Musical Chair

Ram Gopal Varma has collaborated numerous time with AR Rahman and has a good working relationship with the musician. On his blog, he goes into detail about the origins and the workings of this relationship.

I was making a Telugu film called Kshana Kshanam with a first-time music director called Keera Vani, now known as M.M.Kreem. One day at the recording studio while we were having lunch, Rickey, a rhythm programmer working with M.M.Kreem at that time, mentioned to me that I should work with this very talented keyboard player called Dilip. That was the first time I had ever heard of A.R.Rahman.

Read the whole piece. It is informative and gives an insight into both of their thought processes.

Oddly, they have worked together in just twice in the past (Rangeela and Daud) and not since 1997.

AR goes to Hollywood

Last night I saw a Spike Lee directed movie, Inside Man. The movie has an enviable list of actors - Denzel Washington, Jodie Foster, Clive Owen, Willem Dafoe, Christopher Plummer - and it gripped me with the very first scene. And not because of what was on the screen but was playing in the soundtrack.

The movie starts with Swapna Awasthi singing the first two lines of a song, and then Sukhwinder Singh happily joins her. I never saw "Dil Se" in a theatre, but now I have heard the song "Chaiyya Chaiyya" in a movie hall over a Dolby sound system. And it is not just a token cameo. The whole song is played and then a remix version of it is played over the end credits.

Even more reason to go see the movie about a "perfect" bank robbery in NY, which is reminiscent of other heist movies but has some intriguing elements all of its own, bolstered by the excellent acting.