Memoirs of a Rahmaniac

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I am sure that millions of other AR Rahman fans in India, who grew up on his music, and who started to listen to him, precisely at a time in their life when they just started to listen to any music, feel the same. Both Rahman and I entered film music at the same time. He had just started to compose music, and I had just started to listen to music. I was eight years old. I do not remember the exact moment, when, for the first time, I experienced the musical frisson on listening to an AR Rahman's piece, but ever since I did, I have been a Rahmaniac, and I remain so till this day.

I get just as excited about the release of an AR Rahman soundtrack even now. I am one of those lucky kids who got the opportunity to witness the birth and emergence of a revolutionary composer. There are so many assorted memories and images that come to my mind when I think about the Roja soundtrack. Every AR Rahman soundtrack has a musical snippet which may be just few seconds long, but to which all the Nostalgia related to the entire soundtrack clings on, and in Roja it is the seductive Ooo ho ho hoo motif from the Rukkumani song; it did something to me even when I was a kid.

The camera slowly sneaks into the bedroom, where the newlywed is going to spend their wedding night; camera zooms into the bed that is being decorated with flowers, while the soundtrack is filled with a sensuous fire set ablaze by the Ooo ho ho hoo motif in the beginning of the song. I was intrigued how precisely music was married to the images in motion.

Personally, that is not what I thought when I first heard his music. With Ilaiyaraaja giving consistently high quality music for two decades, no one would have ever imagined that any other composer could overthrow him from his reign in Tamil film music. Please fill in a comment for this response.

Memoirs of a Rahmaniac - Preview - [PDF Document]

Suresh - Hearty congratulations on compiling your book. It may very well qualify as the quintessential labour of love.

I will make an effort to read it when i create time for it later. Also read your review of ARR's JTHJ album- it is an outstanding analysis,just like your take on Rockstar- and it's an additional pleasure to note your perfectly constructed,beautifully expressed English. It was a big boon for me.

Memoirs of a Rahmaniac - e-book

Especially, the Sun Music channel became my jukebox. I got a chance to listen to and watch all the new songs of AR Rahman as and when they released. I also got a chance to hear the earlier AR Rahman songs that I had no access to before. The budgets of Tamil films being produced were becoming huge, and so was the money spent on publicity, advertisements and promotional activities on all forms of media available. In my memory, Shankars Jeans was the first film that was rigorously advertised for months before the release date of the film.

They were releasing stills from the film, interviews of the cast and crew, titbits about the making in the weekly Tamil magazines like Kumudham and Ananda Vikatan. My grandfather bought these magazines every week. Few days before the music launch, Kumudham published the complete lyrics of Anbae Anbae Kolladhey song. The lyrics left me puzzled about how anyoneMemoirs of a Rahmaniac18could set them to music.

I could not recognize any meter or rhyme in the lyrics. In the first two lines, I could sense a pattern with both the lines having just three words and the last words ending with dhey sound, but the third line Pennae Punnagayil Idhayathai Vedikkaadhey breaks the pattern set by the first two lines. And the following lines were even longer. I tried to sing the lyrics in some random tune. And, that was my first attempt at thinking music. When I heard the final song, it was a revelation. The gorgeous tune that Rahman composed for those verses stumped me. Of course, I now know that it was made the other way around.

It is Vairamuthu who wrote the lyrics for AR Rahmans melody. It was such an enlightening song for me in terms of understanding the innate relationship between a melody and lyrical poetry. The other song in Jeans that blew my mind was Kannodu Kaanbadhellam. I had never heard a voice like Nityasree Mahadevans before, and never heard the traditional south Indian percussion Thavil used in a way it is used in this song. I kept listening to that song on loop in my uncles tape recorder by this time my uncle and my father had resolved their petty issues, so I was allowed to enter my uncle's bedroom.

