A.R.Rahman (Fan Club)-Part2 - Page 102

They are young and restless, riding into the night. As they drink and holler at their favourite hangout and jump backwards into a pool, you can inhale their manic energy, soak in their sense of drift.

And the song that follows in Rang De Basanti distils the moment's mood: Na koi padhnewala, na koi seekhne wala, masti ki pathshala.

If Pink Floyd's We don't need no education was a mutinous outcry of the Eighties' young, the A R Rahman composition feels the pulse of GenNow's celebratory, yet angst-ridden mindscape.

The songs and lyrics in RDB are not staple Bollywood. Every song, from Roobaroo to Luka Chhuppi, is a window to the mind of the film's protagonists.

But in a way, the Aamir Khan blockbuster, released in January, set the tone of Hindi film music in 2006. And now as the year ends, only one word aptly sums it up: serendipity.

Forget that pirated MP3s and rogue music downloads continue to thrive and eat into record sales, forget that every fourth song is a straight lift and forget that the nasal singing continues to be important — the truth is that Hindi film songs are on a creative high. Pop, sufi, rock ballad, lounge, remixes, semi-classical, folk, qawwali, bhangra — there's variety like never before.

There's more melody to songs, meaning to words. For every obvious rhythm-driven chartbuster, a Jhalak Dikhla Ja (Aksar) or a Rock And Roll Soniye (Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna) or a Crazy Kiya Re (Dhoom 2), a more creative tune Namak Ishq Ka (Omkara) or a Humko Chune Paas Aaiyee (Zindaggi Rocks) is grabbing earballs.

Traditionally songs form an integral part of storytelling in Hindi films. They carry the narrative ahead and speak the unnameable.

How else would Meena Kumari say what she desperately wanted to: Na jao saiyyan chhuda ke baiyan (Sahib, Bibi aur Ghulam)? But for some years now, there is a disjunction between the song and the story. Slowly, the song has become an outsider trespassing into the movie.

But music directors say that there's an attitudinal change at work. Filmmakers are increasingly looking at songs that add to the script.

"The younger directors are also more open to ideas,"says Annu Malik, whose compositions in rookie Shirish Kunder's flop Jaan-e-Mann are boldly different.

Lyricist Mudassar Aziz points out that directors coming from diverse backgrounds have a different take on what film music should be.

"They are also making films on different kinds of subjects, prompting a different kind of music,"says Aziz, who wrote the lyrics of Zindaggi Rocks.

For instance, Nagesh Kukunoor (whose Dor this year had some great music) is a chemical engineer by training and Kunder is an electrical engineer who worked in for a mobile telephone company.

The change is also being impelled by a younger audience that has easy access and exposure to different forms of musical sounds, thanks to the Internet and the fast-spreading satellite radio