May 2, 2008

The intersection of Vishal and Rahman

[If you are a fan of Vishal Bhardwaj and haven't already noticed, we have a little blog that aims to quietly chronicle some of the news and reviews involving works of that dimunitive but exciting filmmaker - updates can be seen on the side bar of this blog.]

A.R.Rahman and Vishal Bhardwaj are probably my two most favourite film music directors at the moment, but apart from the likes of Gulzar, I cannot think of their social worlds having overlapped in any significant way. (Musically, they share much in common: a certain originality, an unconventional spirit, an ability to traverse regions and moods, the courage to mix a bass guitar with a sitar.)

Which is why I was very interested to read that Rekha Bhardwaj, Vishal's wife, has sung for Rahman in his upcoming Dilli 6. In the film world, Rekha, to my mind, is a lot like Vishal: hugely underrated and hugely under-feted. I have been a fan of hers ever since I first heard her in Maqbool ('rone do, jiyaa kare'). Compare that voice and aspect with her songs in Omkara ('namak', 'laakaD jal ke') and No Smoking ('phuu.nk de'). Her capacities for modulation and voice are outstanding. Rahman's songsheets, which have seen an incredibly wide range of singers, add one more songbird to their notes.

6 comments:

Santosh Kumar T K said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Abhi T said...

The association goes back to Mangal pandey it seems.

http://www.desipundit.com/baradwajrangan/2008/05/07/music-review-mangal-pandey/

Then there are the album’s two absolute beauties. The mujra, Main Vari Vari (Kavitha Krishnamurthy, Reena Bharadwaj), is set to a gorgeously sinuous tune, and Rahman digs deeper than usual into the lyrics...

J Ramanand said...

Abhi: Unfortunately, that's a different person - *Reena* not *Rekha*, whom, as you may know, also sung the wonderful 'Rishtaa kyaa kehalaataa hai' from Meenaxi. AFAIK, there's no relation.

However, it is a mistake that many have made :-)

J Ramanand said...

'who', not 'whom' :-) - again "a mistake that many have made :-)" !

Abhi T said...

sorry, my mistake. should have noticed that.

Anonymous said...

Rahman seems to have pledged that he will use as many singers on this earth and experiment, ofcourse the experiments have been success each time but repeating super singers he used on one project might just get delayed, as in the case of Naresh Iyer who sang the beautiful Roo-Ba-Ru from Rang De Basanti, I have not heard him on a Rahman album after that (i think I am right)