Category Archives: A.R.Rahman

2025

Leave a reply

For the first time in the last 25 years, 2025 was when I didn’t feel excited about any of the A.R.Rahman’s songs of a new Mani Ratnam’s movie and I didn’t even have the inclination to listen to the songs multiple times to see if I will even like it. 2025 was also when I didn’t even watch the newly-released Mani Ratnam’s new movie. But I did spend a really, really lot of time watching and rewatching Bombay, Roja, Kannathil Muthamittal, Agni Natchathiram, Kaatru Veliyidai, Ok Kanmani, etc. On the ARR’s songs front, I didn’t listen to most of his new releases of which there were plenty. I seem to be stuck listening to a set of about 30-40 songs of ARR in a loop and nothing much apart from that.

Coming to the reason why I didn’t watch Thug Life, to begin with, I am not a big fan of Kamal Hassan’s movies & I didn’t want to watch the movie without checking out the initial reviews. The very storyline of the movie itself made me not want to watch it.

On the Carnatic music front, I went to just 2 concerts of Sanjay Subrahmanyan, 1 fusion-like concert of Sandeep Narayan and 1 Jannal Oram programme of Sikkil Gurucharan. While the concerts of Sanjay were top-notch as usual, his recent interest in singing ‘compositions’ of Sean Roldan and composing music of a film lyricist’s verses & singing them in Carnatic kutcheris isn’t really something of interest to me and that’s why I didn’t really prioritize attending Sanjay’s kutcheris over other plans during December in Madras.

I attended 4 fantastic lecture demonstrations on Dikshitar’s compositions in Music Academy during the Season and felt all my excitement for the Carnatic compositions rekindled yet again.

2025 was when I was in Madras during Navaratri after more than a decade and I absolutely enjoyed the Navaratri atmosphere of Madras replete with golu bommai shopping in Mylapore. Of course, I did slightly miss keeping my golu in Singapore.

2025 saw us doing a lot of travelling and exploring new places, just like the previous few years. We did a good mix of temple-hopping, seeing nature’s beautiful landscapes and admiring a lot of architectural marvels.

2025 too continued to see my kids’ interests expand beyond academics and I was juggling between accompanying them to their sports & arts pursuits.

2025 saw me struggling more than ever in fighting a losing battle over my kids’ screen time.

2025 continued to see LLMs & Agentic AI ease the life of a software engineer like never before & it makes those yesteryear days of coding totally outdated. Didn’t we all go through those woes of having to write lengthy lines of Java code on your own, compile it & run it only to see that you have missed out a semicolon in one line?!

2025 continued to see me struggle with my weight loss pursuits & I experimented with everything from all-millets diet to no-sugar diet. The good part is that I have finally incorporated a good mix of strength training, cardio & yoga into my daily routine.

2025 saw me cooking more of new millet-based recipes and not experimenting with anything else. I had already mastered cooking a variety of side dishes for chapathi and 3-4 recipes of sambhar and rasam. I continued to struggle to make an upma of the right consistency & taste.

2025 had its share of highs & lows. 2025 saw me struggling to let go. 2025 saw me having my own anxiety moments. 2025 saw me seeking inner peace. 2025 saw me prioritizing my fitness goals. 2025 had some very special happenings.

Passing on wishes to an exciting 2026!

Celebrating 25 years of Alaipayuthey!

Leave a reply

Back when there was no YouTube or social media and no one uploaded anything anywhere and you had to wait for the right commercial break on TV just to catch the trailer of the movie featuring the dashing lead pair of Madhavan & Shalini, the trailer of Alaipayuthey itself made one want to watch it again and again! The music, the visuals, the dialogues, Shalini and her casual way of conversing and, of course, Madhavan! Even the font in which Alaipayuthey was written was stylish too!

It wasn’t just the trailer that made you go gaga over it. The official website of the movie had such great content too with a writeup on the lead characters and some amazing photos. Waiting for the Shockwave content to load and browsing through the website became a regular activity too, despite downloading all the images from the website.

Oh and the songs! But for evano oruvan which screamed of longing with a tinge of pain, all other songs were so joyful, celebrating life in itself! Back then, not a single day went by without listening to the audio cassette. Pacchai Nirame had to be listened to on a repeat mode every day. It didn’t matter if one had to patiently press the rewind button of the music system to listen to a song again and again.

Pacchai Nirame became an instant favourite and today, 25 years later, continues to remain my most favourite song of A R Rahman and the best song ever portraying such beautiful colours! It’s to Pacchai Nirame that I turn to even today for some colours to cheer me up on a random dull day. 🙂

Then the movie itself – such relatable characters looking even more relatable in their simple costumes and talking such casual dialogues, here was a story set in my very own Madras with each and every scene having some lovely colours and music that added more to every scene.There was a time when watching the entire movie itself was a regular pastime!

