A.R.Rahman's Unknown Masterpieces

A.R.Rahman is a musician who has never ceased to amaze me. From the day I heard Roja(the first cassette i bought as a 6year old), I've been hooked to his unique brand of music. There are only few musicians(i think there aren't any), who have composed in such a wide vareity of genres, be it Rock, classical or even folk songs. He has reached that rarified zone, where no one earlier had even dared to go.
From the earliest ads(which he was doing before he came to films) to the latest sensation "aa aah", there has been brilliance overflowing in most of his works. But a number of these brilliant scores went unnoticed, due to a vareity of reasons like bad publicity, failure of the movie or the directors just ignoring the songs in the movie. This is has resulted in these songs becoming unknown to the general public. So I decided to compile a list of songs, which in my humble opinion are masterpieces but didn't get the due recognition...
here is a list of arr's masterpieces which hasn't got the deserved fame & appreciation....
1) first & foremost in the list is one of my all time favorites "ye jo des hai tera" from swades...the song was not even aired on the music channels...picturisation cudn't match the songs brilliance(with due respect to the genius ashutosh gowariker, it must be said tht the film really matched the spirit of the song).....Rahman really touches your soul when he sings " yun to sare sukh hi barse...par door hai tu apne ghar se...aa laut chal to apne diwane....". Really makes the NRI yearn for his homeland.

2)Vellai PookkalThis song was mentioned before by other fans. this is also one of my favorites. after hearing the audio, really was looking forward to amazing picturisation by the brilliant mani ratnam.....but alas, the song was not even picturised. was relegated to a background score. cannot blame the director . but he shud have atleast picturised this song atleast for the music channels. the visuals need not be from the movie. but something more general, like a music video...something like Michael Jackson's "Heal the world" or scorpions' "winds of change". it can be done now also..the song is such a masterpiece .it doesn't deserve to be ignored. Such a soothing tune & matching lyrics, u can't find anywhere. & that special acoustic feel is just unmatchable.

3)zindagi hai dua from dil ne jise apna kaha......no one really knew tht there was such a song in the film....it was also not shown on the channels while himesh's mediocre songs got airtime....the song has gota nice rhythm...karthik does a nice job...really lik this song.

.4)"Uyirum Neeye" from Pavithra......a really touching song sung by Unnikrishnan. The movie along with the music went unnoticed. Haven't seen the song's video. so can't comment on that. anyone seen that? plz comment. the interludes with guitar & veena are amazing..... lyrics touches your heart.

5)"My wish comes true" from Kisna....a track with a true international feel to it. Sunitha Sarathy does a fine job with the vocals. the movie doesn't deserve such an amazing song. same is the case with "hum hai iss pal yahaan".

6)the entire soundtrack of Netaji(except aazadi)......the soundtrack of netaji was one of the best released last year. It had many amazing songs like "desh ki mitti", "Ekla Chalo", "Zikr" in arr's amazing vocals, the sweet lullaby "ghoomparani" & lotz of amazing BGMs. But it all went waste in a lacklustre uninspiring movie, which will rate as the worst of the amazing shyam benegal, till date. the director made the big mistake of cutting out all the songs & still making a 4hour long movie. He failed to understand the effect of arr's songs in patriotic movies, particularly visible in legend of bhagat singh. Bhagat singh was such an inspiring movie because of those amazing BGMs & songs by arr.

7)"Naina Milake" from Saathiya. This song came in place of the alaipyuthey song in the tamil movie. It was a song with a little oldish touch. But this nice song was lost amidst all those hit songs from the movie.

8)"khamosh raat" from Thakshak. Nice singing by RooopKumar Rathod. cool guitar pieces. a totally different arr song. one of my alltime favorites. didn't become a hit as i expected it to be on hearing it first on audio. i still listen to it almost everyday.

9)entire "Meenaxi" album. one of arr's classiest compositions ever...but went almost totally unnoticed(except for the negative publicity for "Noor Un ala"). the album deserved a national album for its sheer brilliance. Be it the philosophic "do kadam" or the mellow "ye Rishta"....every song had something special in store. Asha Bhosle rocks with dhuan dhuan. not to be forgotten are the instrumentals- "cyclists' rhythm" & "Potter's village". And sukhwinder does a sexy turn in " chinnamma chilakkamma". an album oozing with class.

10)"Kankalaal Kaidhu sei" album. unimaginative picturisation coupled with bad acting really spoiled the masterpieces in this album."Ennuir Thozhi" had one of the best piano intros ever by our boss. The Piano interludes were more amazing. "Anaarkali" had nice tabla works. "Theekkuruvi" is indescribable. Hariharan does a great job in "Azhakiya Cindrella". altogether an amazing album wasted in a mediocre movie. The thing is that no one other than us(hardcore rahmaniacs), have heard about this album.

11)"Jhula Bahon ka" & "Bol sajni" from Dli Saja Ke Rekhna. The movie was a failure & music was a moderate hit. still didn't receive the fame it deserved.

12)"Vaanil eni pottu" from Pudhiya Mannargal. Its an old movie starring Vikram, before he became a star. It was released recently with the name changed as "Puthiya Thalapathy" in Kerala. It also had another amazing song "eduda antha suriya".

13)"Thenkizhakku" from Kizhakku Cheemayile. A number of sweet melodies of arr(like this one) has been lost in small & unknown movies, of which this was one. I still don't know if anyone has got the original Cd of this particular album because i have asked many leading stores & they all said they even haven't heard about it.

14)"Theendai" from enswasa katre...amazing song by SPB & Chitra.

15)"Kayyil Mithakkum", "Nenje Nenje" & "Chandirane" from Rakshakan.

16)"Azhage Sughama" from "Paarthale Paravasam"....a heart warming romantic song....but was not even picturised fully....

NB:-These are the humble opinions of a true A.R.Rahman fan.
There are lotz more....i expect more songs from the readers....

with love, Your Crusader Praveen