Oscar Thamizhan 'Isaipuyal' AR Rahman News/Updates

[JamesDap]

oh we all know of the many avenues available to buy an album alright. ajay was merely referring to the attitude of some fans to merely trash anything Rahman does and praise anything Raja does for the sake of it. I don't know how long you have been a hubber but I have been visiting tfmpage almost ever since it started. There used to be fans (one SP Mahendran, if I remember correctly, was one such fanatic) who praise albums even before they were released. I think the year was 1999 when Padayappa was released. As usual, hubbers here were having a field day bashing Rahman and the album while praising Raja albums that were released around the same time ("time", and I think the other Fazil movie with Shalini and Vijay - not "kadhalukku mariyadhai). There was some news about an album named "Rajasthan" or "Chinna Durai" and that Raja composed music for it. What followed were comments from some so-called "fans" about how good the album was - even though it wasn't released yet!!! Later when someone pointed out that the album was not released yet, the talk changed to how Raja always makes quality albums and, of course, more Rahman bashing So, some fans do praise without listening.

We all know that individual taste need not be in tune with the market. You may like a song but it may not be a hit. That does not indicate anything about the quality (or lack of it) of a song. But, to say that the market is foolish and "I know better - my taste buds are better" smacks of arrogance and stupidity. No one is bothered if some one doesn't like Rahman's music. I mean, who cares? But, to say "you may fall for his humility" is silly and arrogant. Rahman fans love Rahman for his music. What makes you guys think that we care about his humility. It is a nice quality that he has but I cannot care less if he were less humble or not humble at all. Are Raja fans suggesting that Rahman fans like Rahman only for his "false humility"? That means, we don't care about the music? Or, worse, we don't know what we like? What a mean thing to say.

You and Raja fans may think Rahman is over-rated. Some of my NI friends think Raja is over-rated. Your opinions don't have any more or less value in the market than theirs.

I do not know and do not care about the 90s or 00s TFM page discussion background and I would rather ajay himself explain his statement rather than you jumping in to defend him. I responded to it on face value, whether an album is available in stores or Itunes has nought to do with how good it is. If there were people who praised an album without listening to it, that is ridiculous, goes without saying. All I am saying that need not necessarily be the case just because it's not available on Itunes, that's just jumping the gun.

As for the rest of the discussion, again, please speak for yourself. I have seen a number of ARR fans cite his awards or which TIME article featured which songs of his to argue that he is better than IR, rather than talk about his music. I completely agree with you that everybody has their own tastes and imposing arrogance on others based on likes or dislikes in music is ridiculous but I have seen this attitude from many ARR fans and not necessarily online but in face to face interactions. So, yes, I do think a lot of them are image conscious and anxious that ARR conforms to a certain image. I also feel that these days he is making an effort to conform to that image. These are my views based on MY interactions with ARR fans and Rahman's interviews. I was very fond of his music in the 90s but have lost interest in his recent work. I find it very disappointing and his tendency to say what people want to hear, to not even correct ignorant people when they attribute the very introduction of Western music elements in film music to him, much more disappointing.

So you can call my statements biased if you like and since we are not likely to find a common ground there, we'll have to agree to disagree. But I do not remember having ever called Rahman overrated so again please don't jump the gun. I had asked this question once to the older generations HCIRFs, "Would you rather IR had been upstaged commercially by Deva or Sirpi instead of ARR? Let ARR-coterie attempt to discredit IR, it is not going to change my opinion of either composer. " But maybe I shouldn't if all you guys want to do is paint all IR fans with the same colours. I mean, how does it matter, if you are not even going to read what I have said and have already made up your mind. But I do believe that of late, there is a desire of some people, either ARR fans in influential positions or people who fell out with IR, to discredit his contribution to music just because they don't like him. One ARR fan even claimed on baradwaj rangan's blog that IR was arrogant to compose fusion in a style not attempted by other fusion masters. Er, that's called genius. You can interpret such desperate attempts to discredit him the way you like, I interpret it as insecurity, period.