Discussions on ARR

Drunkenmunk wrote:One more. Poove Vaai Pesum Bodhu, 12B. Charanam's first 2 lines: http://www.tubechop.com/watch/3619008

Swasame Swasame, Thenali. Charanam's first 2 lines:
http://www.tubechop.com/watch/3619013

Identical. HJ is a waste of space in the musical field. Lame imitator of ARR but built a good market in the 2000s. Now if the rise of the Sanothosh Narayanans, Ghibrans is making him and Yuvan irrelevant, musically Very GOOD (though I'd rate Yuvan a few notches over HJ. Not a musical wastrel like HJ). Though the rise of Anirudh is not good

Nice catch!  Shameless!    I listened to the other examples as well.  But when I said I didn't think HJ's music was like ARR, I meant that the overall philosophy has no room for adventure and is geared completely towards making lightweight fluff music.  From the get go, I have always found HJ's music supremely stale.  So for me, to say he was like 90s ARR would be a bit like saying Anand Milind were like IR.  Anand Milind nicked far more outrageously from IR than HJ did from ARR but their music remained a pretty poor imitation...to the point that I didn't even feel they were similar because they were such badly mutilated copies, if that.  I agree that I shouldn't have used the word resemble though, because HJ does use parts that resemble or are even identical to ARR.  But if there are some 90s ARR fans that actually drift to HJ out of nostalgia, I can only say that that is pathetic.   That's like missing the very essence of what Rahman was about in the 90s.

crimson king wrote:

counterpoint wrote:I had  discarded HJ long time back. In fact after Majnu 80% of his songs were repetetive :-)
He can attempt to give a soundtrack like say Delhi-6 in his next life. He is like what Deva was in the 90s. Successfully imitating IR and ARR in parts and ending up as the busiest MD in the 90s. But Deva was actually capable of more than HJ, he can compose decent melodies now and then. HJ's so called raga usage is limited to the Natabhairavi scale. Most of his so-called melodies are derived from this. His meters are also recycled. Classic example- nenjukkul peidhidum maamazhai(the overated nursery rhyme)
can be easily sung in the tune of vaarayo vaarayo monalisa from aadhavan, the opening lines.And his penchant for feminine sounding male voices/singing was also ridiculous. Him and Yuvan have to be buried quickly by these young crop of MDs showing promise. Hope Ghibran has something special in Uththama villian

Good analysis. Yes, I also think HJ is essentially doing what Deva was doing in the 90s except, as you said, Deva could come up with a good tune once in a while and also HJ adopted a far more urbane position.  I would mark down both Deva from Aasai onwards (esp Aasai itself) and HJ as post-Rahman rather than Rahman-like or Rahman-like.  Deva started recording songs really well to somewhat capture superficially the effect of a Rahman track and that was HJ's appeal from the beginning. But neither actually used such a rich variety of sounds as Rahman nor showed much creativity or adventure in the way they used such sounds.

HJ can be derided musically(rightfully so) or for being yet another MD mattai from keyboardist kuttai but equating him to deva is completely way off/shortselling 
After HJ debut AR lost his premium and was reduced to doing Surjah's soft porn flicks..HJ actually sold more than AR routinely whenever they came head-head..this was over a long period. peeps who had access to musicworld would vouch 
for this . Deva did have his niche but he was not even in the vicinity of Raaja musically/commercially nor did he command a premium over him but HJ was lot more closer to AR musically than what we credit him for and ruled the charts and commanded a premium whilst doing it.

Yes he did and still does enjoy commercial success and no doubt was able to command a premium for it.  All of which does not by itself, in my  opinion, make him musically any closer to ARR than Deva was.  Deva was a copycat wonder, HJ is a one note wonder (and not above copying in any case, but that's a different issue). I seriously don't see in what way were HJ's Vaseegaras or Idhu Dhaanas any more accomplished than Nalam nalam ariyaval or Sagalakala vallavane.  But I am not going to put too fine a point on it as I am indifferent to both composers.  If you feel he was much better than Deva, great, I will not argue the point further, because it is at best a battle for the wooden spoon, a question of who was less mediocre than the other.

