Slumdog Millionaire - OST Review

It will come as no surprise to anyone listening to the soundtrack to the multiple Golden Globe-scooping Slumdog Millionaire that one of these was awarded to 'Mozart of Madras' A R Rahman for Best Original Score - or that he now stands to win a potential three Academy Awards across two categories in next month's ceremonies.

For this is about as close to perfection as a soundtrack can ever hope to get - perfectly capturing the emotional grit of Danny Boyle's onscreen drama, while successfully evoking a very Indian atmosphere for a very Western audience.

M.I.A. was a wise recruit for the purpose of bridging this gap - as a London artist with Sri Lankan roots, her relevance along with her familiarity to Western ears makes Rahman's compositions all the more accessible, as well as lending the score her inimitable kudos and an urban touch that evokes well the gritty underworld of Mumbai.

She sings on the Oscar-nominated opening track O Saya, whose lyrical imagery ("They can't touch me / We break off / Run so fast they can't even catch me") well conveys the urgent pace of life onscreen as well as providing a relevant motto for the film's protagonists. ("We live for the buck / We get for the family.")...full text The love that game show hero Jamal nurses for fellow orphan Latika is at the center of Danny Boyle's fairy tale set in Mumbai, but the soundtrack for “Slumdog Millionaire” is smitten with a different woman: M.I.A., the daughter of a Tamil Tiger insurgent and the London-raised poster child for East meets West club cool.

Bollywood composer A.R. Rahman wrote most of the soundtrack, but this first release on M.I.A.'s Interscope label N.E.E.T. coalesces around her sensibilities.

Most tracks stir the pulse; a few evoke the film’s overarching tenderness. Rahman’s trademark sound is polyrhythmic, nuanced and utterly polished but without sacrificing an edgy contradiction that keeps all the songs spinning on their heads.

On "Ringa Ringa," featuring playback singer Alka Yagnik and Indian actress-singer Ila Arun, Rahman updates a classic Bollywood song. "O . . . Saya," the collaboration between M.I.A. and Rahman, opens the film with subcontinental tension cut with fantasy. "Mausam & Escape" pins classic guitar and sitar against racing tablas and muscular synths.

For many ears, M.I.A.'s single is the choice cut. "Paper Planes," and especially the bombastic DFA remix that exchanges the gunshot-cash register motif for a funk bass line and choppy disco synths, are indeed standouts but the treasures of “Slumdog Millionaire” only spread out from there. (MW)...full text The star of this soundtrack set is M.I.A.'s already lauded "Paper Planes" —which appears in two versions, one of them a groovilicious, gunshots-free DFA remix that is worth the price of admission by itself. But if there's justice in the world, that established hit will serve to expose pop and club fans to the music of A.R. Rahman, the prolific Indian film composer who wrote the other 11 tracks on this set. There are definitely trad moments in the polyrhythmic wash of "Ringa Ringa" and the album-closing tattoo of "Jai Ho," but Rahman focuses more on synthesis, bringing slinky funk overtones to "Gangsta Blues," thumping Germanic electronic patterns to "Millionaire" and a popping synthesizer straight out of Donna Summer's "I Feel Love" to the tuneful "Aaj Ki Raat." It's one of those rare soundtracks that holds up well independent of its film. —Gary Graff...full text