Kailash Kher

Dilli-6
The title track is small in length, running for less than 4 minutes. This one is to become a sure-fire hit. AR's harmony is at it again. The surprise of this song is the Spanish lyrics by Tanvi who did it for Sivaji as well. A very slow song, but with the correct rhythm, this song has a huge electronic flavour to it.

Singers: Blaaze; Benny Dayal; Vivinenne Pocha; Tanvi; Claire

Rehna Tu
A slow song with a mild and silky flavour to it, sung by the Maestro. One of my favourites. This songs grows on you and trust me, if you listen to it a few times, you will fall in love with this song. No great arrangements, but yet it sounds great. This surprise of this song is the featuring a new instrument that Rahman introduced during his concerts - The Continuum. This is a synthesizer used with a MIDI source. The beauty of this fingerboard is the variations it can produce unlike a traditional keyboard. Perfect for Indian classical, AR learnt to play this difficult instrument and comes up with a piece in the end and plays it himself. It is a surprise to hear an electronic version :)

Singers: A. R. Rahman; Benny Dayal; Tanvi

Hey Kaala Bandhar
The weirdest lyrics one can get. Karthik proves why he is touted to be the next SPB. The song starts in a . The English lyrics, is by Yogi B of Azhagiya Thamizh Magan 's Ponmagal fame. This song changes so much that it will leave you confused where it is going but will come back, so you get to enjoy as well.

Singers: Karthik; Srinivas; Naresh; Bony Chakravarthy

Dil Gira Dafatan
Ash King's rendition of this song is divine. Though the song starts like any other average number, the better part starts after the initial humming. Another excellent melody. A soothing song. The surprise comes after two and a half minutes, where he infuses a Irish sounding piece. He is at it again.

Singers: Ash King; Chinmayee

Genda Phool
This song is an adapted North Indian folk. The rhythm makes it extremely likable. The surprises are all over the place on this song. Listen to enjoy. Another laid back song, but will make listen to it over and over again.

Singers: Rekha Bharadwaj; Shraddha Pandit; Sujata Majumdar

Bhor Bhaye
This one is recorded over Ustad Bade Ghulam Ali Khan's voice as if Shreya Goshal is learning from his recorded songs. A pure Hindustani classical. No surprises on this one though. One of my friends listened to all the tracks and she picked this one as her most favourite.

Singers: Shreya Ghosal; Ustad Bade Ghulam Ali Khan; Gujri Todi

Aarti (Tumre Bhavan Mein)
A typcal devotional song, or as they call it, an aarthi song. Rahman might make this devotional song a hit by rendering it in a movie and releasing it as a part of the album. The decision to include it in the album resides partially on the composer as well. This might become popular like "Ik Onkar"

Singers: Rekha Bharadwaj; Shraddha Pandit; Sujata Majumdar; Kishori Gowariker

Noor
This is a poem recital where Big B lends his voice. This reminded me of the work that AR did for Vairamuthu. I have to admit that I was not able to appreciate this one due to the lack of my As my Hindi skills.

Poem Recital: Amitabh Bachchan

Final Verdict: Rahman is at it again, so go get this one and add it to your collection.

CA 03: 26/11 - Just Another Date?

DISCLAIMER: I have tried to limit name calling and psycho-babbling. Still, take this blog post with a grain of salt.

At this moment in time, 26/11 is a date that has been gaining popularity among the world. Not going into what happened, I am going to ramble on the post-26/11 ramifications, from different perspectives.

Increasing Intolerance
Despite the numerous criticisms on Mr. Manmohan Singh that he has been soft on terror, the truth remains that Indians' intolerance is on the rise. Almost all reactions has been based on an emotional basis rather than on a rational basis. The day the carnage was brought to an end, the famous Shobha De came on air and started lambasting everyone around saying the NDTV's very famous theme during the coverage - "Enough is enough". Though her anger was valid and understandable, as are those who are angry about the whole situation, most of them fail to understand that it is a multi-pronged issue.

In the very same programme, there were other folks like Arun Shourie and other representatives of parties like Jayanthi Natarajan from Congress and from BJP. While Ms. De was continuing with her "Enough is enough" backed by the Channel which took it as its theme, there were visble discontent on the receiving end. Her "Enoughs" were both on the Domestic front as well as on the dealing with terrorism. Saying that decisive action needs to be taken and folks who were responsible for the failure should step down taking moral responsibility. I agree, but failure to understand the root cause will result in all these becoming short-term solutions than long-term ones. That is of course the effect of decisions taken in a state of anger. Of course, there are a bunch of folks to substantiate what Shobha did, like here. So folks, my request is be angry, but not intolerant; be rational and not emotional.

I do not want to get this issue to be discussed beyond a single post.

The Debate
Each individual was saying a few points. There were lots of reasons thrown out there, most of them were good, but what disturbed were the following. Each person was trying to downplay the other's solutions saying that it is not the real solution and went on to talk about their solutions. Even the host didn't help much. What I felt was that all points were valid and the solution should be nothing less than an all-of-the-above approach.

Soft on Terror
Even though I do not like Manmohan Singh's style of administration, I am going to give him the credit. Anybody who accused him of being soft on terror need to understand one thing. He is an economist, so much to say, he is considered the father of financial reforms in India. Without him, BJP would not have had the framework to continue with the growth that we saw. True, we were exposed to Globalization and we are affected now because of it. We do need to understand that with a beautiful seaview house comes the risk of Tsunamis. As any economist would say, any war would put a strain on the economy. Without a strong economy it is going to be difficult to support a full fledged war.

In my opinion, first, we still do not have the economic might to engage in an another war and still be resilient. The second reason is what Ms. Natarajan responded to Ms. De "Has Shobha heard about 'Actionable intelligence'?". I agree there. You cannot do anything with intelligence reports in the likes of Nostradamus predictions. CIA is one of the world's best. They were contemplating many terror scenarios including attack on the WTC and Pentagon by ramming planes. Yet it happened. The intelligence failure was the main reason why it happened and not inaction on the part of the Government.

Internal Strengthening (Playing Defense)
The Government's failure was not its inaction but the failure to address the weakness in forces. There are still flks who believe that the Indian intelligence is second to none and start their usual basking in glory of something that happenned so long ago, nobody knew how long ago. This is not going to be an easy task. The Government would have to step up to the plate and give serious consideraton to improving the capabilities. Police forces at the ground level are nothing but a corrupt lot. At least, spend mre money for those critical folks who work in the intelligence establishment. Procure more infrastructure for the defense forces. Provide importance to RAW and IB. When an ex-RAW officer writes about the corruption, instead of taking steps, they sue him??!! Rather than attack folks who provide constructive criticisms, they need to rope in people who can hel eliminate it.

In this sense, rhetorics are not going to make things done. Action on the part of the Government and the corrupt politicians. Let them get kickbacks but not on matters of National Security. Let the forces be free of politics and the usual corruption. Otherwise, we are going to see more of these happening and like 13/12 gave way to 26/11, 26/11 will give way for something else and becoming just another date.