Discussions on ARR

Compilation of #maniacslolchronicles - ongoing twitter series of Plum. varalArrukku mukhyam. Note these are the same #maniacs who complain about IR fans' narrow-mindedness. Also note how many retweets, favourites these tweets get. Very revealing.

https://twitter.com/thoatta/status/491978061928075264
https://twitter.com/sindhutalks/status/491978722149269504

And Plum's take on the matter -
https://twitter.com/nom_d_plum/status/492157688579518465

#Maniacswit
https://twitter.com/sindhutalks/status/491979884894240770
https://twitter.com/kannan0420/status/491980266236178433
https://twitter.com/sindhutalks/status/491980961324601346

#Maniacsappreciation
https://twitter.com/RaKaMaLi/status/492336809506906112

And as usual Plum's pithy take -
https://twitter.com/nom_d_plum/status/492353153258385408

http://arrcopycat.blogspot.in/2009/02/arrahmans-plugarisms.html

That's a ridiculous blog to say the least. Reads like something that an IR fanatic with a vengeance would come up with.

 seruppadi to those wanted AR to score for more Tamil philms.. Sangar and his assist.  VasanthaB  ended with lemons..Ar should limit himself to Hollywood and other planets.

Haven't listened to #i in no mood either but had to endure Kaaviyathalaivan on a recent road trip. What a bummer. Offensively bad. Generic sounds being passed off as ludes and the less said about the boring, meandering melodies the better. Not even a single redeeming thing about the entire album. Even the Santhoshs and the Immans could have done 10x better than this excuse of an album. And maniacs lapping it up, I don't have anything to say really. Only thing worse than maniacs celebrating KT is to see their effusive praises on Kochadaiiyaan. Another hopeless album. That's two in a row.

RIP TFM. (Hat-tip Subhasree Thanikachalam)

Nerd wrote:Haven't listened to #i in no mood either but had to endure Kaaviyathalaivan on a recent road trip. What a bummer. Offensively bad. Generic sounds being passed off as ludes and the less said about the boring, meandering melodies the better. Not even a single redeeming thing about the entire album. Even the Santhoshs and the Immans could have done 10x better than this excuse of an album. And maniacs lapping it up, I don't have anything to say really. Only thing worse than maniacs celebrating KT is to see their effusive praises on Kochadaiiyaan. Another hopeless album. That's two in a row.

RIP TFM. (Hat-tip Subhasree Thanikachalam)

Thats why I am saying.. We dont deserve an IR album - big banner, little banner or no banner. I am trying to actively forget Raaja these days. Because it is an intolerable
cruelty for me to hear anything else these days. sense of nausea throughout when i try to mingle in and having to stand through Royapuram petteru and kaaviya thalaivans and see
people swooning over. To top it all - heard yuvan's sufi song in anjaan. puked instantly. indha karmathukku dhaan nee madham maarinaayaa u1?

Except the Shreya-Haricharan duet, the remaining songs in I are offensively bad. Worth a listen to just see how horrendous they are and spit at them

Haven't listened to "I" yet but Kaaviya Thalaivan was way too underwhelming, no song stood out for me. 

Alli Arjuna was just wandering aimlessly and I couldn't help but compare that song to Annanmaar Kathai from Ponnar Shankar which was set to portray a similar story telling. Just the variations in the song and the way it keeps the listener captivated all the way, you don't need any other proof to know who can masterfully tell a story with music.

Sampled all songs (below). Maniacs reacting like this is the greatest musical innovation since Bach invented fugue. A bit too effusive, that, for my taste.



Maniacs

adhellAm irukkattum. amsamA #Aai nu pEru vecha albuthula nEkku thodhA(indha forumersku theriyAdhadhilla, constipation probleu) pudhiya nenjE ezhu, endhirA edhAchum irukkA?

plum wrote:adhellAm irukkattum. amsamA #Aai nu pEru vecha albuthula nEkku thodhA(indha forumersku theriyAdhadhilla, constipation probleu) pudhiya nenjE ezhu, endhirA edhAchum irukkA?