I have seen his stamp size photographs on cassette covers. I instantly liked the song and was excited to see AR Rahman for the first time. They played the song repeatedly, once every half an hour, in all television channels throughout the day. Though I had a television at home to listen to and watch Rahmans songs, there was no music system at home yet. I kept asking my parents to buy me a tape recorder. My parents could not understand the use of one when there was already a television at home.

They would politely tell me to listen to the songs played on television. I found a right moment at which if I asked they could not say no. My fathers only wish was that I should rank first in school in the tenth Board exams, though I never ever broke into even the top three in any of the examinations until then. Luckily, I ranked first in school, in the tenth public Board examination, and asked my parents to gift me a Philips 2-in-1 tape recorder for the same.

My father was on cloud nine. He would have done anything for me in those few days after the results were declared, and within a few days, we had a Philips 2-in-1 tape recorder at home. How do I even articulate what it felt like to have my own Philips tape recorder? Moreover, I had the original audio cassette of Uyire, too, to listen to at whim. I listened to Uyire every day, once before going to school in the morning and once in the evening after coming backMemoirs of a Rahmaniac20from school. Not a single day passed without listening to Uyire songs.

In Uyire, Rahmans music and Vairamuthus lyrical poetry blended so exquisitely that you are left with no choice but get obsessive with the songs. After the Minsara Kanavu experience, the days I spent so obsessively with Uyire music, I cannot forget for life. Since then, I have bought every Rahman soundtrack cassette on the very first day of its release. I started listening to all the albums I had missed out earlier. My parents would not let me buy original cassettes.

They would ask me to record the best songs of three or four movies in a single cassette which would be cheaper than buying original cassettes, but I insisted on buying only original cassettes even at that time, though I don't remember exactly why. In the last two years of schooling, Rahman gifted more and more beautiful compositions in the soundtracks of films like Sangamam, En Swasa Kaatrae, Kaadhalar Dhinam, Alaipayuthey, Kandukondein Kandukondein and Tajmahal.

Every single song in all of these albums is a gem. I remember watching a teaser not a trailer of the film Iruvar with a silhouette shot of Aishwarya Rai dancing to Rahmans syncopated rhythms and Jazzy Sax ludes with a contrastingly lit central doom of the Tajmahal in the background. It was ethereal to watch Santosh Sivan! I didnt understand what it was. I wasnt keen on listening to Iruvar music. A Tamil weeklyMemoirs of a Rahmaniac21magazine had photographs of political leaders morphed with the faces of the stars playing the role of those leaders in the film.

On the day of the films release, there was a full page advertisement about the film. The film bombed at the box office, it apparently was out of theatres within two days in Salem.

Memoirs of a Rahmaniac - Preview

A local Television channel, which is telecast only within Salem, has a jukebox concept, where a playlist was looped throughout the day. That was the beginning. What a magnificent film, how ingeniously AR Rahman pays tribute to all the Tamil film music composers of the yore.

Of course, I have seen and heard Hello Mr. Ethirkatchi song many times on Television, which was quite popular despite the films failure. I saw the Rhythm audio cassette in Siva Shankars our classroom singer house. Siva Shankar had become my best friend by that time. When I asked for it, Siva immediately agreed to lend me the cassette for a week. I, and the accompanied entourage of my relatives and family members, travelled from Salem to Trichy in a Maruti van, which luckily had a music system. The music of Rhythm accompanied me all the way from Salem to Trichy. I got access and exposure to different kinds of music through my college mates.

I started keenly listening to music of all kinds, languages, and of all other composers. How on earth could someone rework a song like Poraale Ponnuthaayi into something like Gurus of Peace? I still get amazed by the Gurus of Peace song. My hostel roommate, a Chennai resident all his life, was listening to a lot of Hindi film music. He brought with him the Taal cassette. I still could not recall where I heard the Rangeela music, but Taal is the first Hindi film soundtrack of AR Rahman I listened to the most, thanks to Bharath, my hostel roommate in the first year of college.

