Digi's Blog

An A.R Rahman musical is not just a routine soundtrack. It is an event of sorts. In addition to that, Rahman has been in splendid form in Bollywood since the last few years. However when the trio of Irshad – Imtiaz and Allah Rakha come together after two massive hits “Rockstar” and “Highway”, it is an even bigger event, particularly because of the individual artistic liberties and licenses these three people exercise – Irshad is always at his eloquent best, Imtiaz shoots songs like no one else does, and Rahman – well we all know what he can do when given the proper environment and freedom without any directorial shackles or limitations. Maybe it is this zone of comfort which brings out the best in all three of them. “Tamasha” is a journey of sorts, involving stage acts, lot of travelling, and obviously introspection, as in all Imtiaz Ali movies. I expected a soundtrack with songs which would be less appealing on audio hearing; however nothing of that sort happened, and the ...

Rahman begins the episode with “YE JO DES HAI TERA”. That was a smart move to ensure the audience get goosebumps right from the moment the shehnais start. the way ranjit barot changes the song (Deconstructs and reconstructs it, in Rahman’s words) is awesome. The “mitti ki hai jo khushboo” chorus is out of this world. Rahman’s rendition is near perfect. He sings the song with aplomb. The chorus before the second antara again gives you goosebumps. And Rahman escalates the song with his PERFECT tamil rendition. Although I didn’t understand a word of it, it is obvious that Rahman is much more at ease singing tamil lyrics compared to hindi ones. Overall, this was 5 minutes and 14 seconds of pure hair – raising stuff. Special credit to the shehnai players – Omkar dhumal, Raju dhumal, Sunil dhumal, Sanjeev shankar and Ashwani shankar. “REHNA TU” starts off with an addictive piano loop, the one which was heard even in the behind the scenes video released prior to the episode....