Endhiran Music Review

Endhiran Soundtrack opens exactly with those sounds that we were expecting to hear in it. Quadrupled robotic voices, e-tones, booming bass, flanger and phaser effects welcome us into the musical universe of a Tamil Robot – The Endhiran. Rahman tunes the words ‘Pudhiya Manidhaa, Bhoomikku Vaa’ like a religious verse sung to God, but, here, it instead, is a Mantra to a Machine. By introducing the main synth bass motif right in the beginning, Rahman gives us a holder to hold on to, while he and Khathija Rahman leisurely sing the verses set to an unpredictable phrase pattern, so that we can follow the path without falling down and reach S.P.B safely.

Ah! S.P.B. The Diction. The Expression. The Singing. The voice. S.P.B beautifully sings to Endhiran, Vairamuthu’s poetic Pros and Cons of Man and Machine. This song clearly tells us that this is a film soundtrack and not another music album. Listening to music, especially with the way the string section beautifully progresses through the song, it is easy to visualize how this song is going to play behind the montage of Scientist Vaseegaran giving birth to Chitti, part by part.

When was the last time, Rahman, took a pause within a song, to wander and explore new musical terrains in the interludes, that is totally cut off from the main song and one that in itself could be a complete music piece? He does that in ‘Kaadhal Anukkal’ with two varied exotic interludes. I could imagine Shankar telling Rahman about the places where he is planning to shoot the song. The melody, though isn’t of everlasting type, is quite engaging. The melody really gets uplifted by the boozed and dozed-off style singing, of the melody, by Vijay Prakash and Shreya Ghosal.

Rahman, interestingly, differentiates the love duets between Vaseegaran and Sanaa from that of Chitti and Sanaa, by orchestrating the song ‘Kaadhal Anukkal’ with all acoustic instruments – live string section, guitars, accordion, harmonica and what not, to lend a human touch, whereas in ‘Irumbilae Oru Idhayam’, which is a Chitti and Sanaa duet, it is all techno, there is absolutely no real instruments anywhere in the song.

It is not just the orchestration and beats; even the melody is composed to the character. In ‘Arima Arima’, while Sadhana Sargam connects the notes in the melody through curves, Hariharan connects them with straight lines, much like a robotic motion. There are no extra emotions, note slides or additional wavering effects in Hariharan’s voice throughout the song.

While Robot in ‘Arima’ is arrogant and masculine, in which Chitti proclaims himself as a Lion, Chitti in ‘Irumbilae’ is a sweet lover boy, and accordingly the melody is submissive. In ‘Irumbilae’, Rahman sings in short phrases of melody much like the short sentences of a Robot's speech. Like how Chitti’s human emotions are caught in a steel body, the emotions are caught within the limitations of the length of the phrases in the melody in the song. However, that suppression and suffocation of the feelings come out beautifully through Rahman’s voice. Making an impacting song, by stacking up such short phrases of melody one after the other for 5 minutes, with restrictive techno beats and sounds and without it ever sounding monotonous, is tough task, but, Rahman succeeded in doing just that in this song. Karki’s humanoid verses contribute equally well. If only, he had mixed the voices a little louder.

The opening of ‘Arima’, with trumpets, thundering snares and roaring chorus, would be ideal for a Rajini introduction scene. With strings stirring and rock guitars strumming throughout, the grandeur quotient never drops down. Though none of the instruments used in ‘Arima’ is used in ‘Kilimanjaro’, I would say, it sounds grand in its own way. Instantly captivating melody, tribal rhythms realized with fresh sounding percussions, musically rhyming verses of Pa.Vijay and interesting instrumentation make the song an easy winner. And those classical Tabla rhythms amidst tribal drumming – “Aaha! Aaha!”.

‘Boom Boom Robo Da’ is a fun song that sings praises of Chitti Robot. Though, this song, again, is bedded with all techno beats, it is much milder in sound than it is in the other songs and holds the sweet innocent melody gently throughout. The song is exotically packaged with multiple layers of sounds, beats and instruments. Song keeps throwing distinct music parts – rap by Yogi B, Mandolin flourishes in the prelude, Spanish guitars in the interlude, and keeps up totally engaged throughout.

It seems ‘Chitti Dance Showcase’ is a background score to Chitti’s moves of varied dance styles. Classical Jathis chopped and grated in synth saw is the major theme of this song. This Jathi-chopping is an experiment that Rahman has been doing since ‘Parthaalae Paravasam', but it finally finds complete justification here. How else can we score for a scene in which a Machine is performing a classical dance? Keeping experiments aside, that breezy string section sounds so ethereal, when it suddenly makes an entry amidst hard techno sounds. Especially when the rushing strings take a mellifluous flight with wood winds and angelic choir, I had Goose bumps.

I like Endhiran Music.

Para Para Kili

Yesterday, I finally got to listen to a soundtrack that I have been eagerly looking forward to listen to for quite sometime. First few songs of the soundtrack played easily on my ears and they were quite good but nothing prepared me for the stunner that was about to come. That song totally occupied my mind and enslaved my senses for next few hours. I guess I would have heard the song repeatedly for 20 times in one stretch. There are songs that we like, and that we don’t like and there are songs that overwhelm and possess us forever, this song is one such. I am talking about Karthik Raaja’s Rettai Suzhi soundtrack and the song is ‘Para Para Kili’.

