A.R.Rahman’s music: An analysis

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A.R.Rahman music

This article is an analysis of ARR's songs specific to TAMIL MOVIES. There are no second thoughts when it comes to Rahman’s talent and his endowment to the world of Indian cinema with his music. He definitely made every Indian proud by hailing from down south and going all the way to Hollywood. Indian musical talent was never a matter of so much debate before Rahman’s existence. But the box office success of his movies has hit an alarming decline. There was a time when movies with his music were assured of a good run even before the movie was released. That situation has changed. Here is an investigative report on the reasons.

Movies Year Directors Actors

New 2004 S.J.Surya S.J.Surya

Kandukondain Kandukondain 2000 Rajiv Menon Ajith

Thenali 2000 K.S.Ravikumar Kamal

Alai Payuthey 2000 Manirathnam Madhavan

Mudhalvan 1999 Shankar Arjun

Padaiyappa 1999 K.S.Ravikumar Rajini

Jeans 1998 Shankar Prasanth

Minsara Kanavu 1997 Rajiv Menon Prabhu Deva

Indian 1996 Shankar Kamal

Muthu 1995 K.S.Ravikumar Rajini

Bombay 1995 Manirathnam Arvindsamy

Kadhalan 1994 Shankar Prabhu Deva

Kizhakku Cheemayilae 1994 Bharathiraja Vijayakumar

Gentleman 1993 Shankar Arjun

Roja 1992 Manirathnam Arvindsamy

Change in the mentality of the public:

The days when movies would complete silver jubilees just on the merit of music had gone long back ever since the good old days of Ilayaraja with movies like Chinna Thambi, Karagatakaran and Kizhakku Vasal to name a few. The cinema going public has become matured and demand more variety and freshness from the filmmakers. Music has just become another aspect of filmmaking and no longer the kingpin. These days music directors are being rated based not just on the quality of the music nor the audio sales but also on the box office performance of the movie. Movies with very average music have also started becoming blockbusters just on the merit of story, director and cast. This is exactly where the problem for Rahman arises.

Off late he has not managed to work with the cream directors and cast. Nor was he able to get involved with projects with strong story. Alas his musical brilliance kept on going unnoticed.

Director – The key

“Most of Rahman’s movies in the early stage of his career were box office hits just because of the fact that he was working with two of the best directors, Manirathnam and Shankar”, says an assistant director to a popular director. There is a huge void of commercial hits once you remove off the blockbusters he had delivered with three of his best ever combination directors, Shankar, Manirathnam and K.S.Ravikumar. With Shankar he had produced five mega hits and three superhits with each of the other two. The rest of his hits come from Rajiv Menon, Kathir and S.J.Surya.

His combination with Bharathiraja was a disaster with only one hit movie – and the rest of the three proving to be a complete whitewash; then again the music was exceptional. A trade analyst feels that, “It’s important for Rahman to start looking beyond Mani and Shankar in Tamil. There are lots of talented directors coming up.”

One of the top Tamil producers points out that, “Had Rahman combined with any of the new breed of top directors like Bala, Gowtham menon, Selvaraghavan, Murugadoss and Cheran, his list of box office superhits and audio blockbusters would have been endless”. “Rahman working with average directors is a national wastage”, adds a popular young hero. His exorbitant pay packet and his hectic international schedule also turn the directors away from him. His pay packet out budgets the entire budget of a Tamil movie. In an effort to outdo these views, he has agreed to work in Chakkarakatti which debuts Bhagyaraj’s son Shanthanu.

Actor – Important too.

When you look at Rahman’s list of movies in Tamil you will see that there is complete lack of associations with any of the younger crop of Superstars. Rahman’s partnership with Rajini and Kamal has been very successful with two huge hits with both of them. But apart from them, very few movies with the next set of actors like Vijay, Ajith, Vikram or Surya and no projects with the third set of actors like Simbu, Dhanush, Srikanth, Vishal and Jeyam Ravi. When it’s a big star’s movie, the opening is huge and expectations are high. Even average music seems to thrive on such conditions.

Unfortunately, Rahman off late has not been privileged with this luxury except for Ayutha Ezhuthu and Sillunnu oru kadhal. “A movie’s opening and performance seems to compliment audio sales these days”, says a representative at Music world, Chennai. When there are no stars in the cast, the opening for the movie is not huge. Ah-Aah, E20U18, Kangalal Kaidhu Sei and Parasuram are some of the projects that the maestro would have avoided just on the basis of lack of good story or cast.

Conclusion

Though there has definitely been a lapse in selecting projects in Tamil, it’s just a matter of time before the Madras Mozart rises back to his legendary position in Kollywood. “Sivaji with Shankar and Rajini has generated huge expectations and is most likely to open the floodgates for audio market”, adds an official from Star music. We sincerely hope Rahman takes the extra care in selecting projects down south and wish him all the best in his endeavor.