The MJ Show #41 (A.R.Rahman - The 90s)
Everyone has been going on these days about how awesome A.R.Rahman is...and I'll admit that I am no different.
However, I thought that instead of Jai Hoing along on his awesomeness, I'd go back in time and see just why this guy is a rockstar, a maestro...why he's possibly one of the greatest Indian music makers ever.
And while doing that, I thought I'd take YOU along with me. So here goes!
Let's take the decade in which he began...and blew minds with his new style of making music. This show, I'll just stay in the 90s and I will try to stick to his Hindi catalog as I think most of us would be able to understand and appreciate it a lot, but there is no denying that some of his biggest hits were originally in tamil/telugu. I might however pick a few legendary tamil/telugu songs too.
Also I will pick just the movies that were relatively well known...not all the movies he worked on.
If there's another song from a movie I've chosen that you like a lot and I've not put it up, make sure you let me know about it in the comments. Ok? :)
That being said, let's begin!
Oh...also at the end of this show, I'm going to give you a chance to win a BRILLIANT collector's set of A.R.Rahman's songs (a 4 cd set) by Sony Music!!
Now we can begin! Honest :)
His first film way back in 1992. Well it's not that waay back when you think about it eh? But yeah, 1992 was when he kicked things off with Roja.
Gosh it's so hard to pick just one song from this soundtrack. I mean it was #epic eh? :)
But...the song I love most and the song with which we'll begin the show is...
1st Song - Hariharan & Chitra - Roja Janeman #TheMJshow
Okay I had to give you more song from this movie. I mean who can't remember this one? :) Come on you snobs! I know you guys all snickered when you heard this song and I bet most of you can sing along too :)
2nd Song - Baba Sehgal & Shweta Shetty - Rukmani Rukmani #TheMJshow
Damn it all! Here's one more from the movie! :)
3rd Song - Minmini & A.R.Rahman - Chotti Si Asha #TheMJshow
Aw hell! Here's the last great song from the album. There goes my plan of just one song per movie :) Anyhow, this is online, so no time limit eh? :)
What a brilliant song this is!
4th Song - S. P. Balasubrahmanyam & Chitra - Yeh Haseen Wadiyan
Okay on the next movie.
The Hindi version of the movie was called "Chor Chor" but the song that I have for you was from the Tamil film "Thiruda Thiruda". Bet you all remember this song. Man, I remember doing a fashion show or something choreographed to this song. It was like the ultimate ramp walk song that year :) Heh.
Brilliant stuff. Listen to the things he's got going on in this song. What production and what ideas!! Legendary! You can see right at this point in his career that the man is going to be massive in the years to come...and we know how he turned out right?
5th Song - Anupama Deshpande & Suresh Peters - Konjam Nilavu (Chandralekha) #TheMJshow
Next up is a Tamil movie that had the Indian Michael Jackson! Man!! That guy was on fire. Who? PRABHU DEVA of course!
Remember this next song from the 1993 movie Gentleman?
6th Song - Suresh Peters & G. V. Prakash - Chikku Bukku Rayile #TheMJshow
Another killer song from the movie was this next song. Apparently this song soundtracked a BBC fashion show!!
7th Song - S. P. Balasubrahmanyam & S. Janaki - Ottagathai Kattiko #TheMJshow
And here's the hindi version of the song!
Bonus Song - Roop Suhana Lagta Hai #TheMJshow
Next up was Kadhalan!!
You COULD NOT have missed this next song. If you did...you weren't in India in the 90s!
Check this out!! Holy shit! Memory lane this is! :)
8th Song - A.R. Rahman, Mano & Swarnalatha - Mukkabla #TheMJshow
Bonus - The same song in Hindi! Sing along boys and girls! :)
Here's the other great song from the movie!!
9th Song - A. R. Rahman, Suresh Peters & Shahul Hameed - Urvasi Urvasi #TheMJshow
There was a 1994 Tamil film called Duet which was apparently also dubbed in Hindi. This song from the movie was beautiful!
10th Song - S. P. Balasubrahmanyam & K. S. Chithra - Anjali Anjali #TheMJshow
I'll admit this next song is making an appearance thanks mainly to Hariharan. I'm a huge fan and I love the way he's sung this hit song from Rahman's 1995 Soundtrack for Tamil film "Indira".
Check it out:
11th Song - Hariharan - Nila Kaikiradhu #TheMJshow
And then came the big BOMB! Bomb-ay!
So many great songs again!
First up...
12th Song - K. S. Chithra - Kehna Hi Kya #TheMJshow
This next one...oh man! What a song! Did you sing along with this one? I know I did!
