Music Review of Delhi-6

Album - Delhi-6; Dilli-6
Music By - A R Rahman
Over all Rating - Must Listen

1) Aarti (Tumre Bhavan Mein) By Rekha Bharadwaj, Kishori Gowariker, Shraddha Pandit, Sujata Majumdar - 4/5 - Brief Bhajan; humming ending enhances the spiritual mood of the song;

2) Arziyan (Maula) By Javed Ali, Kailash Kher - 4/5 - Lenghthiest song of Rahman - 8.42 min !!! Qawwali song for ghar aaya situation; Wonderful singing by Javed and Kailash; Basic instruments and simple orchestration of a typical Qawwali song. Wonder what the director could have reacted to the length of the song!

3) Bhor Bhaye By Shreya Ghosal, Ustad Bade Ghulam Ali Khan, Gujri Todi 4/5 - Brief traditional hindustani variety song; shreya's show all the way;

4) Delhi 6 By Blaaze, Benny Dayal, Vivinenne Pocha, Tanvi, Claire - 4.5/5 - Hip hop variety song; husky singing by ladies; Catchy tune gets addictive when played multiple times.

5) Dil Gira Dafatan By Ash King, Backing Chinmayee - 4/5 - Soothing song, finely sung by Ash King; sweetly supported by chinmayee. Fine use of guitar with typical rahman way of music arrangements; Sudden burst of rhythm takes you by surprise between 2:24 to 3:00;

6) Genda Phool By Rekha Bharadwaj, Shraddha Pandit, Sujata Majumdar - 4.5/5 - Brief Folk song with techno beats in background; I could not resist imagining Madhu Bala on the screen ! 2.08 to end captures the natural background.

7) Hey Kaala Bandar By Karthik, Naresh, Srinivas, Bony Chakravarthy - 4/5 - Fast techno song with Rap interludes thrown in between, goes easy with a wonderful mediteranian interlude in between;

8) Masakali By Mohit Chouhan - 5/5 - catchy rustic tune; Amazingly good singing by Mohit; rhythemic lyrics, good use of alliteration by Prasoon Joshi; Different orchestration, different instruments used by Rahman - second stanza music is damn good especially;

9) Rehna Tu By A R Rahman, Benny Dayal, Tanvi - 5/5 - soft melody; as silky as satin; carnatic finish takes you to heaven; Song sung by Rahman never fails to impress - he manages to seduce us this time too.

After thoughts

Unbelievably good stuff by Rahman - a never before like album. Increased expectation on the movie considerably. Rahman breaks the tradition of pallavi-music-Charanam 1 -pallavi-music-Charanam 2 stuff in Rehna Tu and Dil Giri Dafatan and re-arranged it such a way to create further interest in listening.

I feel One thing for sure after listening to Jodhaa Akbar, Jaane Tu, Slum Dog & Delhi 6 - insha allah, Rahman will take the music to next level unlike many of the past greats failed to do;

Economics of Chennai Book Fair

I didn't like the book fair this year. No one have patience, energy to visit around 585 stalls. Even if some one wants to, it would take them 5-6 hours. So, it is a waste of time for consumers.

Here, I go in understanding the economics of Chennai book fair …

Stall Rent – last year, this year	60,000	77,000
No of Stalls – last year, this year	450	600
Total Rental collection (A * B)	Rs. 2.7 Cr	Rs. 4.62 Cr
Visitors per year	1m	1m
Avg sale per head	Rs. 250	Rs. 350
Total billing	Rs. 2.5 Cr	Rs. 3.5 Cr

 

The publishers must make atleast 3 times of rent to make his 10 days of stint worthwhile. So, every publisher must make around 2.3 Lacs of sale of books in 10 days amounting to average of 23k sale per day. How many publishers would have achieved this? May be 25 or so !!!

The organizers must bring down the number of stalls for sure. They should simply retain the top 25 publishers and should conduct lottery for others so as to restrict the stalls to 300 or so. The publishers also should have a section for new releases inside stalls. The visitors would be wondering to spot familiar, popular books always L

Looks like the organizers are making good profits than participants !!!