In the rush to condemn HJ and U1,  some people are overrating Ghibran and Santosh. Does anyone really think a TFM renaissance is on the horizon?

lol, I for one certainly don't.  There has been a sweeping cultural change over the last decade or so and nobody is accounting for it.  Mainstream music is now made purely to be suitable for dance floor purposes, to give a momentary, ephemeral fix and no more.  It is not meant any more to be memorable and worth repeating several times.  Nobody listens to albums on a loop anymore...as in, not literally nobody, but only a small minority of hardcore music listeners.  Sure, there may be some songs once in a while that somewhat replicate that feeling but for the most part it's gone and it's not going to come back for a long time.  People lead very busy, and very distracted, lives now.  There's no time for contemplation and quiet enjoyment of music.  Even my father who is such an avid listener has worn out the habit these days.  In the 90s, a night session of music on the stereo system was a must.  Now, he might listen to songs at night before going to bed but he will always 'watch' it on TV...even if he totally dislikes most of the picturisations.  The next gen has tablets, smartphones and X Boxes to play with which we never had and that means they are not going to listen to music as intensely.  

In the 90s when ARR mania was at its height, there was huge amount of audience involvement in listening to the music, even in the cinema halls.  I have seen first hand how the crowd reveled in the sounds of each and every song on Bombay.  Kuchi Kuchi and Humma Humma had them up on their feet, even chanting the Humma Humma chorus by the end.  I have not seen anybody in the audience do that in any film of any composer like that for a long time now.  If a composer does take the effort to make wholesome music, it will not get its due appreciation from majority of listeners.  So in the film music market, he will find himself either out of assignments or with fewer ones and decidedly not the big budget ones. Culturally music will be relegated to a more niche spot and the gap between mainstream and independent artists will gradually narrow (not in itself a bad thing but unless the world economy improves, sustaining a career in music is only going to get even more difficult).

I left out the crux from the rant.  So, long story short, people might get excited about a new composer for a while but if he wants to survive in the market, he too will streamline his music to fit in with the interranazznal trends.  Even Amit Trivedi's soundtrack for Queen was quite boring, with, ironically, the Hungama Ho Gaya remix registering more and capturing the essence of the film better than his original compositions.

Good points. The other thing - and Ravinat touched upon this in his thread "Will there be another IR" - is that new composers don't take the time to seriously study music or apprentice and train with the masters before they take the plunge into film-music. And that is because they know they don't need to. In almost all their songs, one gets the impression that it is fairly  devoid of any formal underpinnings and the whole thing probably just took shape from a few jamming sessions . Every once in a while they come up with something interesting, but the consistency is lacking. ARR when he started out had a good strike rate, but with his music becoming increasingly frivolous, there is almost no one who can give even 4 or 5 good solid songs in a year.

The 'noise' factor is also part of the reason why composers lack consistency.  You see how non fans or casual fans dismissed even NEPV as a rehash album just because it was consistent with IR's style.  When attention spans are small or non existent, then the craving for something different in a superficial sense increases and occurs more frequently.  In such a situation, it is not feasible for a composer to stick to a signature and he is left to waddle helplessly, following the tide whichever way it goes.  SEL had said in response to criticism over their lack of a signature that it was not feasible any more to do that in the current set up. I think that argument has merit.  Because earlier even mediocre composers like Anu Malik or Nadeem Shravan stuck to an identifiable signature.  It was supposed to establish their brand and make them familiar to the audience.  Today no composer can insist upon a signature and last more than a few soundtracks.  With the greatest respect, I doubt if even IR would be able to insist on rendering the music in his trademark style if he was a new composer today.  His reputation and humongous back catalogue makes it easier for him to stick to his convictions (a stand Rahman can also take given his stature but seems to have consciously chosen not to). And it also fills a need in the market for certain films that demand a Raja-esque treatment.  In no other time in the last several decades of recorded music history could you probably see complete gimmick songs like Kolaveri and Gangnam style go completely viral.  Gimmick songs, fun songs did get popular but no more than the most popular songs of the most popular mainstream artists of the time.  They did not become outliers in the way they have now.  Even a remix upon a black woman's accented (spoken and not sung, by the way) lament "Ain't nobody got time for that" becomes a rage.  Does it have anything to do with music anymore? I doubt it.

