By Chance...

"If you are passionate about something, luck is always beside you"--said one wise man. i dont know about the merit of this statement, but it holds completely true, when it comes to music & me.

i have had innumerable experiences when i could get some brilliant music, by sheer chance or luck, without any effort. take this--> tired of studying for long-time ( which means 1 hr, in my dictionary), i switch on the TV @ 1:15am and i get to listen to a brilliant tamil song of ilaiyaraaja. (this happened hundreds of times).
or this--> i was fortunate to grab the last piece of Thiruvasakam, before it got sold out.
well, i cant remember many..but i am quite convinced that some force has always been/is/will be (hopefully) guiding me towards avenues where i can collect some nice music.

today i had an unsual encounter with some long-awaited music. i was casually browsing through many links & chanced upon a site where this much-awaited album had been put up for sale. i was shocked, in disbelief..because the album hasnt been released in the market yet. and to my surprise, it was there, not only for sale, but also for online-listening. within a second, i started playing each of the songs & realized that they are indeed from that album.
but the twist in the tale came 2 hours later. that album had been pulled out of that web-page. i think they put it up only for some testing-purpose.and i am sure they are going to put it up back there , once the date of audio-release is out. now, if you are wondering which album it, let me break it.

The album : "Water", a film directed by Deepa Mehta
Music : A.R.Rahman.

And this is the chance-link for the audio-files.

I did have quite some expectations from this album because Deepa Mehta did extract some fantastic music from rahman for her previous film 1947-Earth. Also, rahman himself said long ago ( the music was composed/recorded during 1999-2000) that he moved out from the commercial-clutches to compose music for this film.now, before you shoot your questions, let me write what i felt after listening to the album. in one statement, i think what he said was right. the albums sounds as if its a shyam Benegal film( arty-kind) .

the album has 5 compositions of rahman plus one more song, "vaishnava janatho".All the songs have minimal usage of instruments. and the tunes are such that you cannot even believe that they have been composed by a guy from south-india(given the fact that rahman usually blends all flavours). My picks are two songs sung by a female (i dont know whose voice it was..but i have often noticed that rahman seems to reserve the best songs for female singers...be it harini or sadhana sargam or sujatha bhattacharya-tehzeeb or reena bharadwaj-yeh rishta kya kehlaatha hai...& many more).

"Naina Neer Bahaaye" is one brilliant composition which has shades of two hindustani raagas (one being lalit i think).the lyrics reminded me of madan mohan classic from Bawarchi -more naina bahaaye neer.anyways,this song boasts about some wonderful rendition, without any major interlude music, leaving a flute piece. this song definitely showcases a different rahman, the one we rarely get to see.

"Piya Ho" is another classic composition, in league with the above mentioned song. the character of this song too is very similar to that one, in the sense that more emphasis has been given on vocals only. This one too has a mixture of 2 raagas.one raaga is same as the one used in "koi nahi hai..mera yahaan ..tere binaa", in shankar mahadevan's Breathless.But rahman lets you to enjoy the raaga with elaborate aalaap-ic effects.i think these 2, are the best songs of the album & both these songs do reflect the maturity of the composer & you will wonder why he is being wasted these days ..friends..just watch on..listen to these 2 songs when the album is out..
The other songs are"bangri marori" & "aayo re sakhi", "shaam rang" which are folk numbers. though rahman's typical "hindustani+folk" formula has been used, this time, he didnt let the instruments dominate.these songs are by sukhwinder singh(somehow i dont like this fellow's voice), Richa sharma. Though not-so-great, they sound quite OK for 1st hearing atleast.in "bangro marori" , sukhwinder tries to do the same what the female did to "piya ho" & "naina neer bahaaye"..but his being a folk-ish voice, the song doesnt captivate the listener that much, that too with no instruments to back-up.

the last song "vaishnava janatho" by Pt.Ajoy Chakroborthy & Kaushaki Chakroborthy has the usual traditional tune of the song.

This album is an unsual one, especially because it hardly has any orchestra in any of the songs & rahman is known for some beautiful instrumentation.however, the songs do speak about his musical sensibilties & most importantly his capabilities which are rarely utilised effectively by the film-makers these days. but the catch is that, even when he comes out with some classy music, there are no takers, like in the case of Shyam Benegal's "Bose".i hope it doesnt discourage him from making good sensible music.
For the meantime, wait for this album...exclusively for those 2 songs.