In Contention

Tag: A.R. Rahman

  • TECH SUPPORT: Best Original Song

    Tech Support at In ContentionAs I said a few weeks ago, I would not analyze the last “tech” category until the eligible entries had been announced. Now that the Academy has named 49 finalists for Best Original Song, and with the BFCA and HFPA rattling off their list of nominees (though they are, admittedly, not great predictors), the time seems appropriate to have an in depth look into the category.

    It’s a good mantra to say “there are no locks” in this field. Since the rules were changed three years ago, forcing voters to watch the songs in the context of the movie, some surprises have certainly been in store.  Nonetheless, there are two titles this year I’d be very surprised to see miss the cut.

    The first is Bruce Springsteen’s title track for Darren Aronofsky’s “The Wrestler.” One of the most deserving winners ever in this category (for “Streets of Philadelphia”), his ends credits track seems poised to bring him his third Oscar nomination. In addition to the song perfectly fitting the film, it is also simply a great tune.

    I expect Springsteen to battle it out for the win with “Down to Earth,” the “WALL-E” tune from Peter Gabriel and Thomas Newman.  Now here is a film whose performance in the precursors has absolutely shocked me (albeit in the best way possible). Gabriel has yet to have a hit with the Academy but he’s never written anything that was so Oscar friendly before either. And while Newman has yet to be nominated for a song, he’s never had a song in contention before and he’s also yet to win for his portfolio of classic scores.

    Admittedly, both these tunes only play at the end of the movie, over the credit roll. This seems to have become a disadvantage in recent years. But I still would be surprised if either title failed to make the cut when all is said and done.

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  • 12/7 Oscarweb Round-up

    A.R. Rahman• Pete Hammond reports on the week that was, including a lively “Seven Pounds” Q&A session. [Notes on a Season]

    • Jeff Wells responds with a second-hand swipe at the film. [Hollywood Elsewhere]

    • And Steven Zeitchik breaks embargo, writes up a positive assessment. [Risky Biz Blog]

    • Tom O’Neil points out how Oscar success for “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” could finally be F. Scott Fitzgerald’s warm Hollywood welcome. [Gold Derby]

    • Hat-tipping A.R. Rahman’s collaboration with M.I.A. on the “Slumdog Millionaire” soundtrack. [Vulture]

    • David Carr talks to “Doubt” scribe and helmer John Patrick Shanley. [New York Times]

    • Heath Ledger wins his first award of the season. [New York Daily News]

    • Roger Ebert offers up the 25 best films of the year. [Chicago Sun-Times]

    • The Times goes longer. [The Times]

  • Thanks for waiting

    Sorry for ducking out yesterday — it was a Saturday of multiple distractions. Normal service to resume shortly.

    In the meantime, for your listening pleasure, here’s “O… Saya,” the sensational A.R. Rahman/M.I.A. cut from the “Slumdog Millionaire” soundtrack. It won’t get anywhere near Oscar night, of course — though I’m brazenly predicting that the film’s exuberant Bollywood-inspired closer, “Jai Ho,” will not only be nominated for Best Original Song, but will win.

    Still, close your eyes, listen to this and imagine M.I.A. on the Kodak stage instead of, say, Miley Cyrus or  whatever drek they choose to nominate instead.

  • No one on the corner has swagger like us

    M.I.A.

    “A.R. was the most established, amazing producer…He works with 100-people orchestras, and his sound is huge. Then on the other end of the room was me, making music on GarageBand [software] and playing Danny these really gritty, badly recorded MP3s. We had all these meetings and stuff, and then I realized that’s what the movie is — it’s the contradiction between these two things. That’s what the whole continent [of India] is…

    “If I was painting a picture of that part of the world, it’s not that I’d make it more glum, but I would try not to involve all the positive stuff from it, like the singing and dancing and easy stuff. I think we’re already used to that, and comfortable with that part. So there times that I was like, ‘We don’t have to make it so Bollywood’ … Danny, I think, wanted it to be good on both sides. He wanted the Indian population to get it, as well as the West. That’s a really difficult thing to do, and I think he did it — I think he did it really well.”

    From Todd Martens’s 11/24 interview with artist M.I.A., re: her electrifying work on the “Slumdog Millionaire” soundtrack.

