Balki's next project - Shamitabh

pinnAdi kattaikaL

These fellows like the first three songs (ishq, sa sa sa & piddly) and give 3/5

irfan123 wrote:

Raaga_Suresh wrote:app,

Have some patience and check out these two songs. You can see that Shamitabh is not too far away from these:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2KZJTWe5GP4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aia80B81-4k

add this one...

for sha sha mi mi..

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

Suresh and Irfan, after some repeat listenings .. I am able to see IR's signature in tune, instrumentation and recording techniques (too much reverb :-( ). I can imagine IR telling Balki.. "inga paaru Balki ..folk music ye westerna maathirEn" :-) (He once demoed a tune in folk, classic and western modes).

kiru wrote:

irfan123 wrote:

Raaga_Suresh wrote:app,

Have some patience and check out these two songs. You can see that Shamitabh is not too far away from these:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2KZJTWe5GP4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aia80B81-4k

add this one...

for sha sha mi mi..

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

Suresh and Irfan, after some repeat listenings .. I am able to see IR's signature in tune, instrumentation and recording techniques (too much reverb :-( ). I can imagine IR telling Balki.. "inga paaru Balki ..folk music ye westerna maathirEn" :-) (He once demoed a tune in folk, classic and western modes).

I am not sure about lifebouy but all other tracks carry hallmarks of him. Even though people dislike heavy usage of synth i just like the whole album. Like suresh said this album he came up with an attitude. For sha sha mi mi..the interludes he stuck with trademark like those trumphets and violins are racing each other and switches to trance mode..For thappad the opening guitar Piddly melody..and those chorus Sannata..When he started jazz rhythms in mumbai xpress then excesive guitar jazz trumphet in big hits like nepv megha..Other music directors took the hint and most albums released during that period had that guitar tunes..Now he collapses all that and confuses them with DiscoTrance..I expect atleast one film to come soon taking this tip and trying to mimic this style..Then IR will immediately come up with totally different..In the end it is always catchup game with him

Some pictures and a video on the launch meet

7/10 review

Balki may have the best intentions in getting Ilaiyaraaja to compose for his Bollywood projects, but the combination doesn’t seem to yield the best results. Well Cheeni Kum would count as an exception but that rode entirely on Raja’s yesteryear tunes.

Music Aloud Rating: 7/10

Indian express has 47 articles on this movie  

Is IE some kind of promotion manager for this movie?

Surprising!

outright rejection by this site

To sum up, I was very disappointed with the soundtrack to Shamitabh. The film has a lot of hype to it, yet the album was just incredibly boring and lacking in the sounds of a great Bollywood album. Unfortunately, this is an album which will soon be forgotten about once the promotions are over!

ToI coverage of the event

Amongst the first to pay tribute to the maestro was singer Shreya Ghoshal, who performed on Ilaiyaraaja's composition from Balki's Cheeni Kum. This was followed by Dhanush's Michael Jackson moves in the song Sanatta. In an emotional after speech, Dhanush said, "In so many years, my father-in-law (Rajinikanth) has never attended any of my events. I know that even today he is not here because of me. However, I will be greedy and make this moment my own." Balki and Ilaiyaraaja bullied him into humming stanzas of two Tamil songs.

The performances followed the rock ballad Ishq-e-Fillum and the scat title track Sha Sha Mi Mi but cherry on the cake was Bachchan's rendition of the popular Piddly number which generated hoots and applause.

Interesting to see piddly already getting tagged as "the popular number"

Promotion in Chennai it seems

இந்த நிலையில் தென்னகத்தில் படத்தினை விளம்பரப்படுத்த நாளை செய்தியாளர் சந்திப்பு மற்றும் மாணவர்களுடன் கலந்துரையாடல் நிகழ்ச்சிக்கு ஏற்பாடு செய்துள்ளனர். இதில் அமிதாப் பச்சன், இளையராஜா, இயக்குநர் பால்கி, நடிகர் தனுஷ், நடிகை அக்ஷரா, ஒளிப்பதிவாளர் பிசி ஸ்ரீராம் போன்றவர்கள் பங்கேற்கின்றனர். ஓஎம்ஆர் சாலையில் உள்ள சத்யபாமா பல்கலைக் கழகத்தில் மாலையில் இந்த சந்திப்பு நடக்கிறது.

app,

That 7/10 review is by my friend on twitter and a very hard core Rahman fan. Even if he says a Rahman album is not great he will give it 8 or 8.5 out of 10

app_engine wrote: outright rejection by this site

To sum up, I was very disappointed with the soundtrack to Shamitabh. The film has a lot of hype to it, yet the album was just incredibly boring and lacking in the sounds of a great Bollywood album. Unfortunately, this is an album which will soon be forgotten about once the promotions are over!