Though we have heard such stuff many times before from Karthik Raaja himself, the precision, restraint and minimalism in the orchestration as it is in this song hits me like a thunder bolt every time. The light flight mood of the song in instantly expressed in the first line of the melody. How fitting it is that the song is devoid of any hard percussions, sound loops or rhythm layers - the usual elements in a song that add a hefty derma around to carry the melody. The bass celesta riff and the subtle ticking sound that kick starts the song keeps looping around to sustain the mood of float. And oh! Those double bass that is plucked in beat on every bar of the melody to add an infinite depth and gravity to the featherlike melody.

How a song on flight could be made without having the breezy registers of strings bowed. The string section does come in soon subtly swirling around its way into the song. The overwhelming gooseflesh moment of the song for me happened when a huge tide of cascading strings curl over each other behind those lines that go ‘Mazhaiyadikkuthu Veyyiladikuthu’. The other exhilarating moment in the song arrives just before the song shifts to first interlude when Karthik Raaja unhinges the melody of just the three words ‘Para Para Kili’ and sways it up and down in air like a feather would after it is let off in the air.

As expected, strings take the centre stage in the first interlude playing the waltz and settles down with the appearance of Santoor the strings of which are lightly hammered to pronounce the improved version of the subdued bass celesta riff that set the song in motion in the beginning.

And that was about 2 minutes of the song. For the rest of the beauty – go, figure it for yourself.

Every single note of the melody, the structuring and packaging of the song, the instruments chosen (celesta, vibraphone, strings, tubular bells, Santoor, quintessential Karthik Raaja Violin) and almost every single thought that has gone into making this song is to achieve one goal of making the listeners feel lightened, lifted and floated in space.

At the end when all layers die down with Deepa Mariam’s voice solely lingering on the melody to bring the curtains down, my heart started beating in ¾ and it continued in that rhythm for next few hours. Even the softest of the melodies are now being set to a foot-tapping beat but Karthik Raaja creates a song that doesn’t ask our foot to tap in the ground instead it asks our foot to flap in the air. I did.

Damn commercial success. Karthik Raaja – Go, take rest now. With ‘Para Para Kili’, you have done enough for this year.

Breathing under Water

The instrumentals especially the new age ones are meant for creating a pleasant aural ambience. When we listen to such new age instrumentals while doing some work, it doesn’t demand our complete attention and yet it fills an unknown void. Whenever our attention turns to the music that plays currently, it sounds pleasant. We don’t know what the main theme of the song is, what the structure of the song is or how it flows and yet when we listen to the small part that suddenly grabbed our attention; it sounds so enchanting and makes us to continue our work that we are doing, with a more relaxed mind.

But all this doesn’t mean that new age songs are just filled with hooks played on ear pleasing classical instruments to create soothing soundscapes. It would have a strong soulful melody that leaves us awestruck when we take time to sit and listen to the album patiently, paying attention to the details of its structure, melody, rhythm and orchestration. There are instrumentals with complex melodies and harmonies meant for live performances where the listening experience is enhanced and become more exciting when we listen to the piece being performed live by the musicians. There are instrumentals with a simple melody, being orchestrated beautifully to be heard by us sitting in a dark room with our eyes closed.

‘Breathing under Water’ is an instrumental album which has music pieces that fall under all aforementioned kind of instrumentals. ‘Breaking under water’ surprises a listener from the word go, mainly because of its variety. Most of such instrumental albums turn tedious because of the same kind of melody, music, orchestration and fusion being repeated in all the tracks of the album. But in ‘Breathing under Water’, except for the constantly and aptly used Sitar, no two tracks sound the same.

‘Burn’ has trance meets pop meets electronica meets Hindustani kind of fusion. Sitar pieces go through e-gadgets creating unique sounds in ‘Slither’. The soulful main Sitar theme of the album is introduced in the title track ‘Breathing under water’ and like motifs in typical movie soundtracks, the same theme with some western touches is used in ‘Sea dreamer’ and there is a soothing reprise version too. ‘Ghost story’ rendered innately by Sunidhi chauhan is an intense melody with a constant folk rhythm. ‘PD7’ is a typical jugalbandhi we get to listen to in a fusion concerts, in which live drums, Sitar and Shankar Mahadevan’s vocals slowly and gradually increases the complexity and tempo of their renditions to reach the final harmonious crescendo. ‘Easy’ is less tight than other tracks but easy on ears with a simple melody rendered so lightly by Norah Jones. ‘Light glass folk’ is like a Sitar concerto with Sitar in the lead and symphonic strings adding an emotional swing from behind. ‘A perfect rain’ is a typical Bollywoodish soft rock number with exquisite vocals by Shankar Mahadevan. ‘Abyss’ creates a variety of soundscapes and moods with varied acoustic instruments and vocals. In ‘Oceanic – Part 1 (featuring Pandit Ravi Shankar)’ with heavy strings backing and pure live Sitar sound, Shankar prepares us for the part 2 which is for purists, who want to listen to Sitar without any ornamentation in the name of orchestration or fusion.

The only issue with ‘Breathing under Water’ is that some of the tracks are loosely arranged and not as tighter as other and that is one of the reasons why I prefer Anoushka’s ‘Rise’ to this one. But on its own, ‘Breathing under Water’ is a must listen for fans of new age music.