2 Grammies

It’s not like Oscars isn’t a great achievement, but Grammies; who would have thought of that? Okay, am kidding we all were waiting for the nominations to be announced so that we can say “Jai ho” with the same energy as Sukwinder Singh if not chant like A.R.Rahman. Like Jamal Malik rising from shit to get the coveted thing, the album crossing all the criticism has achieved like everything now. What is it about the album anyway? Is it shear marketing tactic that spells success; the money that the studio has that makes sure every judge acquainted with any award to know all the positives that is to know of the film?

Allegations apart it is the appreciation for the man at the helm, his learning, his immense exposure, his grasp and what not. It is not like this album was envisaged and created in a span of 2 months. It takes a person who got the A,B,C,Ds correct to create things in celerity. The vision didn’t start 2 months before the album was created, but way behind in time. It wouldn’t have been possible hadn’t he created an exquisite library for cues (to be used as layers in his songs) the largest in Asia, so that now when he needed to do a quickie he only needs to search his Apple. It wouldn’t have been possible hadn’t Sivamani been with him right from the beginning creating background templates for THE SOUND (O ... Saya) he wanted so that his engineers could work on it. It wouldn’t have been possible hadn’t Shankar and Mani encouraged him to create the unique sound for their “Chiku bukku” and “thaaya thaaya” respectively. It wouldn’t have been possible hadn’t Illayaraaja created a strom; a riot with his bgm raising the standards for the same. It wouldn’t have been possible hadn’t Vanessa Mae collaborated with him for Raaga’s dance helping him to create an effervescent "escape" music. It wouldn’t have been possible hadn’t Subash Ghai wasn’t at the epitome of perversion (choli ke peche) back then. It wouldn’t have been possible hadn’t Balanchander roped his find to set tunes, for the "dancing" legs, for the former’s century. It wouldn’t have been possible hadn’t Barathiraaja pushed the envelope; the capabilities of this maestro to think simple (Dreams on fire). It wouldn’t have been possible hadn’t Mudalvan been about a media person who may not become a "millionaire" but surely the CM. It wouldn’t have been possible had he listened to people and stopped using Blaze (gangster blues). And finally for the song that surprising will become the song of the century (jai ho); it wouldn’t have been possible hadn’t Sukwinder injected the flavour of Punjabi music into Rahman’s blood; it wouldn’t have been possible had “paisa” experiment in Guru worked well; it wouldn’t have been possible had we rejected every time Rahman breaks into a chant calling the almighty with what ever the lyrics be.

Like the dutiful invoking of God through “O… Saya”; the Messiah of Music called the “Musical thunder” because of his music which is quiet a “riot”; who swept us with the “mausam…” and “…escaped” to various “themes” through his songs that “rings” in our ears making us “dance”; though becoming a “millionaire” thanks to his love for “blue” and jazz; and yet not losing the “fire…” in his “…dreams”; he sings “Jai ho” bringing laurels to one and all.