 

Performances at Chennai Sangamam

Karakattam demonstrates the balancing skills of a dancer. This group from Nagerkoil (?) performed for almost 30min without any issues for some lovely folk tunes. The dance movements look simple but the level of concentration for a longer period keeps us wondering !

Kovai Mohan is a Kalaimamani award winner for Kaavadi Aattam. He is almost 52 years old but his control, concentration, skill, balancing act is absolutely wonderful. His team mate has got 18 years of experience in this aattam and his skill is equally appreciable. They were remarkable and the crowd went berseck when Mr Mohan picked needles in his eyes through dance.

Imagine performing even little bit of dancing with 5 feet kaavadi on your head and look at the photo ! Nothing more to say J

The group from Vijayawada proved to be damn good to believe. They played good music, danced a bit but did some wonderful team act ! Most of the crowd enjoyed it very well with very little understanding or meaning of their song !

In and around of Natesan Park was fully lit and decorated for Chennai sangamam. The night out street festival on 13^th Jan, 2009 was a massive hit. Shops were set up on the platforms and dancers were performing on the road. Crowd mingled with them and took videos, photos etc and rediscovered their kiddish days !

Pudukottai Pugazhendi's program is called "Aagada Vikatam"; Kind of villu patty with talk show; they were amazingly humorous and took the control of the crowd in ease and made jokes on every topic. Damn good program !

Sanjay Subramaniam's performance at Nageswara Park, Mylapore was excellent as usual !

One could have enjoyed bravery arts at Lady Wellington school ground. The Silambattam, Judo fights were the best. Unfortunately, I could not take good pictures because of lighting issues.

I have not done justice to 4500 performances, so do participate next item.... You are sinning if you live in chennai and doesnt care about this !

Here is the weblink for photos / pictures. Download videos (real player compatible) of performances at Chennai Sangamam 2009 !

http://picasaweb.google.com/svijayganesh/ChennaiSangamam2009Performances#

Enjoy !

Rahman Wins Golden Globe for Slum Dog

Rahman wins best original score for Slum Dog at Golden Globe awards. This is generally perceived as a prelude to Oscars !

This is a great moment for Indian movie fans especially music fans as we soak ourselves in music based movies for decades.

Proud to note the Chennai living A R Rahman's career which is reaching new heights year after year... Hats of to his hard work, creativity and his humility.

Info on Chennai Sangamam

One can enjoy the programs of Chennai Sangamam (between Jan 10 to 15, 2009) at the following places:

1. Chennai Corporation Ground, Kodambakkam Trustpuram
2. TVK Nagar School ground, TVK Nagar
3. Lady Wellington College Grounds, Marina Beach Drive
4. Nageswara Roa Park Luz Church Road, Mylapore
5. Natesan Park Venkat Narayana Road, T. Nagar
6. Tower Park, Anna Nagar
7. Sivan Park, P.T. Rajan Salai, K.K. Nagar
8. Thanthai Periyar Ground, Valasaravakkam
9. Ashok Nagar Park – Ashok Nagar
10. Elliots Beach – Besant Nagar
11. Anna Park – Royapuram
12. Independence Day Park – Nungambakkam
13. Island Ground
14. Thiru.Vi. Ka Park -- Shenoy Nagar
15. ECR Road – Palkalai Nagar Palavakkam
16. Contonement School Ground, GST Road, Pallavaram

Some of the special programs include:

1. Sangita Sangamam – Umayalpuram Sivaraman and ensemble (classical and folk)
2. Arichandra, Valli Tirumanam, Pavalakodi – special drama
3. Salsa Dance set to Tamil Music
4. Therkathi Vasam, folk orchestra co-ordinated by Paul Jacob
5. Thithikum Tamil Panpadu – medley of folk, Carnatic, western & film music co-ordinated by K.N.Sashikiran
6. Sufi Music
7. Aran Adal – dance drama by Kala Diksha
8. Valai Osai – Girls’ Orchestra

Special food festival is also organised at the all parks at reasonable rates.

