Please re-introduce ethnic sounds and instrumentation back in your youth oriented soundtracks. For me, Saathiya is a perfect example of a great blend between hip hop, synth, and ethnic instrumentation and percussion. Saathiya in my belief is one of Rahman's greatest soundtracks, obviously noted that most of it was dubbed from Alai Payuthey.
Rahman does a great job with historicals as far as ethnic sounds. Jodha Akbar, Lagaan, Zubeidaa....etc...lots of tabla, dholak, ghungru, sarangi, etc. Not saying that his more contemporary soundtracks have to be semi-classical, just wish he could add more of ethnic sounds, which adds so much crispness and depth to the overall sound. This is what disappointed me most about RDB and Yuva, but was redeemed somewhat in Guru and Swades. (I still like RDB and Yuva so don't start pelting stones at me). I understand that the story of the movie and the context also dictate which sounds and instruments would be most appropriate for a soundtrack, but I still feel in that even in the most urban and youth of films, adding a dholak, ghungru, tabla, sitar would be appreciated additions that wouldn't necessarily ruin the contemporary nature of the soundtrack. Even in Yuvvraaj, while I appreciate the heavily symphonic sound, why not further experiment and add some tabla and dholaks to the hip hop beats and accent them with ghungrus? Only a master like ARR could experiment like this and be successful, just like he combined hip hop with symphony. How about symphony with tabla, ghatam, sitar, sarangi? Imagine a jugalbandi with cello and sarangi or a sitar interlude with symphonic strings as harmony. I think ARR is trying really really hard to get away from previous sounds and I think he is quite sensitive to the mislabel of being repetitive. Just my thoughts so please don't get upset or offended by what I wrote.
