For the last few days all I see on news is Slumdog Millionaire, or atleast in the pleasant category. I have't seen the movie yet ... so it would be unwise to judge it but I have really been hearing the music too much lately. Well, the most popular song seems to be Jay Ho ... and it is a nice song, feel good, somewhat inspiring. But the big question is does it really deserve a Golden Globe let alone Oscars ?
Just consider a single month. How many soundtracks are released in India in this span ? It would be quite hard to guess ... and how many of them did you like ? Atleast ten. If you ask this to ten different people you can surely add atleast one to the list and what if each of the ten asks ten another and so on ... ? Surely you will get more than a handful.
And just think what this figure will be for the whole world and for one full year ? Well, that should be way too much, so let's narrow dow the list to just english productions. Still that should be a pretty good number.
So, the winner of a Golden Globe or an Oscar is meant to be the best among these. Not just in terms of earcandy, but more relevantly the uniqueness and the perfect chemistry with the visual. Does the song or the background score from Slumdog Millionaire do that ? In case you are confused, just consider last year's Oscar Winner, Atonement by Dario Marianelli. Does SM's music sound that unique and perfect to the movie compared to Atonement's ?
I think it doesn't.
Let's take "Jay Ho" . Any Indian with an average love for music and the most average memory and sense can feel something's not right in places. We wll fell that the songs takes an odd and unusual turn at places leaving us humming a familiar tune from reminiscence. Well, in case you didn't you should hear atleast "Ellapugazhum" from Azhagiya Tamil Magan, "Maa Thujhe Salam" from Vande Mataram, "Newyork Nagaram" from Jillanu Oru Kaadhal for starters. All by AR Rahman. And once you have done that change the visuals to something patriotic like Maa Thujhe Salaam or Lakshya or something else like that. With a bit of editing that should fit perfectly well. It's because the mood of the composition is not original and unique. This has been the thing with many of AR Rahman's recent works. Most of the songs are heavily inspired, some from his own previous hits. Even if you take "Ghajini " the songs "Aye Bachoo", "Behka" and "Latoo" have a very common mood and rhythm. The second thing he is doing is relying too heavily on third part stuff like Loop Packs and generated rhythms. You can definitely feel this especially if you have worked atleast wth some softwares like "FruityLoops" or "Reason".
So the big question is are we taking Rahman too high ? I believe we are and overlooking inhouse talent like Amit Trivedi, Pankaj Awasthi, Ali Asmat, Faizi and so .
Friday, January 23, 2009
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Prologue
Before I really start off writing, let me give you an overview of Raynesque. Well, not actually the content, because that would be a spolier. But something about the design, because its something most people tend to misunderstand nowadays.
The most common problem, especially among bloggers is that they are compromising too much on efficiency in a massive all-out bid to make their websites more alluring. This is really unfortunate as efficiency is something that is the core of a design. And a design is totally different from an artwork. I too was suffering from this problem because I have this temptation to make things more beautiful and in the process of doing so tend to compromise on efficiency and usability. I knew it wasn't right but all the same didnt stop doing so. So its one of my major New Year resolutions apart from starting this blog.
So basically, the site was designed with virtually no image content and depending almost entirely on typography and colour scheme to maintain a quality of design and class, and at the same time making things most efficient. Also easy and eye-friendly readability was given prime priority. Though the classing Grey/Black text on white or similar colour schemes tend to be simplistic and have a class of their own, they are mostly stressful to the eye especially for long sessions. This was considered and hence an almost monochromatic Shades of Violet colour scheme was used which was quite stress free with the hybrid cooling effect of blue and focus of red; and dark tones were preferred aiding this even more.
Further, efficiency isnt just about loading lighting fast on a dial-up connection or providing finger touch navigation. There is something even more important to be considered, and that is energy efficiency. Its like this, an all white web page uses about 74 watts of electric energy while an all black one used just about 59 watts. Guess what would be the change when a site say a blog is read atleast for a few minutes by say a 100 people a day. Well that should go of an average blog, but what about the more popular blogs ? And what about a site like google ? Well some guys though about it and the result is a whopping 750 Megawatts a year. Lets not go to that extend, but still consider what slight it may be, the enrgy saved by giving a site a darker colour scheme - a totally harmless resoultion for most. Thats another thing I considered before designing the template.
So think about it and try to make whatever small changes you can.
The most common problem, especially among bloggers is that they are compromising too much on efficiency in a massive all-out bid to make their websites more alluring. This is really unfortunate as efficiency is something that is the core of a design. And a design is totally different from an artwork. I too was suffering from this problem because I have this temptation to make things more beautiful and in the process of doing so tend to compromise on efficiency and usability. I knew it wasn't right but all the same didnt stop doing so. So its one of my major New Year resolutions apart from starting this blog.
So basically, the site was designed with virtually no image content and depending almost entirely on typography and colour scheme to maintain a quality of design and class, and at the same time making things most efficient. Also easy and eye-friendly readability was given prime priority. Though the classing Grey/Black text on white or similar colour schemes tend to be simplistic and have a class of their own, they are mostly stressful to the eye especially for long sessions. This was considered and hence an almost monochromatic Shades of Violet colour scheme was used which was quite stress free with the hybrid cooling effect of blue and focus of red; and dark tones were preferred aiding this even more.
Further, efficiency isnt just about loading lighting fast on a dial-up connection or providing finger touch navigation. There is something even more important to be considered, and that is energy efficiency. Its like this, an all white web page uses about 74 watts of electric energy while an all black one used just about 59 watts. Guess what would be the change when a site say a blog is read atleast for a few minutes by say a 100 people a day. Well that should go of an average blog, but what about the more popular blogs ? And what about a site like google ? Well some guys though about it and the result is a whopping 750 Megawatts a year. Lets not go to that extend, but still consider what slight it may be, the enrgy saved by giving a site a darker colour scheme - a totally harmless resoultion for most. Thats another thing I considered before designing the template.
So think about it and try to make whatever small changes you can.
Monday, January 12, 2009
Stepping in.
Hi there,
Its been a really, really long time since I have been considering writing down my experience in the Raynesque; but due to a certain number of things this had largely remained unrealised.
Until now.
Its been a really, really long time since I have been considering writing down my experience in the Raynesque; but due to a certain number of things this had largely remained unrealised.
Until now.
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