This time, i avoid all political talk and get to talking about a sound track of a tamil film song that is in my opinion one of the most underrated songs of AR Rahman. This song is from the film Parthale paravasam and the song is titled 'Adhisaya Thirumanam'.
One possible reason for this song's brilliance to have been generally overlooked is certainly the inane lyrics provided by Kaviarasu Vairamuthu.
I won't try to analyze the melody of the song because the rhythm sections here are enough to blow your mind.
The song starts off on a khanda chapu rhythm(female chorus) and soon shifts to mishra chapu(male chorus)-but totally seamlessly. When the male chorus goes 'thirumanam oru daayakattam...' the tonalities are worth listening to-one set of male voices keep at the alto level while the other set of voices steadily 'climbs up' to that level.
As the male chorus again starts off another motif, it does so this time in rupakam! This song is like a who's who of possible time signatures!
During the charanam, the line is at a relaxed ata talam followed by chord sections playing with a time interval of 12 beats, and as ARR does this twice, he manages to put it in a nice 4/4 rhythm. The khanda chapu returns to complete the charanam and the mishra chapu lines return again to get back to the anupallavi. After the second charanam, ARR suspends the rhythm section before the return to the anupallavi and as we savor the lack of percussions, he returns to the same time signature with an inverse khanda chapu!
And all this with a pretty decent melody line and a bassline that keeps dancing along with the rhythm scale(possibly synth programmed). It is astonishing that while he does all this his chord sections keep changing all the time! Hats off ARR!!

it is difficult to not want to say something after this:

http://ia.rediff.com/news/2006/sep/27spec.htm

i agree one must not forget one's roots and one's own vernacular language. after all, india's vernacular languages are amonsg those few in the world which have a very rich cultural and literary treasure attached to it. Most of our languages have such great works of literature that in this mad rush to use our advantage of becoming 'english-speaking graduates', we tend to forget the fact that India houses several beautiful languages! So for instance when Karnataka issued a state rule(around 2000) that all shops boardings, bus boardings and any public boarding must also contain the same in Kannada, i thought it a rather sensible thing to do-a simple yet subtle way of reintroducing the language to the masses.
But this is taking everything to an extreme. By denying some one the benefit of education in english, what does one gain?
a tamil guy once argued that the 'reason' tamils were against Hindi (in TN, of course) is because they didn't need to know that language and that forcing something down one's throat is not democratic. True enough. By the same token, so is this!
Some people have argued that many Europeans also prefer to converse in only one language and that they feel their language is by no means inferior to English. That is of course true but the point is that the people there do so after a choice.
If the state really wishes to reinforce to the people the beauty and aesthetics of the language, then they ought to spread the word by investing more into it. No one would wish to be a litterateur simply because there is NO MONEY in it!
create more opportunities, make kannada(or tamil or whatever language in question)-speaking something people would want to do rather than force it down their throats.
But our governments always opt for the weasel way out. As for instance, the tamil nadu government announces that films without tamil titles will have to pay more tax(they state it the other way but this is the real situation).

I don't have much to say today but just wish to point out this blog entry of Scott Adams( 'the Dilbert guy'):
Philosophical Question of the Day (http://dilbertblog.typepad.com/the_dilbert_blog/2006/09/philosophical_q.html)

Scott Adams is funny and smart. His thought of the day is pretty thought-provoking too...

While I'm ranting out here, let me address one other topic i've seen discussed till our brains ooze out.
The problem with most indians is(and before someone wisely starts to point out that I too am Indian, i'll say it beforehand : I too am Indian, so yah, i address myself as well) is that we tend to indulge in these comparision wars all the time. Who's better?! sachin/bradman, sachin/sehwag, kamal hassan/rajinikant, and so on and the problem is that most of these debates don't even make any sense.
And to add to this, comes one hoary old chestnut- Ilayaraja vs A R Rahman.
This one is particularly funny because i feel that both parties have formed their opinions based on-whatever-and the point of this debate is simply futile; neither one is going to emerge 'victorious' here. They ought to know that much at least!
I personally love the works of both these gentlemen and i think most of us are not competent enough to criticize their work. I could list an entire page of the kinds of ridiculous arguments people put forth to support/oppose either of these two but i don't think it is worth it at all.
The most common mode of 'proof of superiority' of either party is to quote examples (of various great songs written by Raja or ARR without actually saying why the song is great- but by simply using superlatives while talking about it). This thoroughly unscientific method proves nothing. It simply tells us that YOU think some particular work of this person is worth listening to.
And to respond, the other party, brilliantly rubbishes that piece of work.
all this does is not undermine either composer but makes humungous fools of those putting forth these arguments or those who take these debates seriously.
To me the whole thing smacks of a personal viewpoint more than any serious debate actually. It is simply to establish that (s)he has chosen the right party/person to back up and it somehow reflects upon his/her tastes or sensibilities if the other party pooh-poohs it.

