Monday 23 February 2009

Rahman Made History..!




Yes. He made history. He made the whole India feel proud. Being the fourth Indian to win the precious Oscars (First was Bhanu Athaiya for the movie "Gandhi" in 1982 in the Best Costume Design category, Second was Bengali filmmaker Satyajit Ray in 1992, Third was Resul Pookutty in Best film sound mixing category in 2009, just before Rahman), He also holds the record of the First Indian to ever win two Oscars.

I, like billion other fans of Rahman, wished him luck and prayed for him to win the most coveted Oscars. It was said that the results were to be announced on 22nd. Yesterday, I was at my friend's place, curious to know when the Oscars results will be announced. From the news channel, it was confirmed that the Oscars will be telecasted live on Star Movies exclusively. We (school mates) had a small get together meet at my friend's place but wretchedly we had no source to know about the Oscars cuz we had no TV in his room. If we had to watch the TV, we would have to wake up his parents who were sleeping in his house down stairs (Actually it was two floors where we took the top). I was then informed by my friends that the Oscars will be telecasted tomorrow morning at 6 30 am. We all went to bed sooner than we supposed to, just to save some energy to watch the Oscars live.

Rahman's 'Jai Ho' and 'O Saya' were nominated for the Best Original Song and he was also nominated for the Best Original Score. Every single Indian wished Rahman to win atleast one Oscar. Even me. I never thought he'd win one for the Original Score. When the results for the Best Original Score was announced, I jumped off the couch and whistled so loud that all my neighbours came running to see what happened. I believe it would have been a reaction given by everyone who was watching the Oscars live. Even for a person who was not a fan of Rahman, would have become his fan by the speech he gave with the award in his hand. He was so humble, unprejudiced. The best part was that, even at the Oscars he uttered the most used line by him in tamil "Ellam Pugazhum Iraivanukke". Soon after recieving the Oscar for the Best Original Score, he also won another Oscar for the Best Original Song 'Jai Ho'. But before the results for original score were announced, he performed 'O saya' and also performed 'Jai Ho' soon after 'Down To Earth' by singer John Legend. While Rahman was singing 'Jai Ho', John Legend joined with him singing 'Down To Earth' and the combo was really good. While recieving the award he said "All my life i've had choice of hate and love, and chose love, and im here. God bless". Again i drew all my neighbours attention by whistling with all my breath.



Rahman has etched his name on the walls of Indian history. Histroy that Indians wished to happen for a long time. Rahman made it happen.

There was also another Indian who won the Oscars before Rahman recieved his- Resul Pookutty for Sound Mixing. In the order by which the Oscars were announced, he was the thrid Indian to receive an Oscar. He was equally previliged even though he was one among the three (the other two who recieved the award along with him were Ian taap, Richard pryke) who won the award.

I personally feel that this was not Rahman's best composition. He has done many outstanding compositions which was not globally recognized. I wonder what would Rahman get if all his songs were put to light at the International grounds. After the winning of 2 Oscar awards, im sure that he will be Globaly recognized and has a favourable chance to write scores for more International movies and to win more Oscars.

Today was a great day for India and for all Rahman fans. I felt very happy for Rahman as if he were my own brother. Kudos to Rahman. I wish him more and more success in future. Jai Ho.

Saturday 21 February 2009

Bigger than big.!

It was in the music competition that happened yesterday in my college in which we won prizes and more. I didnt expect that we'd win. But eventually we won first prize. The judges were two musicians from Laxman Shruthi, a famous orchestra. The first prize didnt impress me at all. I was put to feel more than 'impress' when the judges asked the audience to give us a standing ovation for our performance. We did a melange of songs. We did three songs in which the first one happened to be thala's (A.R.Rahman's) Vellai Pookal (Roja). I did the guitar strumming well that it sounded good. And i knew it was good from the response i got from the crowd. Next was Nenjukkul Peydhidum from Varnam Ayiram. I am pretty thorough with the chords and stumming of that song cuz when you search for Nenjukkul chords in Google, the chords which i posted in my blog comes first (Wow.! Worked hard on it though). So i was pretty good in re-creating the original guitaring. That brought me a good round of applause from the audience. Next was again thala's Mana Madhurai (Minsara Kanavu). For this song i played the bass guitar with which i think i did well (Cuz im not that good with the bass guitar. But since i wanted to sound professional, i took notes the previous day by listening to the track keenly and practiced much with it). Even this sounded a little good.



When to tell about my performance, i would say i managed to convince the crowd with my guitaring. As a team leader, when to tell about my team mates, they were really good at that particular time period ie., on stage. We had a good set of keyboards (Korg O1W) and good guitars and drums. Everyone did their role well and knew when to do what.



After the performance, we were told to wait on the stage cuz the judges wants to talk something. They lauded us for our performance and also said we sounded professional. And then came the big thing- a standing ovation. It was flattering when every single person whole heartedly stood up and applauded. We have won plaudits for half the cultural competitions we have participated in (Cuz some of them were really competitive), but this one was/is very special. I was glad.

Though the program was not that big enough (after all its our college's!), we managed to get good comments from people who knows music better. The one thing (actually many) i hate with my college is that they are still old fashioned. The high level management have to update themselves with the recent cultural trends. They run college with a bunch of lowbrows that the college still sticks to the old times. The way an event is organised is totally immature (a hard word though!). Even when it is students who has to organize the events, they are pulled back by the management so that they wont get into (or atleast touch the borders of) a 'real organised event'.


Team Mates: Arjun, Priya, Saranya, Vijay, Rekha (Singers), Me (Guitars), Vinod (Drums), Anurag (Keyboard).(This is my new team. My old team was best where this one was better.)

After all, yesterday was a great day. Had fun. Lurked about and ogled at girls (Not from our college. The frumpiest can be seen in our college.!). Had a great time. And do you know what.? My college princiapl wanted us to perform for half an hour in our Annual Day function. I think that is going to be something our college have never seen before. Cuz its always 30mins of fun (that includes dance, light music, other events etc.) and 3hrs of speech (chief guests, principal, and the someones who sit abreast to the chairman on stage). And thats why we always have students stay at home rather than coming to college on our "Grand Annual Day" function. This time, it would be fun to guess!