Good points. And on fring's point, valid one there. Not exactly overrating Ghibran or Santhosh but in the current musicscape, HJ and U1 are completely only producing crap. In comparison, G and S seem welcome because their sense of musicality is comparatively better (the capitalized GOOD seems a bit of a hyperbole in hindsight ). I see a new Sanothosh fan club among the youth and audiences are so caught on by his background scores. I'd give him time and see how he fares musically over the next few years before taking a call. And Kamal has booked Ghibran continuously for 3 films. I was impressed by his Kannukkul Pothi Vaippen and a couple of songs from Vaagai Sooda Vaa. Shows promise. But like you say, too early.

TFM renaissance issa too much though Nivas Prasanna like guys do offer promise. Longevity and "nilaithu ninnu composition signature establish seyyaradhu" seems a thing of the past though.

I remember opining long back that the next big trend after ARR in TFM would be that there would'nt be any big trend at all. Atleast for a while. Because it seemed like all aspects of a TFM song were explored fairly well by the big 3 of TFM and even in world music it was just new sounds and not new idioms/genres/grammar that was emerging. So if at all there is another trend that is emerging out there recently it seems to be that of indie-style composers coming up experimental scores that sound non-mainstream(even when compared to Rahman's scores). But a mini surprise for me is that of audience acceptance for such scores(both BGM andsongs) from the likes of Santosh. I never thought he would be more than a fleeting presence. Its still early days sure, but lets see. The reason I thought Santosh did not stand a chance was because of what I saw happen to composers such as Ramesh Vinayagam, Sharath and the likes. These guys know their music inside out, are knowledgable, have actually took time learning their craft and had appenticed for quite some time, and are capable of infusing a lot more musicality in their compositions than most current mainstream composers like Yuvan or HJ or even GV. But sadly they had'nt been given more than one opportunity in a  row at any given point of time.
I also rue the disappearance of strong flowing melodies(raga-based or not) from TFM. Its like as if  these are considered passe by the current crop.

Since the music outside India does not offer anything new, Indian music scenario also suffers is a 'nondi saakku'. If pop/rock music does not offer anything new it is because that's what they think, it does not mean it is true. May it is even the limitation of western music (not the classical one).

Our music is not the same. It has much more depth unlike western music. 72 mela karth raagams giving birth to millions of raagams. Even in the same raagam there is much more to explore. IR serves as the best example that in the same raagam he has composed 100s of songs and even still doing it.

Same way if we tend to explore our native genres there are tons. It is just our music directors mindset that they don't want to think that way at all. They don't want to come out of their comfort zones. But still want to make big money and attain big fame without any indigenous music exploration and hard work.