He follows same pattern in reviewing each song , so and so is the instrument used and the song is bad.. Wonder he made up his mind to write a bad review, and listened to songs just to collect data..

Sureshji & Easwar,

At this point of time, such "throwing-of-stones" is OK.

Proves that the tree still has mangoes

app_engine wrote:Sureshji & Easwar,

At this point of time, such "throwing-of-stones" is OK.

Proves that the tree still has mangoes

Yes, in all seasons..

One thing that's pretty obvious about this movie is the "visibility" (especially media coverage).

Definitely much bigger than cheeni kum & pA.

Let us see if this converts into a bigger commercial reach of the movie. 

i.e. bigger than the prior two (both of which did average business and were rated cash-positive, perhaps the only two of IR's Hindi ventures that tasted money).

Balki should be applauded for his IR-service at Mumbai!

I am familiar with the adage "Great minds think alike"but I didn't know great Bollywood albums sound alike.  I mean, what the heck is the SOUND of a great Bollywood album?

BGM treat is guaranteed

Balki wrote:
“Making a feature film is an incredibly arduous task. The idea has to be exciting to sustain the interest of the entire cast and crew for the two years of it’s making,” he explains. Balki’s lead characters may all be written with Amitabh Bachchan in mind but spiritually his cinema owes more to Ilaiyaraaja’s music and PC Sreeram’s lens. 

“I can only have thoughts, it can only get a voice on screen through the work of these two artistes,” he says, adding that sometimes, Ilaiyaraaja’s music even dictates the scene and not the other way round.” 

Illiyaraja

Ishq-e-fillum video, mostly scenes seen in trailers



So, it is Dhanush v/s Amitabh

Got the CD and had one listen all the way through.  As usual, sound quality is much better on CD.  Still some layers here and there are too dense to make out.  But overall, Raja's recordings have a nice crackle which most recordings by the other music directors today lack because they emphasise clarity more rather than the organic effect of listening to a bunch of musicians performing.  

The sax in first interlude of Ishq E Fillum actually starts segueing in during the Salaam e Fillum chorus...just one of many things that got drowned out in the youtube mix.

Also, the tribal element of Aasaiya Kaathula Thoodu is still present in Sannatta.  So it's a nice blend of the primitive and the ultra modern (computerised/robotic).  One may or may not like the style of music itself that has been used for the rehash but to equate it as a creative effort to Tom, Dick and Harry composers for that reason is, imo, to miss the point.  For one thing, had any other composer recorded it, the percussion would have been a lot more intrusive and noisy.  

Thappad has some nice slap bass and also love the time sig change in Lifebuoy.  Actually every track on the album makes a mark, even if to varying degrees.  The relatively better vocals throughout is the key, where earlier a Pengal Yendral was ruined by Yuvan (but the composition as such was a good indication of the maestro coming to terms with the modern, youthu sound already).

Loving the bass on the charanam of Sha Sha Sha Mi Mi Mi.  It's great to hear this aspect of his music again; lately, he has not often been taking bass for a walk. It's not Rettai Vaal Kuruvi level stuff, but I'll take it. The piano at the end of the AA vocalise in the pallavi is beautiful too, trademark baroque piano.

அடடே! 

https://t.co/SZ2tYBhdgy

Not that this is definitive of quality. Far from it. But is an indicator of sale. There were apprehensions if this would sell. It has, going by the stats

This indicates that there is still interest in a Ilayaraja score WHEN he works on a major release.  All the more remarkable since this is a Hindi-only soundtrack.

crimson king wrote:This indicates that there is still interest in a Ilayaraja score WHEN he works on a major release.  All the more remarkable since this is a Hindi-only soundtrack.

Well, Bachchanji's promos with Balki bringing Kamal, Rajni and Sridevi with Raaja helped for sure, but that's only one reason. Beyond the hype, I guess there is an X-factor.

Believe me, I live in the land of Bollywood and there is very little media hype about the album.  Those AB interviews happened AFTER Piddly happened to be well received.  There may be expectations about the FILM per se but that need not necessarily translate into high album sales.  There is a silent Raja fanbase in the north too, I guess, unless the Itunes sales are driven totally by South fans wanting to check out a Raja album even when it is in Hindi (possible but a bit unlikely).