The story goes that Danny Boyle planned to and in fact had already used the song Choli ke Peeche Kya Hai [now an international hit, check this video] by Laxmikant-Pyarelal form Subhash Ghai's blockbuster Khalnayak (1993). But then Danny Boyle met A.R. Rahman. Rahman showed keen interest in the project and ended up doing the score for the film, in his words, it took "two months of planning, two weeks of completing."
The project grew, M.I.A, the British musician artist of Tamil decent, who turned out to be a fan of Rahman, was roped in. M.I.A, no stranger to Indian film music - as a child she actually used to dance to the Bappi Lahiri track "Jimmy Jimmy Aaja" from Disco Dance1983 [ her Jimmy song video], contributed with sounds from her track "Paper Planes".
And some where in this all, the song Choli ke Peeche Kya Hai still made it to the film's soundtrack, it echos in the track "Ringa Ringa" though sadly minus the original cook cook cook.
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The song Choli ke Peeche Kya Hai, rougly translating to "What's behind the Bodice?", was initially censored off the screens. The words were deemed inappropriate, vulgar, raunchy, demeaning and all of that. Most people were angry because Neena Gupta, in the voice of Ila Arun, was asking the question, others were angry because there were strange sounds in the song and still others were angry because Madhuri had body parts that danced.As a kid, I remember being booted out of the room every time this song got played on TV. No, they couldn't and wouldn't change the channel. It was and remains an infectious song.
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I want to thank Rahman for making me feel like a hero every time I hung on to a fast moving six-seater auto, latched on using two fingers and a thumb toe. Wind blowing in my hair, everytime I could only hear strains-chorus n'all from Urvashi Urvashi followed by Chaiya Chaiya. I got the message: Keep the harmony, don't push and shove the guy dancing right next to you, remember there is always space for more. The point is to get to the top and then, dance. Get high on top of buses, trains, bikes, helicopters, trees, women, mountains, statues, monuments, buildings and then, dance.
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A.R. Rahman really made the 90s special. A phenomena from south the conquered the north, and now the world. Who the hell knew what chikku pukku chikku pukku [video] meant. Initially, Hindi dubs of his hit south songs sounded imperfect, most of the time insane, and yet his music - fresh, pure and unique - touched millions of hearts across the country.
It's almost perfect that he won international recognition for the music of a film like Slumdog Millionaire, after all, it tells the story of a person who grew up in India of the 1990s.
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And yes, we don't make song and dance routines like those anymore.
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Listened to the Rahman song Konjam Nilavu/Chandralekha from Thiruda Thiruda (1993) in a loop while writing this.[video]
A.R. Rahman, thank you for the music!
12 Jan, 2009
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22 Jan, 2009
Oscars are next!
Rahman has been nominated in the category of Best Original Score and also two nomination each for the Songs Jai Ho and O Saya in the the Best song category. this is the third time A.R. Rahman has been nominated for Oscar.
Also, Danny Boyle’s Slumdog Millionaire has been nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay (Simon Beaufoy), Best editing, Best Sound Editing, Best Cinematography, Best Picture, and Best Director (Danny Boyle).
And...Resul Pookutty, a product of Film and Television Institute of India, Pune, has been nominated in the category for Best Sound Mixing.
Read more about this guy from Anchal of Kerela's Kollam district here
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nice write up in totality, keep up the good work :-)
thank you!