A.R.Rahman's "Roja" in Time's All time Best Soundtracks

After "Nayakan" being listed in 100 all time best movies by Time Magazine now again another Maniratnam's movie gets the honour in the list of Ten best Soundtracks of all time. "Roja" is listed in the Ten best soundtracks. It is not an exaggeration if i say A.R.Rahman's music in "Roja" has revolutionised the indian film music. It is the first movie which had music crossing all lingual barriers and for which A.R.Rahman got a national recognition and also the National Award for Best Music director, the first ever in indian film histroy to be won by a debutanate. Actually it is the list of five chosen by Richard Corliss who is well known to have a good knowledge about indian cinema and also we know that he showered praises on A.R.Rahman in an article titled "That Old Feeling: Isn't it Rahmantic?".


Here is what Richard Corliss says about "Roja" music

Though he is renowed as the prominent composer of modern bollywood, A.R. Rahman was born and still works in Madras, 1,000 miles south of Bombay. His Tamil compatriot, the writer-director Mani Ratnam, yanked him out of jingle-writing to compose his first full score for Roja (The Rose) the tale of a woman whose lover is kidnapped by terrorists. Through this grim political parable, Rahman laced some spectacular melodies that not only serve the drama, they create their own[EM]as in the duet ballads "Yeh Haseen Vadiyan" and "Roja Jaaneman," which first are grounded in recitative, then suddenly ascend into celestial melody. This astonishing debut work parades Rahman's gift for alchemizing outside influences until they are totally Tamil, totally Rahman. He plays with reggae and jungle rhythms, fiddles with Broadway-style orchestrations, runs cool variations on Morricone's scores for Italian westerns.

Web link of the List

Though there are many other masterpieces in Indian, I feel this album truly deserves the recognition simply for the reason that it is the first album in India to be liked by one and all breaking all barriers and bridging the gaps between north and south music. What you say?