2 pieces, snaatenaf?



and

Continuing on my first post (when opening this thread / separating out some discussions from the IR forum etc), I think the time has come for temporarily ending this thread.

Who was once a big sensation and credited with bringing in nice sounds / packaging etc to IFM, ARR is now reduced to a pAvam "also-running" level, in every aspect of music.

No different from the anirudhs-yuvans-immans-dhamans-ghibrans of TFM today.

Not even capable of giving a trend-setting music album to the biggie Shankar - under whom he did some of his most trendy music of his career (i.e. until Sivaji).

That way, the purpose of talking about a famous musician who stood out (for some time) in a separate thread, does not seem to exist at this time.

If anything, this may only become a place for negative comments - which we can live without, IMHO 

Request the admin / moderator of this forum to lock this thread - i.e. temporarily & until we all feel new, trend-setting / earth-shattering stuff once again has started coming from ARR! At that point of time, it can be re-opened.

Please do the needful

Saar, let it remain open. This is also best place for periodic documentation of propaganda and #maniacslolchronicles. And Linga soundtrack to be released in Diwali. How can we NOT discuss that? 

And you're right. For many years now he's been regularly churning out middling to eminently forgettable music. But 2014 - funnily also his most prolific to date - will go down as the year he's officially joined the ranks of Anirudh, GVP, Haaris as just another "mass MD".

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KFD_9YVduvQ

Heard The 100 Foot Journey's OST recently. Liked it in quite a few parts. There is synthesized music which I didn't like but some of the orchestral scores I did like. Much better than what he's doing here.

Appji, let it remain. Our resident experts also talk about the positive aspects of his new albums (which is a almost non-existent these days). Eventhough they would not match up to maniacs' insightful reviews (pure bliss, only Rahman possible, how can he work on both KT and I simultaneously and still produce magic) they still do a decent job :-)

On 100 ft journey I don't have any intention to hear the score or see the film but this review I read in NYTimes caught my eye:

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/08/movies/in-the-hundred-foot-journey-kitchen-wars-break-out.html?_r=0 (Transnational airport music that hurts)

My thoughts.

I agree with App ji wholeheartedly. The purpose of this thread for which it was initially opened didn't serve the purpose as we tend to see the trend in tamil films and the pits it has gone to. I would also add other language film music too including Hindi films. I can't imagine our industry is so struggling to give at-least decent music despite investing huge amount of time, team and money. We didn't see this happening suddenly, we have grasped enough as we can see in this thread alone. Nothing impresses from ARR nowadays given the hype, fame, money, big producers, directors. For this kind of hype the music should be nothing but extra-ordinary and no comparison should be made. But, what's happening, even the melody quotient is suffering a lot, ideas running very much dry. Leave alone the scores, less discussed, the better.

Also this is not the place to ridicule his fans on other media, by encouraging/discussing this, we are only reducing Maestro's credibility.

I really appreciate all the music lovers including every one here to have that urge to listen to his music once released. This itself is a huge credit to him, but what do we get in return? Only disappointment and more disappointment that too every time. Even if there is a certain amount of bias, I would not say we are not qualified enough in tastes to identify good music, since we have acquired a beautiful taste in music with several years of music listening. And it happens every single time as I can see in this thread. I have even expressed that before. Then why should we even rush up to listen to his music only to get that disappointment. Let the time speak for itself till his music returns to its soulful pride and pride to our land. Till then, if we want to discuss anything regarding his/any other current crop of music directors, we can continue here https://ilayaraja.forumms.net/t136-taking-next-gen-md-s-into-account, but discussing as a separate thread only gives him undue credit and recognition.

As Nerd rightly said, RIP TFM, absolutely correct. I would also add RIP IFM.

PS: Still I would wait to hear from others.

I'd say let it remain. Like I said, I liked 100 foot Journey quite a bit (Nerd, I read that review and have been propagating it with IR fan friends for public trolling purposes ) and to say the truth, well ah... I don't agree with the review. He has done something worthwhile (3 tune counterpoint ellaam irukku. pArrA!) imo and it's worth a listen (first 6 mins in the link I shared is blank. So for those interested, they may forward it. Don't get hopes sky rocketed. But if you listen with zero expectations, you may be surprised. It is a fine OST imo).