big 3

Who made our folk music extinct among new generation of music lovers
Who made Background score extinct/irrelevant among new generation of music lovers
Who cleverly outsource background score to cover their inability
Who made our classical base extinct from our music
Who took orchestration to the much simpler/bland levels like the IR previous generation of MDs did
Who removed many valuable instruments out of the music scene
Who makes music only for (city) kids/youths and totally make believe that others don't exist in the society
Who made songs which does not have a good shelf life (more recently almost all of them) and also made people believe that the term 'shelf life' is also outdated
Who made believe that marketing of music comes first rather than music
Who took music backwards (in terms of melody construction) and yet claiming it as new and trendy
Who stopped a music listener to hum any song (as that is not hummable at all because of the way it was developed in bits and pieces) and get thrilled instead they are now a mere spectator
Who get stuff from contemporary western around the world and make believe/claim that it is new for India and calling it international instead of making something original and
claiming to the world that it is international
Who made believe that composing a song or a score for a situation is out of date and cleverly concealed that inability and revealed that as a benchmark
When we thought music composing is a gift and done by music director alone that we were revealed the shock that it is a joint team effort
Who cannot produce one single all time great singer like the previous era of music directors did
Who made believe that every Tom, Dick and Harry can become (successful) music directors with really no background on what film composing is about
Who made believe even false (inadequate) crediting of singers and musicians in sleeve covers (who were actually involved in contribution of the song rather than just playing/singing) will discredit other music directors who rightfully did so
Who don't work for small producers and directors fearing he would be out of fame
Who speaks ill of previous generation music directors' (original) composing skills and techniques to overrate their unoriginal techniques
Who should carry on the legacy left by their predecessors and give them the pride, mostly carries on the remnants of contemporary western in their music

There are much more inadequacies but I would stop here as it would only cause more embarrassment.

If this is what big three's accomplishments, I would hate to call them so.

It is not a nondi saaku, it's a broad cultural trend that has much to do with how the Information Age influences our lives.  And if we are so intent on charting our own course, we should be able to manage without being influenced by Western trends and forge an entirely unique paradigm (I mean not just musically here but overall in terms of a way of life) but all we end up doing is to follow them, with a twenty year lag at the very least usually and also following them in a very slapdash, halfbaked way.  This is not about what can or cannot be done musically.  Musically there are still infinite possibilities in Western as well Indian music; that Fiona Apple could come up with a molten hot classic like Idler Wheel even as recently as 2012 attests to that.  But the audience is not listening anymore.  Idler Wheel was simultaneously Apple's highest charting album and least selling one (in terms of no. of units), so the market for music has dramatically shrunk.  India is not immune to such trends.  

To blame Rahman alone for it is pointless because attention spans didn't crash in the 90s whether in spite of or because of his presence.  Why, terrible songs like Pardesi Pardesi Jaana Nahi from Raja Hindustani would be on endless repeat on the grocers' stereo where I lived.  Now even grocers don't seem to play music like that.  It is simply not such an important part of people's lives as it used to be.  We musicos don't feel it so much because we are still obsessed with music.  But a lot of other people have moved onto other things because for them, music was only a means of defining their lifestyle, not a passion.  Too many things have happened in the last decade or so to fill up people's lifestyle needs and there is no need anymore to spend time doing nothing but listening to music on an audio system; there are n number of other things to keep people entertained.  It is only a choice one may make (to listen to music) if one so wishes and unfortunately it's a choice that very few of us (in relative terms) make.

V_S you need to chill a bit :-) I agree that Rahman has more than his fair share of inadequacies. The point that I was trying to make and maybe I was'nt  clear enough is that enough of foreign/world genres in serious music such as western classical, Jazz have been explored by previous MDs already that the current crop dont have a lot of ground to create a new paradigm or a new shift. I didn't even include Rahman in the current crop. Yes, you might say it is possible to explore a raga in depth or create 100 songs in the same sudhdha dhanyaasi such as IR did. But these would merely be classified as raga-based melodies, no different from what composers of the 60s did. I am talking about a new genre altogether, a new grammar.
IR tried to bring in more elements of WCM in folk than his predecessors did and ended up creating almost a new genre in TFM-well harmonized folk melodies, to name just one of his novel attempts. Iam saying that such ground having been well explored the current crop dont have much left to explore in mainstream pop(which is what TFM is). TFM applies concepts from classical/folk genres and most of these well-evolved genres have been covered well already. If you end up being too experimental you lose out on the mainstream popularity part.how do you make it hummable as well as fresh? That's a big challenge. Rahman for all his faults did experiment sonically(melody and harmony had already been covered by MSV/IR so he was just left with sound) and occasionally with the structure of the song itself, like in not following the traditional pallavi-BGM1-charanam pattern and trying out pop stanza like structures and so on(not that his predecessors didn't)

counterpoint wrote:Yes, you might say it is possible to explore a raga in depth or create 100 songs in the same sudhdha dhanyaasi such as IR did. But these would merely be classified as raga-based melodies, no different from what composers of the 60s did. I am talking about a new genre altogether, a new grammar.

