SWADES from STRESS. Review on Swades Songs

Music is a significant mood-changer and reliever of stress, working on many levels at once.

For the past few weeks, my life indeed was subject to a lot of stress. If at all it was something to do with tensile, compressive or shear stresses, I would have applied my knowledge of mechanics to avoid deformation. But when mental stresses occupy the forefront, you have to apply your minds to knowledge of music to avoid deformation. And I have no other alternative than Dr.A.R.Rahman. This time his prescription was ?Swades Music Album?

?Yeh Tara Who Tara?? A great sequel to ?Mitwa?, ARR and Udit deliver once again as they continue to calmly convince people to put a strong feet forward. A long song, its duration is not at all felt. I used to think why ARR did not use the voice of children in ?Mitwa?, he does it this time. The voices of Master Vignesh and Baby Pooja are wonderful and complete the vocals of Udit. A clear message set with a catchy tune and composed with the classic instruments speaks for the quality of musician, ARR is. The ?Hey Hey? bit is getting more and more popular nowadays.

?Aahista?? This is another one of the magical melodies from the master. The song is as soothing as a lullaby (I suppose it is intended to be one). The song has shades of the ?Uthaya Uthaya? number from Uthaya, if you note the melancholy, a pinch of sorrow and the concluding part. Udit Narayanan and Sadhana Sargam are indeed a wonderful combination that strikes gold.

Yeh Jo Des- After ?Dilsere?, this song made feel for me not knowing Hindi. A.R.R always reserves his special children (read songs) for himself. He also gets into his core whilst composing patriotic/revolutionary numbers. The combination of these two facts makes this song something special. When it starts with the slow percussion followed by a hitting rendering of ?Hoy? by the Chennai Chorale, erupts into the mystical Shehnai and when ARR cups it all with ?Yeh Jo Des Hai Tera?, you know that you have walked into a great classic. The lyrics, as I hear from my friend are so hard hitting, and especially triggers the souls of the NRIs (We also need one to trigger the ones here). From the staring of the charanams to their closing, the flow of music is so streamlined and elevating, and easily rises from your ear chords to cerebrum. The instrumental one is even better, if you are hard on yourself for not knowing Hindi.

Pal Pal: People here dismiss me as an Atheist (definitely I don?t believe in their version of a God) and proclaim that I have no route to peace. At the worst case, I have been advised to listen to devotional songs, and I have no problems when they come from ARR. I have come across four numbers from the devout ARR that can be classified as devotional ? Anbendra Mazhayile(Minsara Kanavu), Piya Haji Ali(Fiza), Poopalanhare(Lagaan) and Sakthi Kodu(Baba) and all of them have been mystical. I am not sure wheter ?Pal Pal? is a devotional number, but I am sure that it is one of the best compositions from the master. With his different type of flutes, Naveen creates reat magic which is more evident in the instrumental version. Due credit should also be given to Madhushree for his virtuous vocals and for Veda?s classic percussions

Dekho Na?: Call it the Superstar effect, my hands automatically move to and fro like a pendulum on hearing ?Dekho Na?. Even in Baba, I found the tune very catchy and hummable, but the instruments, lyrics and visuals did their bit in delineating the song. However ?Dekho Na? with suppressed richness is indeed soothing to ears and mind. When I first heard the song, I thought the lack in richness (on comparison to the original) would not have many takers. But on consistent hearing, I came to the conclusion that the song is stirring only when it is kept simple. And many say it is Double Delight if they ?Dekho Na? the gracious Gayathri in the visuals

?Saawariya?? I never have a fancy for the solo songs sung by females. On that personal note, ?Sawwariya? is my least favourite. Nevertheless, the song does not fail to strike an accord with the listener. The musical interludes between the stanzas are so good and the contrasting start of the charanams takes you by surprise. The vocal ability of Alka Yagnik is also highlighted in this song.

?Yun Hi Chala?? This song is definitely the odd one out and definitely an outstanding one. After moulding the listeners with classical music, ARR delights you with this fusion number. I dunno how he catches vocalists like Manmohan Warris and Kailash Kher, and uses them so effectively. Just as in ?Mere Rangde Basanti? where the voices of the highly contrasting Manmohan Warris and Sonu Nigam forged a divine partnership, Khailash Kher and Udit together are fascinating. And Hariharan joines the bandwagon in this peppy and foot tapping number. The ?Dhum Dhum Da Naga Ragum Da? bit is enjoying great popularity among the masses, as is the concluding fusion of notes done by Khailash, Udit and Hari amongst the classes. In short, it is a musical note for all types of people in all times.

?If a producer looks for another Rangeela from me, I am sorry. I am not interested in giving foot tapping hits, I am interested in classical projects which may glorify art or have something for the society? ? ARR, Ananda Vikatan, November 2004

ARR has become so obsessed with quality music and he is increasingly facing requests for quality music. In that case, it becomes very difficult for him to do regulation offers. Unfortunately 24 hours a day seems to be an inadequate proportion for the Music Midas. He is forced to share music honors for a classic like Kisna, forced to forfeit (for the time being) his illustrious partnership with Shankar, forced to sleep only a meagre 4 hours a day.

A.R.Rahman may be a rich person with rich attributes to produce rich music, but he is in very bad need of time. And therefore he is concentrating more on classic offerings and therefore our ears are automatically oriented towards high quality music demonstrations. This was indeed one of the greatest quality from the master.