"99 SONGS" (A.R.Rahman Project)

Has anyone seen it??

I've been quite curious about it since it got announced years ago. The buzz being that Rahman wrote the story, it's a musical, so bound to have an interesting soundtrack. And then I kinda forgot about it like a million other things, because of the pandemic. ❤️

The release was pushed back several times due to COVID mainly, and then eventually it didn't even come out in UK cinemas...

Anyway, so I've been listening to the soundtrack for 2-3 months and it's incredible ☺️ - I'm about to watch the film on Netflix.. wondering if anyone's got anything to share about the film and songs...

I love Aashiqa and Humnava🥰😍 never got to watch it, but trp (YouTube reviewer) said that it was watchable

I watched it....amazing movie...but not everyone's cup of tea..

So I just watched it...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DYxbNLcC3eA

I don't know whether to start on the good stuff or the badstuff...🤪

Well let me start by concluding that: I was glad towards the end of the film that overall they gave us more good than bad, because at one point quite early in the film I was getting worried ☺️

I just had a look at some promo stuff, and in a press conference A.R. Rahman (as producer) stated that he decided to go for newcomers because it's his first project and he wanted to not be judged so harshly.

I mention this because, to me, although earnest, the performers in the film were slightly too raw and unexperienced to carry off some of the deep-depth of their characters.. which hindered by ability to connect as fully as I'd have liked.

The DIRECTION: 😒

Vishwesh Krishnamoorthy had a very big task ahead of him - and there are several lovely moments in the film, so it's promising, but this being his first feature film, I could see the lack of artistic capacity that comes with spending hundreds and hundreds of hours honing your craft on film sets before helming such a film (as an AD for example).

There were some really easily avoidable annoyances I had with the film. The editing. Like, when the guy is lip-syncing, a few times, he was off-sync. And it didn't look like he was really singing, like in the way of Ranbir in the ADHM title song. Andwhen he was playing instruments like the piano, it was clear he didn't know how to do it, and they didn't film/edit it in a way to mask this well enough.

Lots of other things like that annoyed the hell out of me. But I love the soul of the movie. The story is nice too, apart from the "deal" between the girl's father and the boy. It was so cringe. 😭 the worst part for me.

Cinematography was mostly great, but again there were many lazy boring shots. I love that they had the element of MAGIC and the different types of art in the film: music, dance, poetry, philosophy etc...

I would recommend the film. If you love music and romance and aren't as fussy about technical aspects like me then you will really love this film.

Performances were quite good, they have potential. And when the lead guy, Ehan Bhatt looks like this, it doesn't hurt:

This is the song that got me hooked, and still has be hooked:

"O Aashiqa"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m8NCfkX3Zb0