The Rahman List

Happy Birthday ARR.
ARR is easily my most-listened-to composer. (Though Raaja and RDB give close competition). But ARR's awesome work in 2 different languages gives him the edge here.

All of you have heard the usual suspects of ARR's awesome repertoire, Bombay, Kaadhalan, Roja, AlaiPayuthey, etc.This blog post is dedicated to some of his unheralded songs. Some of them are from movies which had bigger hits and these songs got ignored, some of them were just unfairly ignored, some of the are from flop films which no one watched,. For example, how many of you have heard this song. (There is a hindi version also, which is more popular.)

11. Narumugaye - Iruvar
Excellent song rendered beautifully by Unni.Beautifully filmed by Mani, keeping in mind the period nature of the song. If you understand tamil well, the lyrics are brilliant.

10. Nahin Saamne - Taal
Yet again. The other awesome hits of Taal overshadowed this piece of brilliance. Apparently Rahman has done some nifty Raaga shifting and all in the middle. But I dont know about all that. :P

9. Varaha Nadikara Oram - Sangamam
Again. Flop movie. Awesome songs. ARR does a commendable job of mixing classical and folk music and giving us a very catchy song.

8. Aaromale - Vinnaithandi Varuvaya
ARR mixes malayalam and Pink Floyd to give a heady mixture of Rock Fusion. Brilliant singing by Alphonse helps. Immensely.

7. Rasathi - Thiruda Thiruda
For an action thriller, Thiruda Thiruda had some kickass songs. This is the best. One of the first and only (?) acapella songs in tamil cinema.

6. Vidukathaya - Muthu
Buried under the awesomeness of Oruvan Oruvan, Thillana, etc is this gem. Hariharan's voice used beautifully to make one of THE songs to express pathos.

5. Jaage Hain Der Tak and Ai Hairathe - Guru
ARR has always reserved his best for Mani. Another kick ass album. Tere Bina
and Mayya Mayya took all the accolades but these 2 were the real stars of the album.

4. Rehna Tu and Dil Gira Dafatan - Delhi 6
Delhi 6 was such a cracker of an album. Too bad it flopped so badly. Even then songs like Masakkali and the title track were big hits. But the highlights of the album were these 2 gems. ( Rehna Tu's last 2 mins where ARR works the Continnum Fingerboard is pure gold )

3. Dheeme - Zubeidaa
Zubeidaa is one of ARR's best albums. Unfortunately he gave his best for a movie which barely ran for a week. This has Kavita at her best.

2. Satrangi Re - Dil Se
Got ignored because of Chaiyya Chaiyya, Dil Se Re, Jiya Jale, etc. But its one of the better songs in the album. Sonu Nigam is absolutely amazing in this song.

1. Khamosh Raat - Thakshak
Top Spot. His most under-rated song. Listen to it. I always get asked which movie this song is from. :D Its that obscure. :P