Soundtrack Review: Slumdog Millionaire (2008)
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This is a review of the motion picture soundtrack Slumdog Millionaire by A.R. Rahman.
“I am not that impressed as everyone else seems to be, although it’s certainly original and carries an interesting sound”
There is no doubt about the critics verdict of this unusual score by A.R. Rahman. Already winning awards all over the place and naturally nominated for an academy award, actually three academy awards. Best score and two songs are nominated for best original song, it seems inevitable that Slumdog Millionaire will get more glory in the coming months. Slumdog Millionaire is Danny Boyle’s latest movie about an Indian teenager who wins big at Who Wants To Be a Millionaire but is suspected of cheating because of who he is. This is A.R. Rahman’s return to Hollywood after last year’s excellent collaboration with Craig Armstrong in Elizabeth: The Golden Age.
Track List
- O…Saya (*****)
- Riots (***)
- Mausam & Escape (****)
- Paper Planes (****)
- Paper Planes (Dfa Remix) (***)
- Ringa Ringa (****)
- Liquid Dance (**)
- Latika’s Theme (*****)
- Aaj Ki Raat (***)
- Millionaire (****)
- Gangsta Blues (**)
- Dreams On Fire (****)
- Jai Ho (***)
An Interesting Mix
This is not a full score, but a mix of A.R. Rahman’s music and collaboration with a number of artists including M.I.A., Suzanne, Blaaze and others. I have to say this is an interesting mix of music and one can’t accuse Slumdog Millionaire for not being original, at least in Hollywood terms. A.R. Rahman always brings something special because of his work in Bollywood. It is usually not a run-of-the-mill score coming from him.
Let’s start off with the academy award nominated song ‘O…Saya’ by A.R. Rahman & M.I.A. It is a very interesting cue which mixes Indian style of music and dance in a spectacular way. The title track is a feast for the ears no matter how you turn it. The only two pure score tracks by A.R. Rahman are ‘Riots‘ and ‘Mausam & Escape’. ‘Riots‘ is an original, but not very clever cue which consists of ambient sounds and a percussion track. ‘Mausam & Escape’ fare a little better with its lovely use of guitar in the beginning and the dance elements make it a great sounding cue.
M.I.A. has two versions of ‘Paper Plane’ which is a good hip hop track. I prefer the original version to the DFA Remix which is a more funky version of it. ‘Ringa Ringa’ by A.R. Rahman, Alka Yagnik & Ila Arun is a fun Indian-style dance theme that has a very interesting sound. ‘Liquid Dance’ by A.R. Rahman, Palakkad Sriram & Madhumitha continues in the same style but not as great sounding as ‘Ringa Ringa’. I wish they had more tracks featuring Suzanne as the two cues she and A.R. Rahman has together are some of the best on Slumdog Millionaire. The best one is ‘Latika’s Theme’ which is a kind of mellow sounding theme with Suzanne’s nice voice humming along to the sounds of A.R. Rahman. The other on is ‘Dreams on Fire’ which sounds like a continuation of ‘Latika’s Theme’ but with singing from Suzanne instead of humming.
‘Aaj Ki Raat’ feels a little retro with the thumping retro-bass in the background under Alisha Chinoi’s voice. It’s a kind of song which I would expect to hear on Melody Grand Prix however, so it’s not so impressive. ‘Millionaire’ by A.R. Rahman & Madhumitha is their second song together. This time it’s a harder dance theme without any vocal performances. I like the sound of this one and it’s one of the highlights of Slumdog Millionaire. ‘Gangsta Blues’ by A.R. Rahman, Blaaze & Tanvi Shah is a more traditional gangsta rap kind of song, but it’s not very impressive, heard it so many times before. The last song on the Slumdog Millionaire soundtrack is also nominated for an Oscar. It’s called ‘Jai Ho’ and is performed by A.R. Rahman, Sukhvinder Singh, Tanvi shah & Mahalaxmi Lyer. It’s not as impressive as the academy would have it be, although it’s not bad either. It’s another Indian hip hop song which falls under the “heard it all before” category.
Conclusion
I am not that impressed as everyone else seems to be, although it’s certainly original and carries an interesting sound. A.R. Rahman is an unconventional composer in Holywood terms, but not in India where he has his base. Still it’s quite entertaining and should go well as a party soundtrack.
Listen to Slumdog Millionaire by A.R. Rahman below:
Film Review for Slumdog Millionaire
Other articles of interest:
(14 votes, average: 7.57 out of 10)
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Comments
I do agree with the review above, and I think it is interesting soundtrack and very good one. This might be a consequence of my lack of knowledge about Indian and Bollywood music. However, at the same time I am listening to the his other soundtrack – Between Heaven and Earth, and I have to admit when watching a movie I could not stop thinking how great music was. He did not came close to this one with Slumdog Millionaire… or maybe I expected more after Between Heaven and Earth (Tian di ying xiong, 2003).
Soundtrack Seek
Great review, very thorough, but again the score baffles me. Something that you obviously consider overrated, shouldn’t get more than 6, as anything above that would be you really rating it.
A score of 6 would be more in keeping. Points for being a good, solid, original sounding album but not great.
That said, the in-depth content of the review will have me listening later today.
Reply
Jorn Tillnes Reply:
February 4th, 2009 at 2:11 pm
Hehe yes our score system is definitely very different. I think you rate per cue, correct? I also rate the tracks, but they don’t reflect my main score as I rate them how I feel after I’ve listened to the soundtrack several times. 7.5 means to me that it’s far from impressive and definitely overrated but hey I still like it.
Curious to know what you think of it.
Reply
Timothy E. RAW Reply:
February 4th, 2009 at 2:39 pm
I rate the cues, but my overall score is not defined by maths. Simply how i feel about the whole experience outside of the sum of its parts. But 7.5?! 2.5 off PERFECT, i’d say 7.5 is a high score that translates as VERY GOOD, leaning towards EXCELLENT if it was an 8. It seems from the review that this is a good solid soundtrack nothing more, hence 6
Reply
Jorn Tillnes Reply:
February 4th, 2009 at 3:12 pm
That’s where we disagree. I would say my rating system is something like this:
5: Average
6: Above Average
7: Good
8: Very good
9: Great
10: Excellent
So 7.5 is between good and very good which is exactly how I feel about this soundtrack.