Top ten moments of ARR music in 2021

December 30, 2021

Top ten moments of ARR music in 2021

10 . How lucky is the girl named Sofia for an entire minute of the beautiful song from “99 songs” is dedicated to the name and as an icing on the cake, A.R.Rahman’s heavenly singing decorates the background.

9. Right from his first film, ARR has tried to avoid established voices and use new ones. In "Little Little", Dhanush is so much fun but the find of the song (and the album) has to be Hiral Viradia who enters the film music scene with a hiccup. The way she sings “Bolti hoon, Bolti hoon”. Welcome, Hiral Viradia.

8. “Rihaayi De” is in the standard “Tu Koi Aur Hai” Rahman template but as always, ARR unsettles us from 04:55 when the female folk chorus bit kicks in and while we are mesmerised by it, Rahman introduces a Shehnai bit to drown us even more.

7. “Teri Nazar” is that painful male solo love song from the Rahman oeuvre. Shashwat Singh encapsulates the pain of love beautifully but watch out for the portion from 3:27 when the “Veeraan sa tha” line is embellished with a very brief but beautiful layer of Tabla.

6. “Toofan Si Kudi” is a good song and it is elevated by the way it is used in the movie to introduce the Sara Ali Khan character. Watch out from 3:09 where ARR adds extra beats to provide a “mass” intro and Sara Ali Khan slowly walks her way into the stratosphere.

5. ARR songs usually don’t go viral. The ARR virus takes some time to enter the host’s body but once it gets settled, it’s there forever. “Param Sundari” is a rare ARR viral phenomenon. Shreya Ghoshal is in her element but the chorus is vintage 90s Rahman stuff. When the chorus goes “Le To Gayi Kaleja”, I was transported to Mr.Romeo’s “Muthu Muthu” and it’s frenetic chorus : : "Sungadi sungadi selai sundari vandhale, ava sokku podi pottu ponaale, ava ponadhu ponadhenge, ponadhu ponadhu thaandavarayan therukulle, ava thanikkula meena ponaale” (I thought of stopping with “Sungadi Sungadi” but the entire chorus portion typed itself)

4. The entire song of “Rait Zara Si”. It easily enters into the pantheon of ARR all time Hindi duet classics like “Tum Saath Ho”, “Tum Tak” etc. But watch out from 4:15 when the flute seamlessly mingles with the chorus of “Vaasam veesudhadi” and then goes “oh na na na”.

3. The entire song of “Tere Rang”. It is 4:34 minutes long and every second in it is a Rahman special.

2. The song has not become a big hit (yet) for Sivakarthikeyan, unlike his viral hits with Anirudh. But the last one minute of the song is ARR giving a message to people on the future of our earth. This is not the young carefree Rahman singing “Vaazhkayil vellave take it easy policy” or “No problem”. Rather, he is 50 plus years old and wants us to take care of our environment. He sings

நீ மட்டும் வாழ ஏன் முள் வேலி போட்ட

வா பூலோகம் எல்லாம் உன் வீடா ஆக்கிக்க

ஹேய் மீத்தேனின் கோட்டை

உன் ஓசோனில் ஓட்டை

இனிமேலாச்சும் வானம் உன் ஓடாகிப்ப

உன் தாய் மண்ணை கீறி

வரும் உதிரத்தை குடிச்சு

நீ உயிர் வாழ முடியாது வழி மாத்திக்க

நீ அடியோட சுரண்ட

புவி உன் பேரில் இல்ல

உன் பிள்ளைங்க தவிக்காம நீ பாத்துக்க

(Literal translation : Why do you build fences around your small house? Make this entire world your home. Your ozone layer has been damaged and Methane projects are destroying your farmlands. Change your ways as you cannot live drinking the blood from your mother land. This world is not in your name for you to fleece it, take care so that your future generations do not suffer)

He pleads with us “Un thaai manna keeri varum udhirathai kudichu nee uyir vaazha mudiyadhu vazhi maathika”. An emotional me types “Sure guru,will try”.

1. While the previous moment was Rahman singing to us, this moment is Rahmaniacs singing to Rahman .Vivek, the much-maligned lyricist who wrote trashy lyrics in “Sarkar”, takes the top two moments. What Vijay Yesudas sings here can be about Amma or the motherland but it can be attributed to ARR himself.

“அம்மா உன் மடி போதும்

நீயே என் வரம் ஆகும்

எல்லாம் தந்தாய் வேரைப்போல நின்றே

உன்னில் பணிவேன் உந்தன் பாதமெங்கே

காலம் எல்லாம் எந்தன் ஆவி உனதே

அம்மா உன் கருணை

எதனைக் கொடுத்து நிறைத்திடுவேன்”.

( Literal translation : O Mother, your lap is enough for me and you are my blessing. You gave me everything standing strong like the roots of a tree, I bow before you, I live for you forever, O Mother, how will I pay back your mercy and love?)