Originality The most original songs of the 92-96 era, in my opinion, are Thee Thee from Thiruda Thiruda (93) and Mettupodu from Duet (94); and their respective albums too can be called the most original from ARR's highest creative standpoint. Roja would certainly have to be considered original if we compare ARR's originality to the relative originality of the musical backdrop of that era, but that is not what we are attempting here; I feel that compared with the aforementioned albums, Roja, along with the likes of Puthiya Mugham, Uzhavan, and Bombay would qualify as some of the most soulful and brilliantly crafted albums, but, not the most original; again, please keep in mind that my comparisons are confined to ARR’s body of work and not extended to any comparison’s with the work by any of his composer peers.
Thiruda Thiruda (93) was a breakthrough album for ARR as he was able to match, if not exceed, the expectations surrounding his second post-Illayaraja Mani Ratnam production after Roja, which could not have been an easy task for a 25 year old who thought his first movie album would be his last! Thee Thee’s stunning energy and freshness is only the icing on the cake after the beautiful vocal tapestry of Raasathi, the operatic grandeur of Veerapandi Kottayile, and barring its close references to Michael Jackson-like dance beats, Chandralekha as well. Duet (94), on the other hand, with an unprecedented use of Kadiri Gopalnath and his saxophone to showcase Carnatic music, was quite a daringly original attempt for a movie; to say both maestros pulled it off with shocking success, would be an understatement. So, has there been a song/album of that calibre in recent times? I think it will be an accurate statement to say that there has not been a song like Thee Thee or Mettupodu in recent times, certainly not a conceptually original album of Duet’s kind, and most surely not an album for an Indian movie. Now why could that be? First of all, as you lose your youthful freshness and become enmeshed in a system, you lose a significant share of that rebellious spirit. Albert Einstein said during his latter years when he went on his quest to discover a Unified Field Theory, how much he wished he had that same rebellious spirit which fuelled his strength of mind and imaginative powers to overthrow the revered Laws of Sir Isaac Newton and his universe of absolute time and space with the new Relativity Theory. Similarly, in United States presidential politics, Sen. Barack Obama is touting his freshness in Washington as one of his biggest strengths for bringing about real change to the country. So, yes, time spent in any environment can significantly reduce your capacity for daring and originality, which is what we are seeing with ARR in India. However, let us not forget that we owe much of the advancement of the quality of Indian music to him and let’s not be surprised if his most original work comes from his work abroad because that environment is still new to him and he has many colors to show to the rest of the world where he is not yet legend! _________________________________________________________________ Shed those extra pounds with MSN and The Biggest Loser! http://biggestloser.msn.com/
