Anbe Sugama
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Anbe Sugama is perhaps Rahman’s most poignant duet. I love it to bits, especially the way it concludes with a piano and violin playing to a Carnatic tune.
Zubeidaa’s Instrumentals
You may have heard of Shyam Benegal’s acclaimed period film, Zubeidaa: a true story of a muslim woman who became a Rajput Princess. This was Rahman’s first period score in Hindi and it was praised at the time for its careful blend of Rajasthani folk, Hindustani classical and contemporary sounds.
Zubeidaa’s music is among Rahman’s most popular works — the soundtrack has been globally available on iTunes and Amazon for a long time. Unfortunately, it does not include the beautiful instrumentals from the film, so I’ve highlighted a couple of them here.
Zubeidaa’s Theme
The music for this scene — in which the female protagonist, Zubeidaa, meets the Rajput Prince for the first time — starts as a gentle prelude of harp and piano and gradually mingles with violins. Unfortunately, I couldn’t filter-out the voices because the film’s DVD was not released with 5.1 audio.
Maharani’s Theme
In this scene, Zubeidaa meets the Maharani and the music heightens the tension between the two.
These are but two instrumentals from the score. Zubeidaa, being a woman’s narrative, has a certain gentleness to its music that I’ve rarely found in contemporary Indian films. It’s as if Rahman composed a feature-length lullaby, and it’s because of this that I warm up to Zubediaa’s music.
