A.R. Rahman, Anil Kapoor and Aishwarya Rai in ‘Taal’
Sports and music go together.
In 2013, when India won the World Cup, MS Dhoni, one of the main architects of the victorious team, spoke about the most emotional moment in the final. And that was not thrilling cricket or a run chase, but a song. “The song ‘Vande Mataram’ started playing in the stadium. I think it is very difficult to recreate that atmosphere,” Dhoni recalled.
At the recently concluded Olympics 2024 in Paris, another confluence of song and sport was witnessed when the USA Artistic Swimming Team took to the water. The talented eight-member team performed to the 1999 superhit Bollywood film ‘Tal Se Tal Mila’. rythmDirected by Subhash Ghai, the film stars Aishwarya Rai, Anil Kapoor and Akshaye Khanna in lead roles.
rythm The music was composed by A.R. Rahman, who was fast becoming popular in Bollywood after several superhit albums in Tamil cinema. Apart from the tunes of the songs, rythm It also includes a percussion-based track called ‘Beat of Passion’, a part of which was used by the swimmers in their Olympic outing. ‘Beat of Passion’ starts almost like a whisper. After some finger-snapping, the drums start playing, albeit slowly, almost as if it’s a trailer for the main course to come. When the drums start playing, your feet start moving, and by the time ‘Beat of Passion’ finishes, you’re in a frenzy.
The ‘Beat of Passion’ drums are the percussion mastery of Sivamani, with whom AR Rahman has a long-standing professional association, and who brings out the magic that you feel.
Here Sivamani has not only used drums; he has also used the sound of fingers, the clinking of pots and buckets, and even the sound of water flowing from a bottle.
There’s also some heavy breathing towards the end of that particular track, which contributes quite nicely to the appropriate musical soundscape. rythm,
This is just one example; there are many more examples; like the last minute of the ‘Dhandiya’ track or something like that Kadhalar DhinamAmong all these musical gems, there is another silent hero: audio engineer H. Sridhar.
Sivamani and AR Rahman in a photo from 2009
track record
Rhythm and melody are two sides of the musical coin, with beats enhancing our theatrical experience. The nineties was the time when rhythm was at its peak in Tamil cinema. That doesn’t mean that rhythm didn’t exist before; in fact, MS Viswanathan and Ilaiyaraaja have used it extensively in their songs. But the AR Rahman-Sivamani duo and the boom of computers and technology in the nineties was like a match made in heaven; Sivamani’s beats reverberated through all the Walkmans of that era, changing the way we listened to music. The recent epic saga, Ponniyin Selvanalso saw the work of this pair.
Also read: ‘Ponniyin Selvan’ lyricist Ilango Krishnan reveals how ‘Aaga Naga’ took shape
While many say that melody is the core of any music, some magic happens when percussion blends with the core melody. RockstarIt may be a soulful track, but it also features some exciting drum work before the guitars and vocals come in to help kick things off. jodha akbar The music landscape would be incomplete without the catchy rhythmic pattern that comes with ‘Azeem-O-Shaan Shahshah’. Recently, the staccato beats of ‘Azeem-O-Shaan Shahshah’ Ponniyin Selvantook us back to the Chola Empire. Such historical themes also help composers and musicians to use rare instruments and create sounds that are not often heard in modern cinema. We hope to hear more of such things in the future thug LifeIn which Mani Ratnam and Kamal Haasan are seen together after many years.
The work of percussionists is important not just in albums and films, but also in concerts, where they contribute to the overall atmosphere and elevate the mood; look no further than percussionist Ranjit Barot’s performance at AR Rahman’s concert, where he changed the mood of the music from ‘Putham Pudhu Bhoomi’ to ‘Jai Ho’ with some pulsating work on the drums.
More than 30 years have passed since that unforgettable incident RozaThe AR Rahman-Sivamani duo continues to enthrall audiences. They have also paved the way for young composers to adopt percussion in a big way in this age of technology-driven soundtracks. For instance, Anirudh has made Rajinikanth’s theatrical experience even better. Pettah Several notches higher with ‘Rhythm of Petta’ Kuthu-style drumming. Without missing a beat, the percussion journey continues.