Someone I guess it is another Bharath from Kadaloor, who stayed in the room next to mine brought the Lagaan audio cassette to my room Agate Hostel, Room No. When I first heard the Lagaan songs, I did not understand anything. I didnt care to listen to it again. Later, when I met a schoolmate Krishnamoorthy, who was studying in a college in Coimbatore, he told me that Lagaan was a terrific film and that AR Rahmans music in the film was unbelievably breathtaking.

Lagaan is the first Hindi film I ever saw in a theatre. Also, Lagaan is the first film, in which AR Rahman made me listen to not just the songs, but also the background score in the film. I missed the opening credits when I saw the film for the third time. I went to see the film for the fourth time just to listen to the music played during the opening credits, which was not released in the audio cassette. Lagaan is the first Hindi film audio cassette I bought.

I bought it on the day when I brought the Philips 2-in-1 player to the college hostel Diamond in the second year of college. The next year, yet again Maniratnam and AR Rahman delivered in Kannathil Muthamittal, the music that moved me to tears on the first listening. As I already mentioned, I never got an opportunity to dance on stage in school cultural events.

But, after one day of rehearsal, the whole item was removed from the program list. Finally, I got a chance to dance on stage in the first year of college. I made sure that it was for an AR Rahman song. I was paired opposite Rekha one of the most talked about girls in college at that time, for reasons, you know for what a girl would be talked about in a college , and we danced for the folk song Kulichchaa Kuththaalam from the film Duet. It was an incredible experience. I remember every movement in the piece and every moment spent in rehearsing for the performance.

Again, in the third year of college, we performed for the instrumental track Ganesh fromMemoirs of a Rahmaniac24Bombay Dreams. I chose this track, because of the pause that comes in the middle of the track and the brilliant take-off moment, with strings and rhythms soaring immediately after the brief pause. I thought it would create a significant impact, when performed to on stage and I guess it did. I remember that quite a few of my college mates came to me after the performance asking the name of the track.

I guess, every music fan must pass through a Walkman phase in his life, I had mine. I used to travel to my hometown every week from Trichy. It was a four-hour bus journey. I, again, pestered my parents on my birthday to buy me a Walkman.

sureshmehcnit's Timeline

That closeness of music to the ears gave me a whole new music listening experience. I guess, it is this Walkman phase that most of the peeling off the layers in many AR Rahman songs happened. I particularly remember peeling off the layers in my mind while listening to the Swaasamae song from Thenali. I used to listen to music before - a lot of Raaja in that.

I had even bought Cassettes of Rahman's earlier albums Bombay was the first! But Dil Se was the first one to strike a chord at a very personal level I can't believe you write so well on Music despite starting so late. Keep up the great work! Mahesh - Thank you. Dil se was truly a major milestone in Rahman's career. Many who thought Rahman as a flash-in-the-pan took him seriously only after Dil se happened. Even though as a rahmaniac i m happy and proud wit his hollywood projects.. Thank you so much Suresh for this wonderful article. The reason is simple. He's a wonderful tune maker.

With all of his greatness, I can't help but see his humility. I have never seen him talk bad about anyone in an interview. People criticize him, but he never return the criticism. What a great man to have come out of India.. Suresh, did you do any write-up on Couples Retreat scores?

I really love the below listed score: The earlier part abt how a musician conceives his music was wonderful, and i have always tried my best to make few insane ppl understand that, but have failed: But as u said, i ve always loved being ignorant in their eyes: Have had a very similar experience like urs all this 19 yrs: Only difference was my elder brother kindled the Rahmanism is me: He bought casseates with his little pocket money and made me fall in love with Rahman's music: Dear Suresh, It is Magesh.

Hope u remember me. Ur college-mate Meta branch.

Earlier I too gave a damn thought of listening to old songs whether be it in Hindi or in any other language. Suggest you to enjoy those classics. A big thanks for a walk down the memory lane.. And can't agree more about what you wrote on Thiruda Thiruda..