Pls lend your support and enjoy the different cultural programs of our own !!!

Musical Titbits

Musical Titbis....

I was very busy in listening to concerts for 17 full days and I had to catch up with mass music from 3rd to 7th Jan. Here I go with my music review of Villu, Naan Kadavul, Slum Dog & Mahaleela ....

On Villu Music:

Villu music is a very good time pass. It is peppy, racy and goes easy on listening. Jalsa (reproduced track from pawan kumar - jalsa) is addictive. I also liked dheemthanakka and nee kovapattal (watch out for the success of this track post the release of the movie) tracks. Daady mummy sounds like a good item number whereas vaada mapley is a welcome baila tune. I felt very bad when vijay antony killed surangani in pandhayam movie and i felt DSP did justice and produced one good baila. I am not generally comfortable with Vijay's intro song - same this time too with hey rama rama track. Over all, Villu is a good commercial music - remove your thinking cap and tap your foot all the way !!!

On Naan Kadavul Music:

Naan Kadavul music is totally of different genre. Serious, spiritual, thought provoking music. Music arrangement has plenty of shades of maestro's 80s style. But it comes in different package hence, sounds much better. Om Shanti Om is full of slogams but has robust beat around it. Oru Kaatril and Kannil paarvai has same tune but both sounds good and has some director's cue in music. Amma un Pillai is soothing and thought provoking. Pichai paathiram is so beautiful and gives a heavenly feel. Overall, the popular combo of Maestro & Bala strikes back successfully at traditional music lovers.

Whoever have has given the idea of re-using haunting old song Maadha un kovilil deserves special greetings from me. It is one amazing tune in sindhu bairavi raaga sung beautifully by Janaki. kannadasan had written simple thought provoking 3 liners in that song. Thank you for revisiting this beautiful song.

On Rahman's Slum Dog Millionaire Music:

By the time I listened to this music, it was nominated for Golden Globe. But I managed to listen to this music without any expectation. Damn good album it turned out to be. I loved Gangsta Blues, ringa ringa, Jai Ho, Dreams on Fire - they demonstrate the creative side of musician. O Saya is so nice and robust and challenge the ears of mtv genre very well. Singing pattern in paper planes is catchy. Riots, Mausam and Escape fizzles out after promising start.

I was pleasantly surprised that Rahman composed this album in 3 weeks. I am looking forward to indian release of this movie. As a Rahman fan, i will celebrate with One KG of Krishna's Mysore Pa if thalaivar rahman wins Oscar. But as a musical fan, i doubt whether that would happen when i consider the fate of the catchy and quality music of Juno. It is always difficult to predict Oscar winning list - Let us hope for the best.

Sivamani's Mahaleela:

Sivamani brushes shoulders with greats of music everyday - like Rahman, Ilayaraja, Ustad Zakir Hussain, Trilok, Louis Banks etc... His debut album arrives finally !!! Let us see how it goes... 12 tracks of all - has pop, techno, percussion, drumming, fusion, spirituality - but caters to niche audience;

I loved Mother's land track, Infinity, Vasi Vasi, Basin Bridge. Kriya took me to a different mood altogether. Track on his father SM Anandhan is beat oriented whereas Adhaar is the most friendliest track on the list. Jam packed is a typical fusion track in which Hariharan freaks out !

Overall a catchy, engaging and creative effort. Tired of meaningless word filled lyrics - try it !

Zero sum game

In game theory and economic theory, zero-sum describes a situation in which a participant's gain or loss is exactly balanced by the losses or gains of the other participant(s). If the total gains of the participants are added up, and the total losses are subtracted, they will sum to zero.

Zero-sum can be thought of more generally as constant sum where the benefits and losses to all players sum to the same value of money and pride and dignity.

This is the moral of the story learnt from satyam's fraud.