13th Song - Remo Fernandes - Ek Hogaye Ham Aur Tum #TheMJshow
I love this song...and there was a version of this song that the Colonial Cousins did when they played MTV Unplugged. It was totally LEGENDARY!
14th Song - Hariharan & K. S. Chithra - Tu Hi Re #TheMJshow
Another cult song coming up! :)
15th Song - Udit Narayan, Kavita Krishnamurthy, G. V. Prakash & Sharadha - Kuchi Kuchi #TheMJshow
And BOOM! After Bombay...he goes ahead and does Rangeela in 1995! I mean holy crap! What a way to follow a big hit eh?
Here's
16th Song - Asha Bhonsle & Aditya Narayan - Rangeela Re #TheMJshow
And the hits kept coming!
17th Song - Hariharan & Swarnalatha - Hai Rama #TheMJshow
Here's another great song from the movie!
18th Song - Udit Narayan - Kya Kare Kya Na Kare #TheMJshow
19th Song - Udit Narayan & Chitra - Yaaro Sun Lo Zara #TheMJshow
But the #epicwin from this movie had to be this next song. One of the sexiest movie songs ever in my opinion.
20th Song - Asha Bhosle - Tanha Tanha #TheMJshow
Oh f**k me silly! :) This next song has to be seen just for the awesomeness that is Rajnikanth!
This was the first Rajnikanth film that Rahman gave music for. It was called "Muthu" in Tamil and did you know that this got released in Japan! Dubbed in Japanese! Made Rahman a big name there! Good God man!
Check out Rajnikanth's entry in this song! Aila!
21st Song - S. P. Balasubrahmanyam - Oruvan Oruvan #TheMJshow
Oh hell man! You've got to see one more song for full funness of the song! :)
22nd Song - Udit Narayan, K. S. Chithra, Kalyani Menon - Kuluvalilae #TheMJshow
Apache Indian sang for Rahman in the 1996 movie Love Birds...and once again we have the dance machine...Prabhu Deva!
23rd Song - Apache Indian & A. R. Rahman - No Problem #TheMJshow
Next up is a 1996 film called Indian. The Hindi translation was called "Hindustani".
Okay only in India could you have a song called "Telephone Dhun Mein Hasne Wali" :) hehe
24th Song - Hariharan & Kavita Krishnamurthy - Telephone Dhun Mein Hasne Wali #TheMJshow
Another 1996 song that was a huge hit was from a movie called "Kadhal Desam".
Check it out:
25th Song - A. R. Rahman - Mustafa Mustafa #TheMJshow
The Hindi dub of the movie was called "Duniya Dilwalon Ki" and here's a song from that.
26th Song - A. R. Rahman, Storms, Noel & Anupama Deshpande - Hello Doctor #TheMJshow
The next big movie for him was the 1997 "Sapnay".
The soundtrack earned A. R. Rahman the National Film Award for Best Music Direction for the second time. The first time he won the award was for his first film Roja.
Here's the first song from that film. Remember this one? :)
27th Song - Unni Menon, K. S. Chitra & Srinivas - Ooh La La La #TheMJshow
28th Song - KK & Febi Mani - Strawberry Aankhen #TheMJshow
29th Song - Hariharan & Sadhana Sargam - Chanda Re #TheMJshow
And then one of the most likable songs of the 90s :)
30th Song - Hema Sardesai - Awara Bhanware #TheMJshow
And now here's Aishwarya Rai Bachhan's first movie!! It was a movie called Iruvar, directed by Mani Ratnam and whose music was given by Rahman.
Here's a song from that movie.
31st Song - Mano - Ayirathil Naan Oruvan #TheMJshow
Next up was a movie called Daud which totally sucked I'm sure but it had this really nice song. Check it out.
32nd Song - Yesudas & Asha Bhonsle - Oh Bhanware #TheMJshow
And this one too...
33rd Song - Ranu Mukherjee, Sonu Nigam & Neeraj Shridhar - Shabba Shabba #TheMJshow
And you have to see this next song because it was a very controvesial song back then because of the picturization.
34th Song - Asha Bhonsle & Deena Chandradas - Zahreela Pyar #TheMJshow
Next up is another South Indian movie that featured Aishwarya Rai.
I have to admit, this was a time when I had a MASSIVE crush on her :) She was really cute back then wasn't she? (Not that she's gone bad now or anything...but back then she was really really cute :)
Here are a couple of songs from "Jeans"!
35th Song - Unnikrishnan & Pallavi - Hai Re Hai Rabba #TheMJshow
36th Song - A. R. Rahman - Columbus #TheMJshow
And my favourite song from the film was...
