Rahman under-used in flop film
Early this year, A R Rahman was discovered by Hollywood and America. He may have worked in the Indian film industry for nearly two decades, composing some of the most memorable songs of our time. But it took one film - Danny Boyle’s Slumdog Millionaire for him to gain fame in the West. Now, after a couple of Oscars, a Golden Globe, television appearances and several articles, Rahman has bagged his first post-Slumdog project. Rahman has composed the soundtrack for a new film Couples Retreat, written by Vince Vaughn and Jon Favreau, the writing-acting team that brought us hit films like Swingers, Iron Man, The Break Up and Wedding Crasher. Unfortunately, Couples Retreat — the story of four couples on a peculiar, new age-like retreat, trying to straighten out issues in their marriages — is a dull, unimpressive film. The dialogues are boring and it is mostly not funny. A still from Couples Retreat. A R Rahman has composed soundtrack for the movie That is too bad because with a cast that it has, Couples Retreat could have been a fun film for the fall season, just before the studios start to burden us with a deluge of the Oscar potential movies. Sometimes even films with a lot of promise do not work out. We can search for answers, but there is no sense in it. The film should do well in its opening weekend, the big name stars are a draw, and then it will disappear fast from the theatres. I went for the press screening of Couples Retreat because of A R Rahman. Having had a taste of his music in the US, from Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Bombay Dreams, to slick stage shows and then hugging friends at a bar near Times Square when his Oscar wins were announced in February, this was the moment I was waiting for. This was going to be the mainstreaming of the genius musician. He had worked on this project for three months, first in London and then in Los Angeles. I spent some time listening to the film’s soundtrack on its website. I knew that this was not going to be an Indian soundtrack. Rahman recently told the Associated Press that after Slumdog Millionaire, he has started getting work where he can set his own artistic terms. “Since the Oscars and all the appreciation, people come for what I am,” he said in the interview. Meanwhile, the online site OneIndia quoted the composer as saying: “I’ve reached a stage where I’ve to do new things. There’re so many avenues to be explored. So Couples Retreat will be their (Hollywood) kind of music with my touch, done in my way.” The music, as we hear on the film’s website, is mixed with Caribbean sounds (although most of the film is shot in the Pacific island Bora Bora), but Rahman also uses some Indian touches, a few instruments and voices, including that of Kailash Kher. The movie was unimaginative, but Rahman has often done great work for films that are flat out bad. If nothing else, we could say that the songs were good. But while watching Couples Retreat, I forgot about Rahman’s compositions. It is so much in the background, that it is barely audible. His music does nothing to enhance the situations in the film. It is a complete waste. Last year, Boyle told me that he admired the loud soaring sounds in Bollywood movies. In Hollywood films, the music tends to be subtle and quieter, he added. That does not help Rahman’s case in Couples Retreat, where his talent is almost unrecognisable. Why did Rahman take three months, composing sounds which hardly matter in the film? Why did the producers hire him from the pool of composers in Hollywood? Was Rahman supposed to add prestige to what was perceived as a weak project? And why did Rahman accept this film as his first post-Oscars project? Was it just for money? And is money that important for Rahman at this stage in his life and career? These are questions that all of his fans should be asking. Aseem Chhabra is a freelance writer based in New York who has previously written for The New York Times, The Boston Globe, Philadelphia Inquirer and Time Out, New York http://www.ahmedabadmirror.com/index.aspx?page=article§id=56&contentid=2009101120091011000754187481e865d§xslt= ________________________________