Today I don’t really watch the scenes of Alaipayuthey or listen to the songs of Alaipayuthey as frequently as I used to back then, but I continue to watch all the interviews of Madhavan waiting to hear some new tidbit about Alaipayuthey, I continue to turn to some scene of the movie when I want to take a pause and refocus or just plain relax, I continue to watch Pacchai Nirame first every time we buy a new mobile or a TV or a monitor, I continue to get reminded of the beautiful wedding scene of Alaipayuthey every time I visit Kapaleeswarar Kovil!

Every April when I see some content on YouTube mentioning about the number of years it has been since Alaipayuthey got released, my craze for all things Alaipayuthey does get rekindled.

Neighbourhood landlines or common telephones in offices might now have become outdated, searching for a girl by hunting down the stations or medical colleges instead of simply looking up on social media platforms might sound a roundabout way, youngsters having their own start-up might have become much more common now than it was back then, but the love story of Shakthi and Karthik continues to remain a timeless classic!

My Current Playlist

Leave a reply

Just thought of writing here what I am listening to nowadays….

A R Rahman’s masterpieces:

    • The classic Veera Raja Veera
    • The fun piece Nana from Couples Retreat
    • The soul-stirring Dichotomy of Fame from Rockstar
    • The playful Kuru Kuru KaNgaLile from, again, Couples Retreat
    • Ponni Nadhi from Ponniyin Selvan – the same Rahman can sound playful in Kuru Kuru KangaLile and pack so much energy in this ode to Ponni Nadhi
    • The haunting, contemplative Latika’s Theme
    • The inspirational ‘Never Give Up’ from Million Dollar Arm

The trailing background music of Kuru Kuru KaNgaLile is as lovely a piece in itself, as the one in the background for ‘Jugni’ from ‘Kaatru Veliyidai’. The vocals, the humming, the chords, the melody – there are multiple layers of awesome music running all through this less than 3 minute song.

Bliss of Navarasa Kannada:

  • Ni Paadamule Gati by Sanjay
  • Vande Sada Padmanabham by Sanjay
  • Naan Oru Vilayattu by Sikkil Gurucharan & Anil Srinivasan (Album – Tarunam)

The first two bring out the joyous shade of Navarsa Kannada, while the last one brings out the other rasa of Navarsa Kannada by being all soulful! 🙂

Finally, Sanjay’s Shri Parvati in the beautiful Shri Raagam is one song that I just can never have enough of! This is such a beautiful composition, replete with some lovely chittaswarams.

What are you listening to? 🙂

Kaatru Veliyidai Revisited

Leave a reply

I just couldn’t get myself to watch Kaatru Veliyidai again, because the very thought of watching the abusive nature of Varun (VC) was making me feel really irritated! What madness is it that makes the human mind hold on to someone despite all the abusiveness!

I finally got myself to watch a few scenes some time last year and, before I knew it, I got hooked big time to the magic of ARR & Mani Ratnam. What music and what visuals!

It is one thing to portray the initial happy days of a simple relationship, like in Alaipayuthey and OK Kanmani, where the relationship itself is yet to really begin. But it is quite a task to portray a complex relationship like that of VC and Leela’s, which is synonymous with everything but happiness.
Continue reading →

ARR’s Thumbi Thullal

Leave a reply

This song couldn’t have come at a better time! Right now, when the world in itself is facing uncertain times like no other, here comes a song bringing along with it celebration, joy, dance, longing, love, hope and all that is synonymous with positivity.

Starting off with a soft Charukesi (?), slowly transcending to the soft percussion which doesn’t have any shades whatsoever of the ‘saraveDi’ lyrics, it builds up into one of the most beautiful, soft crescendos ever at ‘madhumaNamO’!

In comes Shreya’s voice, singing some of those lines which seem to have the classic ARR touch, with sitar joining in in the background. I love the way how the words ‘en kaLLachirippin nILam neeye’ are placed with the word ‘nILam’ spaced out so ‘nILam’.

Again ‘saraveDi’ enters unexpectedly and is followed by a very lovely flute interlude.

Shreya sings more of those longing lines.

The percussion, flute, ‘saraveDi’, Shreya’s voice and, now, guess what?! Nadaswaram! And that too the majestic Nattai ‘jagadAnandakArakA’ acting as the crowning glory!

The crescendo of the thavil has the song switching to Nakul Abhyankar’s voice. The place where he goes ‘uyurAvEn’ is so wow!