37th Song - Hariharan & Sadhana Sargam - Ajooba #TheMJshow
And right after this was the MASSIVE hit soundtrack of "Dil Se". This I believe was Preity Zinta's first film.
Here are some of the greatest songs from that.
38th Song - Sukhwinder Singh & Sapna Awasti - Chaiyya Chaiyya #TheMJshow
I love this next one.
39th Song - Lata Mangeshkar & M. G. Sreekumar - Jiya Jale #TheMJshow
And this one too! What a song
40th Song - Udit Narayan & Mahalakshmi Iyer - E Ajnabi #TheMJshow
And finally...
41st Song - A. R. Rahman, Anuradha Sriram & Anupama Deshpande - Dil Se Re #TheMJshow
Okay there were a few more movies between Dil Se and the next movie I got into but they all sucked and I can't think of any great songs from them. If you can remember them, let me know but I'm going straight to "Taal" now! :)
Now this was a movie which had some stunning songs.
First up.
42nd Song - Sujatha Mohan, Anuradha Sriram, A. R. Rahman & Sonu Nigam - Ishq Bina #TheMJshow
What a brilliant song this next one is.
43rd Song - Alka Yagnik, Udit Narayan & Sukhwinder Singh - Taal Se Taal #TheMJshow
Another great song from the movie was...
44th Song - Alka Yagnik & Sukhwinder Singh - Ramta Jogi #TheMJshow
The next song has a very airy, ethereal feel to it. Love the song. Also it has Hariharan which is always awesome!
45th Song - Hariharan & Sukhwinder Singh - Nahin Samne #TheMJshow
And finally,
46th Song - Asha Bhosle, Richa Sharma & Aditya Narayan - Kahin Aag Lage #TheMJshow
And finally the last movie I want to feature for the 90s is coming up.
This one was called "Thakshak" and it had some brilliant songs too. Like this next one.
47th Song - Asha Bhonsle - Rang De #TheMJshow
Another singer whose voice I like a lot is coming up for the next song on the list.
48th Song - Roop Kumar Rathod - Khamosh Raat #TheMJshow
Hmm...interesting song this one... :)
49th Song - Alisha Chinai & Shankar Mahadevan - Jumblika #TheMJshow
Well I need just one song to make it 50 so how about one from a Tamil movie that was based on a movie made in 1999. The hindi movie, Nayak was released in 2001 but I'll include it here since it's Tamil original, Mudhalvan was made in 1999. The song had a special appearance by Sushmita Sen and the song I have for you is...
50th Song - Vasundhara Das & Praveen Mani - Shakalaka Baby #TheMJshow
A movie I missed out was 1947: Earth. Here's an awesome song from the movie!
This one's for Amrithaa who asked reminded me about it :)
51st Song - Sukhwinder Singh - Ruth Aa Gayee Re #TheMJshow
Wow! This is some task I've taken on! I thought I could go through Rahman's entire catalog in one show but I was SO wrong!
I've just gotten the 90s in and I'm sure you'll say that I've missed some song that you really love.
That's the awesome thing about the man! He's made songs and music that'll remain with us for years to come!
Some day soon, I'll also go into his music post 2000.
But for now, I've got another contest for you!!!
I'm going to give you a chance to win a BRILLIANT 4 cd set of the man's music!
The set contains soundtracks of Jodhaa Akbar, Rang De Basanti, Lagaan and Guru!
And to win it, all you've got to do send in your answers to these following questions to musicmanmihir@gmail.com
Also mail your contact info after you've given your answers! We've got to know where to send your cds right? :) (Send your address and phone number.)
In the subject put up "The MJ Show - A.R.Rahman Contest" and send me the mail asap!
1. What does A.R. stand for in A.R.Rahman?
2. Name any one song from the 4 movie soundtracks that are in the box set that you stand a chance to win.
3. A.R.Rahman has won won fourteen Filmfare Awards, four National Film Awards, a BAFTA Award, a Golden Globe, two Grammy Awards, and two Academy Awards - True or False?
Bonus Question: (Just for my knowledge) - Which is/are your favourite Rahman composition/s of all time?
This contest is now closed! Everyone's favourite tweeter @softykid picked the winners for this one and they are:
Neha Kapoor from Indore - @partywithneha
Namrata Sachdev from Hyderabad - @tweetnams
Eniyavan Sivaji from Chennai - @Eniyavan
Right then, 'tis time to say...take care...and have a nice day! :)
This is your Musicman Mihir...signing off!