One of Rediff's new tricks is to start a topic where they only seem to be interested in the public opinion. After a while it just begins to get on your nerves but sometimes it gets us to look into how naive and moronic our junta actually are. You will be surprised by some of the popular opinions out there.
One such topic for debate was to ponder aloud which indian movie needs to be India's official oscar entry. And some of the suggestions were steeped in ridiculosity.
Firstly, in my frank opinion, no Indian movie will ever get even remotely close to being in comparision with some of the movies that get made in other parts ofthe world - our movies are simply not good enough. Period.
Secondly, Lage Raho Munnabhai is never going to get an oscar-nod(these guys better be resigned to that!). The problem with the indian mass is that they have been fed the same old crap all the time that anytime something even remotely interesting comes up, they go ga-ga about it. For instance the tamil movie Gajini. The only 'original' part of the movie was the 'short-term-memory-loss' (when u know next to nothing, it is better to keep away from such ideas. It is ridiculous to see a doctor spouting the words, ' idha medical terms la short-term-memory-lossnu solluvaanga' !!) the rest of that movie- the indianized part was to put it mildly, crappy. No make it CRAPPY-AS-HELL!
Someone suggested that KANK would be a good choice because 'the theme is closer home to the western audience'!! Not only is this giving that nonsensical movie some credibility but it so typically stereotypes the western world itself! And there are several such idiots out there with such contorted opinions.
Some readers suggested Krrish....
I leave it to you to think this one out....
and hey, check out the Krrish review!

Ok, to start off, I'll post a review of Krrish i had written to some of my friends by mail. I am sure this is bound to be offensive to those Hrithik Roshan fans out there. But then, just chill out and enjoy the review!

everyone seems to be talking about Krrish and how it is india's
answer to the superhero genre of movies created by hollywood. i caught the movie, albeit on the comp and a bootlegged version, but u see, this movie isn't exactly 'memento'; it is clearly designed for the simple country folk of india....the story of a simple, brilliant, strong, swift, agile, creative and extremely plastic and highly emotive moron.
the story of course starts off with krrish growing up with his granny-a rekha who right from the first frame makes it abundantly clear that she is not going to let go the few moments she has on
screen. for instance, the first scene shows her confronting the school teacher(apparently this is the same 'father' who taught the father too. for notational convenience, i shall henceforth refer to the father as the retard). the school teacher is convinced that krishna(that is krrish's 'full and actual name' ) is a genius of the highest order-after all, he is seen helping class 3 students when he is just a class 1 student (not to mention his carrying big chunks of wood with consumate ease. but that was more of a casting coup-the chunky kid playing the young krrish probably was the reason the movie was shot in cinemascope, but i digress) but granny shall none of this-u see she doesn't want to 'lose' the grandson, the way she 'lost' her son.
the story of the father goes that after jadoo, the blue rubber balloon, 'transmits' magical powers to the retard, he apparently becomes some kind of smartie and is called on by naseeruddin shah, a mad scientist(they are all mad, arent' they?!) in singapore to-this is very exciting and original- BUILD A COMPUTER THAT CAN SEE THE FUTURE!
as expected, the retard finishes the job in 2 yrs and then mysteriously dies. it is worth mentioning that the kid is born when the dad is in singapore. so, as u can see, right from his birth, there are question marks all over the hero - he is indeed, a medical marvel.
so the beefcake(krrish) spends his early life protected by granny by living in the countryside, entertaining himself by jumping over trees, horses, on mountains, across rivers, racing alongside horses, climbing trees-in short, by destroying the countryside and startling all the animals there in their natural abode.
then, priyanka chopra, whom we shall refer to as the bimbo comes over for a vacation and after falling in 'lou' with the lovable dunghead here, convinced that the beefcake has extraordinary powers, arranges for his visit to singapore.
and here, he 'accidentally' becomes Krrish. some circus place catches fire or whatever and this guy grabs a mask lying there, dons it on, very cleverly and creatively changes his name
entirely from krishna to krrish(note the brilliance of the second r-that is the touch of rakesh roshan) and then goes about saving singaporean chinese and indians, thus becoming some kind of mascot in singapore.
somehow the bimbo gets to know of his true identity but due to some misunderstanding-the type only a beefcake can make, and our hero is an emotive one too, don't forget that-he realises that while he was in 'true love' with her, she was just 'using him' to make news. which is not true of course, since the bimbo also is in 'lou' with him. and that is soon clarified, when his past is revealed to him.
what past?
ah, here comes the actual truth-the retard after making his computer(which bears a strong resemblance to the gizmo we see in Minority Report) sees naseer killing him in the future, and so in order to get back at him, destroys the computer-i mean physically goes after it with a baseball bat. i mean(let me just stress upon this because this seemed to be very important, lest you not get the details), the retard actually picks up some kind of stick, and then steadily gives his all by thrashing every chip or whatever there is in that contraption, to dust.
obviously naseer is incensed now and wants to skin the retard alive, but his secretary reminds him that the retard is necessary to rebuild the computer. no!I'm sure you misunderstand!!
apparently the retard made extensive notes or some such crap and the computer can be rebuilt by others from them, but what one needs to start it, is a retinal scan of the retard's eyes(and the 'thump' of his hearbeat-that is the 'password')!!
i mean, here i was in awe of the retard. the computer was actually smashed to pulp and has been re-united with nature and all that, but its 'password' was still alive - in 'cyberspace' !!
and so the retard is still alive.
and when the beefcake gets to know of this, he comes to save his dad and then marry the bimbo. thats the story in a 'nut'shell.
a quick word on the visual effects - they are quite tacky. everytime HR tries to 'sail' through the air, he looks more like he is battling for his life for he doesn't seem to trust the support strings holding him.

i think i have covered some of the salient features of the movie. you must understand that it is impossible to transcribe the entire contents or all my evoked feelings in just a few words here. to get your own ideas, grab a seat and watch the movie!!