  • Thumping ‘Slumdog’ soundtrack to be released

    Cover of Slumdog Millionaire original motion picture soundtrackThank God.  I was hoping Fox Searchlight would find a way to market this amazing material.  It worked well for them last year, albeit in the grungy, alt-rock vein.  But the music in “Slumdog Millionaire” is like a two-hour celebration, and it’s dying to be collected.

    The track listing, from MTV, has a lot of the A.R. Rahman stuff, of course (all of it exciting).  But M.I.A. pops up on there as well.  “Paper Planes” is put to great use in a montage that you wish would never end mid-film.

    The final track, as expected, is “Jai Ho,” the Bollywood number Searchlight is hoping will make some noise in the Best Original Song category.

    Check out the full story at MTV.  Here’s the track listing:

    1. “O… Saya” Performed by A R Rahman & M.I.A.
    2. “Riots” by A R Rahman
    3. “Mausam & Escape” by A R Rahman
    4. “Paper Planes” Performed by M.I.A.
    5. “Paper Planes” DFA REMIX Performed by M.I.A.
    6. “”Ringa Ringa” by A R Rahman featuring Alka Yagnik & Ila Arun
    7. “Liquid Dance” by A R Rahman featuring Palakkad Sriram & Madhumitha
    8. “Latika’s Theme” by A R Rahman featuring Suzanne
    9. “Aaj Ki Raat” Performed by Sonu Nigam, Mahalaxmi Lyer & Alisha Chinoi
    10. “Millionaire” by A R Rahman featuring Madhumitha
    11. “Gangsta Blues” by A R Rahman featuring BlaaZe & Tanvi Shah
    12. “Dreams on Fire” by A R Rahman featuring Suzzanne
    13. “Jai Ho” by A R Rahman featuring Sukhvinder Singh, Tanvi Shah & Mahalaxmi Iyer

  • WEEKLY WRAP: ‘Dark Knight’ disqualified, Rourke interviewed, ‘Australia’ unwrapped

    Kind of an in-between week, this. Here’s how it went down:

    • In probably the most discussed Oscar news of the week, “The Dark Knight” was dodgily ruled ineligible in the Best Original Score category.

    • On a happier note, we sat down with surefire Best Actor nominee Mickey Rourke.

    • A shortlist of 14 films was announced for the Animated Feature race — not that it’s a “race” at all.

    • “Australia” was revealed to a besotted Oprah… but is it really the Oscar-bait some people think it is?

    • Ahead of “Slumdog Millionaire”‘s Stateside opening, we considered the contributions of DP Anthony Dod Mantle and composer A.R. Rahman.

    • Kris was appreciative of Edward Zwick’s “Defiance” … even if several critics weren’t.

    • The dynamic Italian duo of “Gomorrah” and “Il Divo” led the nominations for the European Film Awards.

    • “Gomorrah,” meanwhile, has designs on more than just the Foreign Film category at the Oscars.

    • Tech Support showcased the frequently surprising Best Makeup category.

    • Entertainment Weekly named Robert Downey Jr. their Entertainer of the Year, which Richard Jenkins among the also-rans.

    • We were charmed by “Last Chance Harvey,” a low-flying contender in the acting categories.

    • And finally, in another biopic-heavy season, we counted down the all-time best examples of the genre.

  • A.R. Rahman: “Danny wanted it loud”

    I have no idea what the Academy’s fussy music branch will make of it, but A.R. Rahman’s busy, boisterous score for “Slumdog Millionaire” is one of my favourite efforts in the field this year. Fusing contemporary Indian pop with more traditional Bollywood motifs and flashes of electronica, it’s an achievement as limber and witty as the film it accompanies.

    Rahman has long been revered, both as a composer and a pop star, in his native India, but he’s only recently begun testing Western waters. I appreciated his elaborately heightened contributions to last year’s “Elizabeth: The Golden Age” more than most, but “Slumdog” should really make his name in this part of the world.

    There’s a brief but insightful interview with Rahman over at Vulture, in which he discusses the considerable differences between working for Bollywood and working for Boyle — a difference over over 100 musical cues, for starters. In the light of a discussion going on a recent comments thread about how a score should operate within a film, I thought this statement rather interesting:

    What’s good about [Boyle] is that he likes how Indian films mix music. You push it and it comes out. We wanted it edgy, upfront. He said every piece of music was going to be a piece by itself. Normally some directors suppress music — they always want the effects to be loud and the music to be softer. Danny wanted it loud.

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