By the baai, Brangar with his review of I music:

http://baradwajrangan.wordpress.com/2014/09/17/i-candy/

ennavO ezhudhirukkAr. But that Sid Sriram howling from St. Thomas Mount at the moon. I mean, this is maniacs' latest kavacham. Also, the modern art mural took me here.

On how I think this was created and how the lowest common denominator is reacting: http://t.co/O1S65lYbKc

Fanbois and Rangar are interpreting like the prof in the same movie will.

BR has outdone even the most hardened maniacs there. It must have come as a pleasant shock even to the likes of birdman and Maddy. Never have more laughable, meaningless analogies and adjectives been employed nor imagination expended, by a reviewer of reasonable stature, to describe plainly frivolous music, than in the case of "I".

It's not that the songs are godawful.  They are alright, errm in the contemporary context.  But do you really need Rahman to write these songs?  And would the public really give such songs their time if they didn't have the Rahman label on them? And now Made in vanilla (what an apt name by the way for such dull music) will become the latest instance of Rahman setting foot on the moon and nevermind the more authentically operatic Sattru Munbu. At first Rahman's music was a chaotic improvisation on conventional structure.  Now it has no structure.  It is meant purely to titillate.  Therefore the "they grow on you" excuse is growing tired.

crimson king wrote:It's not that the songs are godawful.  They are alright, errm in the contemporary context.  But do you really need Rahman to write these songs?  And would the public really give such songs their time if they didn't have the Rahman label on them? And now Made in vanilla (what an apt name by the way for such dull music) will become the latest instance of Rahman setting foot on the moon and nevermind the more authentically operatic Sattru Munbu. At first Rahman's music was a chaotic improvisation on conventional structure.  Now it has no structure.  It is meant purely to titillate.  Therefore the "they grow on you" excuse is growing tired.

the grow on you label itself has expired. more like - 'you dont understand - because you think you have a high taste while you have no taste' (habbada) is the current strategy.

crimson king wrote:It's not that the songs are godawful.  They are alright, errm in the contemporary context.  But do you really need Rahman to write these songs?  And would the public really give such songs their time if they didn't have the Rahman label on them? And now Made in vanilla (what an apt name by the way for such dull music) will become the latest instance of Rahman setting foot on the moon and nevermind the more authentically operatic Sattru Munbu. At first Rahman's music was a chaotic improvisation on conventional structure.  Now it has no structure.  It is meant purely to titillate.  Therefore the "they grow on you" excuse is growing tired.

I don't think Rahman wrote anything. He, Anirudh, Keba and the singers simple sat and jammed together for a few days and it happened

VS and App sirs
Request to keep this thread open, if not for anything else, as an excuse to read posts from fring, ck, nerd, wizzy, Munk, jai. Insightful (be it in praise or criticism) and for the humor value

I can only vent.Everyday i see posts in facebook glorifying this piece of s***.
One post went by to say how ARR has moved with the times(meaning aping aniruth)
 And thats y he is gr8 and so on. Much like the movie Guru(mal), the adage one eyed is the king in the land of blind is rather flawed.Only blind can lead the blind coz they wont trust anyone saying that there is something called sight or vision.ARR is playing his cards(or rather lack of any)pretty well by increasing the PR noise.Thats what sells these days..

fring151 wrote:

crimson king wrote:It's not that the songs are godawful.  They are alright, errm in the contemporary context.  But do you really need Rahman to write these songs?  And would the public really give such songs their time if they didn't have the Rahman label on them? And now Made in vanilla (what an apt name by the way for such dull music) will become the latest instance of Rahman setting foot on the moon and nevermind the more authentically operatic Sattru Munbu. At first Rahman's music was a chaotic improvisation on conventional structure.  Now it has no structure.  It is meant purely to titillate.  Therefore the "they grow on you" excuse is growing tired.

I don't think Rahman wrote anything. He, Anirudh, Keba and the singers simple sat and jammed together for a few days and it happened

  Point to be noted milord.