No with the same raaga base, we can develop new grammar and new genre and that's what IR has been doing all along. We cannot classify every melody which has raaga base as a raga-base melody. I can list 1000s of IR songs which are raga based but cannot be classified under any single genre or a raga based melody. The way it transforms itself is unbelievable. While we say all these western based songs as future trend, I see it as a step backward as world has seen it decades ago. I would classify stunning classics like eevanO oruvan yaasikkiraan or oru deivam thantha poovE as a future trending song rather than mediocre attempts on beaten western songs in thamizh. Why are we not getting such classics like that anymore? I can count Rahman's classics/decent ones to max. of 50 songs, in twenty two years. That's too much to classify among big 3.

I am not sure if CK is saying since audience are not interested anymore/their priorities have changed, I am going to give average/mediocre/bad songs? Please explain. I don't think any music director would think like that. They do all the hard work, but unfortunately that's the caliber they got, however hard they try (because it is a gift not everyone possess). It is not about the audience, it is about the music director himself who have gone in-competitive.

V_S wrote:

counterpoint wrote:Yes, you might say it is possible to explore a raga in depth or create 100 songs in the same sudhdha dhanyaasi such as IR did. But these would merely be classified as raga-based melodies, no different from what composers of the 60s did. I am talking about a new genre altogether, a new grammar.

No with the same raaga base, we can develop new grammar and new genre and that's what IR has been doing all along. We cannot classify every melody which has raaga base as a raga-base melody. I can list 1000s of IR songs which are raga based but cannot be classified under any single genre or a raga based melody. The way it transforms itself is unbelievable. While we say all these western based songs as future trend, I see it as a step backward as world has seen it decades ago. I would classify stunning classics like eevanO oruvan yaasikkiraan or oru deivam thantha poovE as a future trending song rather than mediocre attempts on beaten western songs in thamizh. Why are we not getting such classics like that anymore? I can count Rahman's classics/decent ones to max. of 50 songs, in twenty two years. That's too much to classify among big 3.

I am not sure if CK is saying since audience are not interested anymore/their priorities have changed, I am going to give average/mediocre/bad songs? Please explain. I don't think any music director would think like that. They do all the hard work, but unfortunately that's the caliber they got, however hard they try (because it is a gift not everyone possess). It is not about the audience, it is about the music director himself who have gone in-competitive.

Well, the philosophy since ARR days has been pretty close to that.  Do whatever the director says, has been the mantra (there is a difference between that and IR's approach of trying to satisfy the director; the latter insists upon his freedom and then tries to please the director within his framework).  Since at least early noughties, ARR has been blaming the films for the kind of music he is forced to churn out.  I think it was in an interview to a Tamil magazine where SPB himself talked about it.  It seems he had asked ARR what happened to the kind of songs he used to come up with and ARR was like, "What can I do, look at all these films"...something to that effect.  Even recently, when his slimy assistant Murthy spoke up, he lamented the music of today....but never even dared to suggested that the ARR camp would take a stand and risk the so called majestic isolation.  Their funda is very clear, simply give the audience what they like and wash their hands off when it comes to quality.  Not only ARR but the other composers, most of them anyway, who have started working from 90s onwards follow this approach.  IR was the last bastion of the old school and hence he insists he as the composer knows what the song is supposed to sound like. But on the basis of commercial sales, we can see that that hasn't necessarily been what the audience wants to hear anymore either.  Even a well promoted NEPV did only about as well as Kadal, if at all, and I would argue Kadal did somewhat better because a song like Adiye, whether or not we may find it mokka, seemed to appeal more to the youthu.

