Independence Day – India - play list

Along with wishing everyone a happy independence day I’d like to put forth an independence day play list of sorts. A collection of songs whose words and music have a strong patriotic spirit to it.

• National anthem: Featuring Pt. Hariprasad Chaurasia, Vikku Vinayakram, Ravikiran, Kumaresh & Ganesh, Pt. Vishwamohan Bhat, Ustad Amjad Ali Khan, Pt. Jasraj, this collective instrumental version was produced by AR Rahman for the album "Jana Gana Mana".
• Missing: Loosely based on the iconic “Vande Mataram”, this piece was composed and produced by AR Rahman for the album "Vande Mataram".
• Vande Mataram:  Written by Mehboob and sung by the ‘crown princess of Indian playback music’ Lata Mangeshkar, this song was composed and produced by Ranjit Barot for the album "Vande Mataram 98". It combined the best of the modern and the yesteryears, a feat Ranjit Barot  effortlessly manages to accomplish given his strong classical training and a background in rock music. The choir’s harmonic rendition of “Suchalaam sufalaam” that opens this song is unique and a spell binding effort.
• Maa Tujhe Salaam: Rendered, composed and produced by AR Rahman (Does anyone still remember Yak Bondy?) for the album "Vande Mataram", the words for this song were written by Mehboob. The brief given to him was to not write a song that the youth would like but never sing.
• Desh mere desh: Sung by Sukhwinder Singh & AR Rahman, composed and produced by AR Rahman for the movie "The legend of Bhagat Singh". The words of this song were written by Sameer.
• Yeh jo desh hai thera: sung, composed and produced by AR Rahman for the movie "Swades". Javed Akthar’s words bring a melancholic and fond feeling to friends living in foreign lands and to natives alike.
• Theme music from "Bombay": Composed and produced by AR Rahman for the movie "Bombay", this song is alleged to have taken 3 months to complete delaying the release of the movie. Based on the same raag as Mohandas Gandhi’s favourite song, this piece of music kicked off the trend of having instrumental compositions on mainstream film music albums, although AR Rahman has been doing it since his first movie “Thiruda thiruda”. “Bombay” is also the best selling casette tape of all times in India, if the accounting was transparent in the industry it would have rivalled MJ’s “Thriller” too in terms of copies sold.
• Azadi: Sung, composed and produced by AR Rahman for the movie "Bose, the forgotten hero", the words were written by Javed Akthar. This movie didn’t get quite the attention it deserved, it was a good effort and the music was top notch. This was one of AR Rahman’s lengthiest albums with a total of 19 tracks on the soundtrack CD.
• Thamizha thamizha: Sung by Hariharan, written by Vairamuthu, composed and produced by AR Rahman for the movie "Roja". (Bharat humko jaan say pyaara hai is the same tune in Hindi)
• Desk ki mitti: Words by Javed Akthar, sung by Sonu Nigam, composed and produced by AR Rahman for the movie "Bose, the forgotten hero".
• Sarfarosh ki tamanna: Written by Sameer, sung by Sonu Nigam & Hariharan, composed and produced by AR Rahman for the movie "The Legend of Bhagat Singh". 

“Chak de” composed by Salim-Sulaiman due for the movie “Chak de India”, “Mera mulk mera desh” from the movie “Diljale” composed by Anu Malik are some honourable mentions.

This writer has a strong bias towards AR Rahman which would be evident looking at the songs in this play list. There have been timeless gems from the olden days, since my understanding and exposure to music from that period is limited I’ve restrained myself to only mention songs that came out after 1992.

Are there any other songs in the last 2 and 1/2 decades that should have been mentioned?

Music - Oscar hopefuls - 2009

I was tempted to post when I saw a pic of such distinguished composers on Hollywood reporter. Here's a short description on each of them. 

From left: Jan AP Kaczmarek, Alexander Desplat, Danny Elfman (Top most), Howard Shore, AR Rahman are the composers posing in the picture above.  [Image copyrighted by Hollywood reporter and used here in a non-commercial context, will be removed if objections are raised by the copyright owner]

Jan AP Kaczmarek is a Polish composer who has won the Oscar award for Finding Neverland. Jan effectively was able to create melodies on the piano and merge it the the orchestra in his soundtrack for Finding Neverland which was instantly appealing at the same time was layered enough for hardcore classical music fans to discern in the long run. He is also known for two symphonic compositions done in Poland - Cantata for Freedom & Oratorio. Jan's tickets to the awards nite this year is 'The Visitor'. 

Alexander Desplat is considered French and has composed music for such films as Lust, Caution, The Luzhin Defence, Girl with a Pearl Earring, Syriana, Birth, Hostage, Casanova, The Nest and The Painted Veil. He got noticed for his score for 'The Painted Veil' for which he earned a Golden Globe for best original score. His score for the epic 'The Queen' was nominated for the Academy award (Oscar). This year he's rumoured to be nominated for the score done for the movie 'The Curious case of Benjamin Button'.

Danny Elfman is an American composer whose scores to movies have been described as wild, maniac, romantic, lush, serious, dark, bright etc. Having scored the first Batman movie, Danny is know for his work in movies such as Edward Scissorhands, The Nightmare before Christmas, Good Will Hunting, Chicago, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, The Kingdon etc. Danny has been nominated for the Academy award for Good Will Hunting (Dramatic Score), Men in Black (Musical or Comedy) & Big Fish (Original Score) but hasn't won the coveted Oscar as yet, is this going to be his year for the work done on the movie titled 'Milk'?

Howard Shore is the most popular and decorated of the names we have on this post today. Having composed for such successful movies as The Silence of the Lambs, The Lord of the rings trilogy, Philadelphia, Se7en, The Departed, The Aviator, Gangs of New York, Howard has won the academy award thrice - Best Original Score for The Fellowship of the Ring, Best Original Song (sung by Annie Lennox) and Best Original Score for The Return of the king. The year he's likely to be nominated for the score of the movie 'Doubt'. 

AR Rahman is probably the best selling composer in this list simply because of the sheer number of record sales his music is attributed to, it's rumoured to be close to 110 million putting him in the same league as Michael Jackson in terms of sales. AR Rahman is an indian born composer who changed the way music was done in mainstream indian movies. After breaking all records in Indian he went west to compose music for the hugely successful musical Bombay Dreams (premiered in London) and The Lord of the rings (premiered in Toronto). His work on 'Warriors of Heaven and Earth' a chinese production was well received. Rahman is rumoured to get nominated to the academy awards for 'Slumdog Millionaire'. 

I'm going to stick my neck out and make two predictions. AR Rahman is going to be nominated for Best Original Score and Best Original Song for 'Slumdog Millionaire', he'll win Best Original Song ('Jai Ho' sung by Sukhwinder Sing, Lyrics by Gulzar, Produced by AR Rahman). Over to the short list expected in Feb 2009.