Rahman was called the Mozart of Madras, but Bombay Dreams generally got slammed in the press for its corny jokes
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Review
Dosa served with English
chutney
Bombay Dreams
Sony
Music
Rs 55
Bombay Dreams is mostly songs we have heard before. Did we wait so long just for a glitzy cover version?
After two
years of waiting, Rahman's Bombay Dreams
album is
out. India probably will never see the theatre
production, but its CDs and cassettes are out on the
stands. After all the euphoria about Rahman hitting the
international music scene, it is hard to swallow what we've
finally got: familiar dosa with English
chutney!
Most of the tracks here are much heard in
India, only they now come with newly fitted English
lyrics.
Andrew Lloyd Webber is known for Broadway musicals like Jesus
Christ Superstar and Cats. The Broadway
musical is a play that unfolds with music and song. Musicals
are not new to Indian theatre, with most mythologicals thriving on
song. And who can ever imagine our films without songs? There's
hardly any novelty value to a play with songs. The novelty, if
you want to find one, is that it's a play in English.
In
Bombay Dreams
you get a hit Broadway musical producer
working with a hit Indian music maker. That
may make for a lot of commercial potential, but one thing is very
clear: Webber didn't much care for original music, and wanted Rahman
to recycle his Indian hits.
A majority
of songs in Bombay Dreams come out of Rahman’s earlier work,
like Shakalaka baby (Mudhalvan) and Ooh la la
la
(Minsara Kanavu). The
songs do not come out of the context of the play;
rather, the play takes up tunes already present in the
Indian film context.
Bombay
Awakes, one of the original tracks, starts with a soft
instrumental passage. Then, the listener is transported to a street
in Bombay, as the sun rises with “budding heat” on “straggled”
streets, where “some live and die in debt” and “some make millions
on the Internet”. “Anything is possible in Bombay
dreams,” which is a “city of extremes”.
This track sounds
Arabic – could well be a part of Aladdin.
The alaap by Rahman comes as a background to the tak din tak
din spoken out in a Western accent. The song also features Dalip
Tahil, Raj Ghatak, and Karen David. Who knew that Dalip Tahil, who usually
appears as a villain, had a singer within
him
!
Another
song sounds a bit like Sona nahin na sahin from One Two Ka Four. The romantic duet sung by
Alka Yagnik and Udit Narayan it is now almost a loud
description of the perfect guy: hero, lover, son, everything.
There are quite a few similarities to the original song -– such as
the instrumental and electronic sounds used. The actress asks, "Are
you sure you want to be famous?" -- which is also the name
of the song -- and the actor says, of course, “I’ll try to play the
part.” This duet is sung by the main pair -- Preeya Kalidas and Raza
Jaffrey.
Happy Endings
is an argument between parallel cinema and mainstream
cinema with its mandatory “happy endings”. It is on the tune of
Rangeela Re, Asha Bhosle’s racy number from
Rangeela. The argument is sung out by
Preeya Kalidas (who is for “thinking” movies) and Dalip Tahil who
supports the usual “happy endings.”
Like an eagle
is the song of an aspiring actor who felt his place was always
the big screen of Bollywood. A Hindi chorus and Rahman’s
alaap come in this new tune. An Arabic feel lurks around
this song too.
Ishq Bina
from Taal is
reincarnated as Love’s Never Easy. The nasal female vocals
are thick, a contrast to the female voices used in the Hindi
original: Anuradha Sriram and Sujatha. The rhythm is
louder.
Only Love sounds like an old Indian
song- with its violins and slow pace. It is not a carbon copy of any
particular song though... just evokes the Vividh Bharati
mood. Ooh la la la
has comes from Minsara Kanavu/ Sapnay
and is here sung by Andrew Playfoot. It is now
a light romantic song, of a newly found love with an “angel face.”
Shakalaka Baby
was a hit in its
original version sung by Vasundhara Das in the movie
Muthalvan and was released in the Hindi
remake Nayak. Vasundhara Das won the Screen award for best
female playback in Tamil. This is one number that hasn't been
revamped; it sounds almost like the original.
The general storyline goes
something like this: Akaash (Raza Jaffrey) grows up in the slums and
aspires to be a movie star. His dreams start to come true when he
meets Priya (Preeya Kalidas), daughter of corrupt movie mogul Madan
(Dalip Tahil). Akaash and Priya fall in love. But will their
clashing worlds come in the way of a happy
ending?
Rahman, they say, didn’t get his way and make
fresh songs for this musical. Webber wanted Chaiyya
chaiyya (Dil se
) and other numbers he'd already heard. This could also have caused a
straggly musical work.
Divya Minisandram
Published on 22 August 2002
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