The crux of what I said seems to have been lost on you, which is that no matter that the composer comes up with great music, the response from the audience is never going to be like what it used to be.  Hence the new composers, in order to stay in the market, play it safe and follow the trends to maximise their chances of success.  Earlier composers used to gamble with something fresh because the climate where the audience would be open minded enough to accept some experimentation existed.  I don't think that level of engagement with music exists anymore.  You have to first listen carefully to a song before being able to judge whether the experimentation works for you or not.  Most people aren't even prepared to do that anymore.

crimson king wrote:Earlier composers used to gamble with something fresh because the climate where the audience would be open minded enough to accept some experimentation existed.  I don't think that level of engagement with music exists anymore.  You have to first listen carefully to a song before being able to judge whether the experimentation works for you or not.  Most people aren't even prepared to do that anymore.

...Add to that the limitations, in many cases, rather considerable, of the MDs and you know TFM is going nowhere. In the case of ARR, apart from this, I believe that he has very possibly, genuinely exhausted his creative spring and consequently his compass is now very firmly pointed in the direction of YT hits and itunes charts..and of course, awards. And his music is sufficiently pliable to achieve these goals.

crimsonking wrote:The crux of what I said seems to have been lost on you, which is that no matter that the composer comes up with great music, the response from the audience is never going to be like what it used to be.  Hence the new composers, in order to stay in the market, play it safe and follow the trends to maximise their chances of success.  Earlier composers used to gamble with something fresh because the climate where the audience would be open minded enough to accept some experimentation existed.  I don't think that level of engagement with music exists anymore.  You have to first listen carefully to a song before being able to judge whether the experimentation works for you or not.  Most people aren't even prepared to do that anymore.

Thanks CK. Very well explained and it is a harsh/sad truth but I definitely my rants are because I am unable to digest this unhealthy trend. Still I pitched in only because of 'big 3' and I would not rate him this high given his huge limitations which I mentioned.

Given the bar is low for Mds these days how I wish the song routine in our movies dies a quick death..makes more sense given cd sales barely crosses 4 digits . Peeps can always pay for OST downloads if they deem worthy.  Also true worth of many of these keyboard Mds will shown up 

V_S "Big 3" is because of what he brought in the 90s. We may like his music or not, that is subjective. But in 1991, if you had told a music savvy listener that something totally different from what IR was giving at that point of time was to come in a few months and create a new wave you might have gotten a strange look, maybe even a laugh.It was inconceivable. It seemed like everything out there had been covered. So that fact that he did bring in a fresh perspective(his approach to composing itself was quite different from his predecessors regardless of whether you or me buy it or not), a new sound to mainstream TFM and created the last mega trend in TFM makes him a part of the big 3. I give a lot of credit to that because it is the most difficult thing to do in mainstream music. It is easy to compose or sound like somebody else but the most difficult to chart your own path and get an audience base to buy into it. There were Vidyasagars(who learned from the same master as Rahman did for some time), Maragathamanis, Adityans, Chandraboses, Hamsalekhas, Balabharathis and so on before Rahman came in. They couldnt quite make it. They struggled to differentiate themselves from IR's music. Some like Maragathamani or Adityan had limited success. Others like Deva didnt even bother and simply copied whatever the megatrend was. So lets give credit where its due.Rahman was the first to understand(remember SA Rajkumar saying that even as a teen he had told SAR that only a new sound can challenge IR and nothing else can, sometime in the 80s? That showed how perceptive he was) that a fresh sound was what needed and he grabbed that space(along with a combination of fresh voices, directors who gave importance to visuals, carefully chosen ragas that can appeal to the North too and which werent frequently used by his predecessor and so on)

