Listen: A. R. Rahman's "Innisai" (Tamil)

Music and consistency are like two sides of the same coin. Stay the same for far too long, people stop caring, but change up your aesthetic all too quickly, the very people who have been cheering your work get all mad and irked up for no reason. While it is the composer's prerogative as to when, and why, they should explore different sounds, explore they must, at the risk of alienating their fan base. An artist can try and re-create an album that gave them so much acclaim, once, twice, thrice, sure, or they can scrap everything and create something new, fresh and exciting. Granted, not every single experiment pays off. But when it does, the pay off is doubly satisfying.

Taken in that sense, the 2000s have been an experimental soundbed for A. R. Rahman, who, over the years, has not only expanded on the sonic palette that made him originally popular, but in doing so with interesting results, at the same time occasionally indulging in pure good-old Carnatic goodness — like he does in Innisai, a lovely throwback of a melody composed in suddha dhanyasi hindolam raga and sung by Mahathi and Saindhavi. (Rahman's other notable compositions in suddha dhanyasi include Kannodu Kaanbadhellam, Irumbile Oru Idhaiyam and Aila Aila over the years, not to mention in his remix of Viswanathan-Ramamoorthy's Thottal Poo Malarum, and Marghazhi Poove, which is set in hindolam.) Cut from the same cloth as the western version of Taal Se Taal, the beautifully constructed semi-classical piece is a clincher all the way. Give it a listen below -