Then comes this amazing chorus having all the classic touches of ARR.

And when Shreya launches off to ‘thumbi thuLLal’ again, you’ve chorus as the background along with all the thavil, sitar, flute and more! Wow!

The finale has us drowning in the mellifluous sounds of sitar and flute, leaving us asking for more of this addictive music!

The promo visuals for this song are quite appealing and the music and visuals together call for celebration!

There are way too many intricacies, lovely instrumentals, beautiful tunes, foot-tapping beats to be relished in every single second of this song that once you start listening to it, there is no way you are not playing it on an endless repeat mode!

The Magic of Alaipayuthey – 20 Years Later

Leave a reply

This blog of mine has always been synonymous with celebrating all things Alaipayuthey! So, it would be highly unfair if I leave this special occasion of Alaipayuthey turning 20 without at least a passing mention here. But when have I ever been able to stick to just a ‘passing mention’ of Alaipayuthey? 😉 So, here is yet another heartfelt raving about that special movie!

Sometime in the beginning of April during one of those sleepless nights, it struck me that Alaipayuthey was turning 20 this year. Since then, there have been quite a few reminiscences going on in my mind. From thinking of 20 special things to 20 special scenes to recollecting certain write-ups of mine, Alaipayuthey has yet again been giving me quite a few relaxing moments during this much-needed anxious period!

While it would be cliched to say that this movie remains as special to me today as it was 20 long years earlier, it is indeed the case. When I saw earlier in the day that Mani Ratnam was going to be appearing Live on Facebook with Suhasini, I set a reminder and watched it from the start to finish, absolutely hooked to it. And then when Madhavan made an appearance in the show, I can’t tell you how much the Alaipayuthey fan in me was rejoiced! Is there any better way to celebrate Alaipayuthey?!

As Madhavan said the famed ‘Naan onna virumbala’ dialogue in the show, the magic in these words were as fresh today as it was when we first heard it. Madhavan asked Mani Ratnam about why there was such lengthy, filmy dialogue in this, so unlike his usual style. Before I knew it, I was thinking about several of the proposal scenes in all his other films.

When Suhasini showed a mirror with a colourful backdrop, even before she started talking about it, I shouted out loud, ‘Hey this is the Alaipayuthey mirror!’ 😀 She indeed did confirm that this was a mirror which she had bought in Hauz Khas, Delhi and was used in Alaipayuthey. Knowing yet another new trivia about anything and everything related to Alaipayuthey excited me today as much as it did during my teens. 🙂 That mirror in which the thaali is hung 🙂

If watching a mere Live conversation with Mani Ratnam gets me this excited, guess how much the movie still excites me even today!

Jugni – Kaatru Veliyidai

Leave a reply

There are those songs that start like a whiff of fresh air. Jugni is one such – the opening soft music as fresh as the air in the snowy Himalayas where the video of this song is shot!

Then those foot-tapping beats change the mood of the song. The constant dance-worthy beats all through and those intermittent exploding beats, the soft layers of short snatches of music in the background here and there – at times soothing, at times intense, but all through mesmerizing – stay with you long after this song gets over.
Continue reading →

As We Bond Over ARR’s Music

3 Replies

I cannot tell you how exciting it is for me when I introduce composition after composition of ARR to my children and see them too thoroughly enjoy those. With the volume on a high and the woofer on, there are those moments when there’s no room for naughtiness or tantrums and it’s just music and us. As I tap my feet and hum along softly and they both dance to the music, relaxing with Rahman’s music has almost become an everyday activity for us.

ARR Songs Mash-Up by Guitar Prasanna

2 Replies

And then there are those stunning pieces of music which leave you awestruck, mesmerized, happy and pulls you in completely into it. Now, how would you feel when several of your most favourite songs from your favourite composer are brought together and blissful parts from one song after another comes successively in your favourite instrument, guitar by your favourite guitar player? Watch Guitar Prasanna effortlessly create magic with his guitar bringing together lots of beautiful songs of Rahman:

https://www.facebook.com/guitarprasanna/videos/10155715823783956/

Mindblowing! What a wide variety of songs has he chosen! This is going to be my music for the day.  

Kaatru Veliyidai

1 Reply

Breathtaking visuals, beautiful colours, mesmerizing music, people with flaws and feelings abound, a leading lady in lovely costumes, a love story on a setting that makes you think beyond your normal lives and thank those brave soldiers who are helping us lead a safe life – that is Kaatru Veliyidai for you.

If you are looking for a story of two perfect and caring people falling in love with each other and leading a happy life together, then this movie is not for you.
Continue reading →