I hear every one say that. I have to agree with that as you said even if I like it or not. Blame it on me, being born with Maestro's music I am not much enamored by that sound perspective (whatever you call it) as I certainly feel that those who call that as a fresh new perspective in sound (composing? that is not even composing, I hate to go that route, it will only cause more problems)  and so enamored by it are those who have not listened to Maestro and another is those have not listened to Maestro properly. I am more interested in what new he brought to our music rather than soundscapes and I have already have my favorites of ARR in these past 22 years which didn't cross more than 50 (I also mentioned this). Also while I even credit for the ones you mentioned (since other music directors could not do it), over the last twenty years he also took out many good aspects of film music (please read my prior lengthy post) which kind of nullified the initial accomplishment he made. Again, that's me, no one has to agree to that.

Coming to the topic of 'Big 3', I know out of love most say this. I know that you too out of love for these three you said that without knowing I would nitpick. Very sorry about that. I would have been happy if you would have called 'Big 2' leaving out IR in that, since when we are saying Big 3 we are invariably and unfairly equating each of their accomplishments and putting it on the same table, when we know how humongous IR's accomplishments are. According to me IR's 5-6 months worth of musical career equates to 22 years of ARR and around 5-6 years of IR's musical career of MSV's 40 years of musical career (I am including background score too in my analysis). It does not balance well when we say that, is my opinion again.

Well, we can all agree that they are three of the most influential and popular TFM composers, hence the Big Three epithet.  It is not a question of who is the best of the three or whether all three are equal. But it is they who have shaped the broad direction of TFM over the years, of that there is no doubt.

Wizzy wrote:Given the bar is low for Mds these days how I wish the song routine in our movies dies a quick death..makes more sense given cd sales barely crosses 4 digits . Peeps can always pay for OST downloads if they deem worthy.  Also true worth of many of these keyboard Mds will shown up 

Well, you never know

The GVPs and Anirudhs are almost always appreciated for their BGMs too (the deivathirumagal theme for one). Blame it on our makkals. They have totally lost it. And all a MD needs to know today w.r.to BGM is
1. loud = mass
2. Flute/Single violin sounds = sadness.

End of story. The complex / precise / subtle emotions that Raaja brings out in his BGMs is being equated with the GVPs and Anirudhs of today. 'Very Raajaish BGM, Raajaish interlude' always gets my goat.

V_S wrote:According to me IR's 5-6 months worth of musical career equates to 22 years of ARR and around 5-6 years of IR's musical career of MSV's 40 years of musical career (I am including background score too in my analysis). It does not balance well when we say that, is my opinion again.

You are being very kind ji. I am almost at a state of nirvaana that all the non-IR music I hear these days are 99% involuntary. And I can happily give up every single Rahman track. I mean if someone has to take every single Rahman talk away from my listening pleasures, I would not complain at all. I find most of his old tracks incredibly boring to listen to these days. And the less said about his recent output, the better. And I don't say this because I am a part of the notorious mafia group.

And I don't want to comment on MSV here since I would tick many (including our own forummers) off

Nerd wrote:You are being very kind ji.

I know உங்களுக்கு தெரியுது...

Nerd wrote:

You are being very kind ji. I am almost at a state of nirvaana that all the non-IR music I hear these days are 99% involuntary. And I can happily give up every single Rahman track. I mean if someone has to take every single Rahman talk away from my listening pleasures, I would not complain at all. I find most of his old tracks incredibly boring to listen to these days. And the less said about his recent output, the better. And I don't say this because I am a part of the notorious mafia group.

And I don't want to comment on MSV here since I would tick many (including our own forummers) off

Amen to that Nerd. I have stopped getting into discussion about Rahman's music. Waste of time. Life is too short to be spent listening to his music. It leaves you frustrated, Both because the music so hollow and haphazard. More importantly such derivative music is praised as 'experimentation', 'breaking boundaries etc'. So best thing is to let the music pass you by and stay calm. It will take us our whole lifetime to decipher Raja so why worry.

(I am supposed to be part of Mafia. That's why I highlighted the sentence )